Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom

Cadfael. 'Why not aim at getting to Shrewsbury first for more men, and westward to meet them from there?'
    'The time's too short. And besides, I credit Alan Herbard with sense and stomach enough to field a good force of his own to mind the town. If we move fast enough we may take them between the two prongs and crack them like a nut.' They had reached the hall. Word had gone before, the sleepers within were rolling out of the rushes in haste, servants were setting tables, and the maids ran with new loaves from the bakery, and great pitchers of ale.
    'If I can finish my business here,' said Cadfael tempted, 'I'll ride with you, if you'll have me.'
    'I will so and heartily welcome.'
    'Then I'd best be seeing to what's left undone here, when Owain Gwynedd is free. While you're closeted with him, I'll see my own horse readied for the journey.' He was so preoccupied with thoughts of the coming clash, and of what might already be happening in Shrewsbury, that he turned back towards the stables without at first noticing the light footsteps that came flying after him from the direction of the kitchens, until a hand clutched at his sleeve, and he turned to find Cristina confronting him and peering intently up into his face with dilated dark eyes.
    'Brother Cadfael, is it true, what my father says? He says I need fret no longer, for Elis has found some girl in Shrewsbury, and wants nothing better now than to be rid of me. He says it can be ended with goodwill on both sides. That I'm free, and Eliud is free! Is it true?' She was grave, and yet she glowed. Elis's desertion was hope and help to her. The tangled knot could indeed be undone by consent, without grudges.
    'It is true,' said Cadfael. 'But beware of building too high on his prospects as yet, for it's no way certain he'll get the lady he wants. Did Tudur also tell you it is she who accuses Elis of being her father's murderer? No very hopeful way to set up a marriage.'
    'But he's in earnest? He loves the girl? Then he'll not turn back to me, whether he wins his way with her or no. He never wanted me. Oh, I would have done well enough for him,' she said, hoisting eloquent shoulders and curling a tolerant lip, 'as any girl his match in age and rank would have done, but all I ever was to him was a child he grew up with, and was fond of after a fashion. Now,' she said feelingly, 'he knows what it is to want. God knows I wish him his happiness as I hope for mine.'
    'Walk with me down to the stables,' said Cadfael, 'and keep me company, these few minutes we have. For I'm away with Hugh Beringar as soon as his men have broken their fast and rested their horses, and I've had a word again with Owain Gwynedd and Einon ab Ithel. Come, and tell me plainly how things stand between you and Eliud, for once before when I saw you together I misread you utterly.'
    She went with him gladly, her face clear and pure in the pearly light just flushing into rose. Her voice was tranquil as she said: 'I loved Eliud from before I knew what love was. All I knew was how much it hurt, that I could not endure to be away from him, that I followed and would be with him, and he would not see me, would not speak with me, put me roughly from his side as often as I clung. I was already promised to Elis, and Elis was more than half Eliud's world, and not for anything would he have touched or coveted anything that belonged to his foster, brother. I was too young then to know that the measure of his rejection of me was the measure of how much he wanted me. But when I came to understand what it was that tortured me, then I knew that Eliud went daily in the selfsame pain.'
    'You are quite sure of him,' said Cadfael, stating, not doubting.
    'I am sure. From the time I understood, I have tried to make him acknowledge what I know and he knows to be truth. The more I pursue and plead, the more he turns away and will not speak or listen. But ever the more he wants me. I tell you truth, when Elis went away, and was made prisoner, I began to believe I had almost won Eliud, almost brought him to admit to love and join with me to break this threatened marriage, and speak for me himself. Then he was sent to be surety for this unhappy exchange and all went for nothing. And now it's Elis who cuts the knot and frees us all.'
    'Too early yet to speak of being free,' warned Cadfael seriously. 'Neither of those two is yet out of the wood, none of us is, until the matter of the sheriffs death is brought to a just end.'
    'I can