Brother Cadfael 12: The Raven in the Foregate

her customary black. She stepped back readily, unsmiling but hospitable, and beckoned him at once into a small, warm room dimly lit by a brownish light from two small windows, into the shutters of which thin sheets of horn had been set. A bright wood fire burned on the clay hearth in the centre of the room, and on the cushioned bench beside it a young woman was sitting, alert and silent, and to one entering from broad daylight not immediately recognisable.
    "I came only to ask how you are," said Cadfael as the door was closed behind him, "and to see if you need anything more for your grazes."
    Diota came round to face him and let herself be seen, the palest of smiles visiting a face habitually grave and anxious. "That was kind of you, Brother Cadfael. I am well, I thank you, quite well. You see the wound is healed."
    She turned her injured temple docilely to the best of the light at the urging of his hand, and let him study what had faded now to a yellow bruise and a small dry scar.
    "Yes, that's well, there'll be no mark left to show for it. But I should go on using the ointment for a few days yet, in this frost the skin dries and abrades easily. And you've had no headaches?"
    "No, none."
    "Good! Then I'll be off back to my work, and not take up your time, for I see you have a visitor."
    "Oh, no," said the visitor, rising briskly from the bench, "I was about to take my leave." She stepped forward, raising to the light a rounded young face, broad at the brow and tapering gently to a resolute chin. Challenging harebell-blue eyes, set very wide apart, confronted Cadfael with a direct and searching stare. "If you must really go so soon," said Sanan Berni�s, with the serene confidence of a masterful child, "I'll walk with you. I've been waiting to find a right time to talk to you."
    There was no gainsaying such a girl. Diota did not venture to try and detain her, and Brother Cadfael, even if he had wished, would have hesitated before denying her. Law itself, he thought with amused admiration, might come off the loser if it collided with the will of Sanan Berni�s. In view of all that had happened, that was a distinct if as yet distant possibility, but she would not let the prospect deter her.
    "That will be great pleasure for me," said Cadfael. "The walk is very short - but perhaps you'll be needing some more herbs for your kitchen? I have ample supplies, you may come in and take what you wish."
    She did give him a very sharp glance for that, and as suddenly dimpled, and to hide laughter turned to embrace Diota, kissing her thin cheek like a daughter. Then she drew her cloak about her and led the way out into the alley, and together they walked the greater part of the way out into the Foregate in silence.
    "Do you know," she said then, "why I went to see Mistress Hammet?"
    "Out of womanly sympathy, surely," said Cadfael, "with her loss. Loss and loneliness - still a virtual stranger here ..."
    "Oh, come!" said Sanan bluntly. "She worked for the priest, I suppose it was a secure life for a widow woman, but loss ...? Lonely she may well be."
    "I was not speaking of Father Ailnoth," said Cadfael.
    She gave him another straight glance of her startling blue eyes, and heaved a thoughtful sigh. "Yes, you've worked with him, you know him. He told you, didn't he, that she was his nurse, no blood kin? She never had children in her own marriage, he's as dear as a son to her. I ... have talked with him, too - by chance. You know he sent a message to my step-father. Everyone knows that now. I was curious to see this young man, that's all."
    They had reached the abbey gatehouse. She stood hesitant, frowning at the ground.
    "Now everyone is saying that he - this Ninian Bachiler killed Father Ailnoth, because the priest was going to betray him to the sheriff. I knew she must have heard it. I knew she would be alone, afraid for him, now he's fled, and hunted for his life - for it is his life, now!"
    "So you came to bear her company," said Cadfael, "and reassure her. Come through into the garden, and if you have all the pot-herbs you want, I daresay we can find another good reason. You won't be any the worse for having something by you to cure the cough that may be coming along in a week or two."
    She looked up with a flashing smile. "The same remedy you gave me when I was ten? I've changed so much you can hardly have known me again. Such excellent health I have, I need you only once every seven or eight years."
    "If you need me now,"