Brother Cadfael 11: An Excellent Mystery

and he was in the middle of a prayer of Saint Augustine which Brother Paul had taught him, when he felt suddenly that he had an audience larger than he had bargained for, and faltered and fell silent, turning towards the open end of the cell.
    Nicholas Harnage stood hesitant within the doorway, until his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light. Brother Humilis had opened his eyes in wonder when Rhun faltered. He beheld the best-loved and most trusted of his former squires standing almost timorously at the foot of his bed.
    'Nicholas?' he ventured, doubtful and wondering, heaving himself up to stare more intently.
    Brother Fidelis stooped at once to prop and raise him, and brace the pillows at his back, and then as silently withdrew into the dark corner of the cell, to leave the field to the visitor.
    'Nicholas! It is you!'
    The young man went forward and fell on his knee to clasp and kiss the thin hand stretched out to him.
    'Nicholas, what are you doing here? You're welcome as the morning, but I never looked to see you in this place. It was kind indeed to seek me out in such a distant refuge. Come, sit by me here. Let me see you close!'
    Rhun had slipped away silently. From the doorway he made a small reverence before he vanished. Fidelis took a step to follow him, but Humilis laid a hand on his arm to detain him.
    'No, stay! Don't leave us! Nicholas, to this young brother I owe more than I can ever repay. He serves me as truly in this field as you did in arms.'
    'All who have been your men, like me, will be grateful to him,' said Nicholas fervently, looking up into a face shadowed by the cowl, and as featureless as voiceless in this half-darkness. If he wondered at getting no answer, but only an inclination of the head by way of acknowledgement, he shrugged it off without another thought, for it was of no importance that he should reach a closer acquaintance with one he might never see again. He drew the stool close to the bedside, and sat studying the emaciated face of his lord with deep concern.
    'They tell me you are mending well. But I see you leaner and more fallen than when I left you, that time in Hyde, and went to do your errand. I had a long search in Winchester to find your prior, and enquire of him where you were gone. Need you have chosen to ride so far? The bishop would have taken you into the Old Minster, and been glad of you.'
    'I doubt if I should have been so glad of the bishop,' said Brother Humilis with a wry little smile. 'No, I had my reasons for coming so far north. This shire and this town I knew as a child. A few years only, but they are the years a man remembers later in life. Never trouble for me, Nick, I'm very well here, as well as any other place, and better than most. Let us speak rather of you. How have you fared in your new service, and what has brought you here to my bedside?'
    'I've thrived, having your commendation. William of Ypres has mentioned me to the queen, and would have taken me among his officers, but I'd rather stay with FitzRobert's English than go to the Flemings. I have a command. It was you who taught me all I know,' he said, at once glowing and sad, 'you and the mussulmen of Mosul.'
    'It was not the Atabeg Zenghi,' said Brother Humilis, smiling, 'whose affairs sent you here so far to seek me out. Leave him to the King of Jerusalem, whose noble and perilous business he is. What of Winchester, since I fled from it?'
    'The queen's armies have encircled it. Few men get out, and no food gets in. The empress's men are shut tight in their castle, and their stores must be running very low. We came north to straddle the road by Andover. As yet nothing moves, therefore I got leave to ride north on my own business. But they must attempt to break out soon or starve where they are.'
    'They'll try to reopen one of the roads and bring in supplies, before they abandon Winchester altogether,' said Humilis, frowning thoughtfully over the possibilities. 'If and when they do break, they'll break for Oxford first. Well, if this stalemate has sent you here to me, one good thing has come out of it. And what is this business that brought you to Shrewsbury?'
    'My lord,' began Nicholas, leaning forward very earnestly, 'you remember how you sent me here to the manor of Lai, three years ago, to take the word to Humphrey Cruce and his daughter that you could not keep your compact to marry her? - that you were entering the cloister at Hyde Mead?'
    'It is not a thing to forget,' agreed Humilis