Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom

and might be a useful man to Hugh, once blooded. And that might be no long way off.
    'Let the lord Beringar know,' said Herbard, 'that I intend a close watch on the border by Caus. But I desire he should know the men of Powys are on the move. And if there are further raids, I will send word.'
    'He shall know,' said Cadfael, and forthwith rode back a short spell through the town, down from the High Cross to the Welsh bridge, and so north, west for Oswestry.
    It was two days later that the next thrust came. Madog ap Meredith had been pleased with his first probe, and brought more men into the field before he launched his attack in force. Down the Rea valley to Minsterley they swarmed, burned and looted, wheeled both ways round Minsterley, and flowed on towards Pontesbury.
    In Shrewsbury castle, Welsh ears, as well as English, stretched and quivered to the bustle and fever of rumours.
    'They are out!' said Elis, tense and sleepless beside his cousin in the night. 'Oh God, and Madog with this grudge to pay off! And she is there! Melicent is there at Godric's Ford. Oh, Eliud, if he should take it into his head to take revenge!'
    'You're fretting for nothing,' Eliud insisted passionately. 'They know what they're doing here, they're on the watch, they'll not let any harm come to the nuns. Besides, Madog is not aiming there, but along the valley, where the pickings are best. And you saw yourself what the forest men can do. Why should he try that a second time? It wasn't his own nose was put out of joint there, either, you told me who led that raid. What plunder is there at Godric's Ford for such as Madog, compared with the fat farms in the Minsterley valley? No, surely she's safe there.'
    'Safe! How can you say it? Where is there any safety? They should never have let her go.' Elis ground angry fists in the rustling straw of their palliasse, and heaved himself round in the bed. 'Oh, Eliud, if only I were out of here and free...'
    'But you're not,' said Eliud, with the exasperated sharpness of one racked by the same pain, 'and neither am I. We're bound, and nothing we can do about it. For God's sake, do some justice to these English, they're neither fools nor cravens, they'll hold their city and their ground, and they'll take care of their women, without having to call on you or me. What right have you to doubt them? And you to talk so, who went raiding there yourself!'
    Elis subsided with a defeated sigh and a drear smile. 'And got my comeuppance for it! Why did I ever go with Cadwaladr? God knows how often and how bitterly I've repented it since.'
    'You would not be told,' said Eliud sadly, ashamed at having salted the wound. 'But she will be safe, you'll see, no harm will come to her, no harm will come to the nuns. Trust these English to look after their own. You must! There's nothing else we can do.'
    'If I were free,' Elis agonised helplessly, 'I'd fetch her away from there, take her somewhere out of all danger...'
    'She would not go with you,' Eliud reminded him bleakly. 'You, of all people! Oh, God, how did we ever get into this quagmire, and how are we ever to get out of it?'
    'If I could reach her, I could persuade her. In the end she would listen. She'll have remembered me better by now, she'll know she wrongs me. She'd go with me. If only I could reach her...'
    'But you're pledged, as I am,' said Eliud flatly. 'We've given our word, and it was freely accepted. Neither you nor I can stir a foot out of the gates without being dishonoured.'
    'No,' agreed Elis miserably, and fell silent and still, staring into the darkness of the shallow vault over them.
    Chapter Ten.
    Brother Cadfael arrived in Oswestry by evening, to find town and castle alert and busy, but Hugh Beringar already departed. He had moved east after his meeting with Owain Gwynedd, they told him, to Whittington and Ellesmere, to see his whole northern border stiffened and call up fresh levies as far away as Whitchurch. While Owain had moved north on the border to meet the constable of Chirk and see that corner of the confederacy secure and well, manned. There had been some slight brushes with probing parties from Cheshire, but so tentative that it was plain Ranulf was feeling his way with caution, testing to see how well organised the opposition might prove to be. So far he had drawn off at the first encounter. He had made great gains at Lincoln and had no intention of endangering them now, but a very human desire to add to them if he found his opponents