Brother Cadfael 12: The Raven in the Foregate

and one who is known and welcome not only to us who have the bestowing of the benefice, but to those who are likely to reap the results. No better way of burying Ailnoth."
    "In all fairness," said Hugh thoughtfully, "it would have been a very delicate matter to reject a priest recommended by the papal legate, even for a man of your abbot's stature. And the fellow was impressive to the eye and the ear, and had scholarship ... No wonder Radulfus thought he was bringing you a treasure. God send you a decent, humble, common man next time."
    "Amen! Whether he has Latin or not! And here am I the well-wisher, if not the accomplice, of an enemy of the King, criminal as well as sinner! Did I say I was being obliged to search my conscience? But not too diligently-that always leads to trouble."
    "I wonder," said Hugh, smiling indulgently into the glow of the brazier, "if they'll have set out yet?"
    "Not until dark, I fancy. Overnight they'll be gone. I hope she has somehow left word for Ralph Giffard," said Cadfael, considering. "He's no bad man, only driven, as so many are now, and mainly for his son. She had no complaint of him, except that he had compounded with fortune, and given up his hopes for the Empress. Being more than thirty years short of his age, she finds that incomprehensible. But you and I, Hugh, can comprehend it all too well. Let the young ones go their own gait, and find their own way."
    He sat smiling, thinking of the pair of them, but chiefly of Ninian, lively and bold and impudent, and a stout performer with the spade, even though he had never had one in his hand before, and had to learn the craft quickly. "I never had such a stout-hearted labourer under me here since Brother John - that must be nearly five years now! The one who stayed in Gwytherin, and married the smith's niece. He'll have made a doughty smith himself by now. Benet reminded me of him, some ways ... all or nothing, and ready for every venture."
    "Ninian," said Hugh, correcting him almost absently.
    "True, Ninian we must call him now, but I tend to forget. But I haven't told you," said Cadfael, kindling joyfully to the recollection, "the very best of the ending. In the middle of so much aggravation and suspicion and death, a joke is no bad thing."
    "I wouldn't say no to that," agreed Hugh, leaning forward to mend the fire with a few judiciously placed pieces of charcoal, with the calculated pleasure of one for whom such things are usually done by others. "But I saw very little sign of one today. Where did you find it?"
    "Why, you were kept busy talking with Father Abbot, close by the grave, while the rest were dispersing. You had no chance to observe it. But I was loose, and so was Brother Jerome, with his nose twitching for officious mischief, as usual. Sanan saw it," said Cadfael, with fond recollection. "It scared the wits out of her for a moment or two, but then it was all resolved. You know, Hugh, how wide those double doors of ours are, in the wall ..."
    "I came that way," said Hugh patiently, a little sleepy with relief from care, the fumes of the brazier, and the early start to a day now subsiding into a dim and misty evening. "I know!"
    "There was a young fellow holding a horse, out there in the Foregate. Who was to notice him until everyone began streaming out by that way? Jerome was running like a sheep-dog about the fringes, hustling them out, he was bound to take a frequent look out there to the streets. He saw a man he thought he recognised, and went closer to view, all panting with fervour and zeal - you know him!"
    "Every uncoverer of evil acquires merit," said Hugh, taking idle pleasure in the mild satire upon Brother Jerome. "What merit could there be for him there, in a lad holding a horse?"
    "Why, one Benet, or Ninian, hunted as recreant to our lord King Stephen, and denounced to our lord sheriff - saving your presence, Hugh, but you know you were just confirmed in office, you mean more now to Brother Jerome than ever before! - by Ralph Giffard, no less. That is what Jerome saw, barring that the malefactor did seem to be wearing clothes never seen on him before."
    "Now you do surprise me," said Hugh, turning a gleaming and amused face upon his friend. "And this really was the said Benet or Ninian?"
    "It was indeed. I knew him, and so did Sanan when she looked ahead, where Jerome was looking, and saw him there. The lad himself, Hugh, bold as ever to plunge his head into whatever snare. Come to make sure himself where the