Brother Cadfael 13: The Rose Rent

our solid merchants up in the town value property a good deal higher than roses."
    "She had already lost what she most valued," said Cadfael. "Husband and child both, within twenty days. He died, and she miscarried. She could not bear to go on living, alone, in the house where they had been happy together. But it was because she valued it that she wanted it spent for God, not hoarded up with the rest of a property large enough to provide handsomely even without it for herself and all her kinsfolk and workfolk. It pays for the lighting and draping of Our Lady's altar the whole year round. It's what she chose. But just the one link she kept - one rose a year. He was a very comely man, Edred Perle," said Cadfael, shaking his head mildly over the vulnerability of beauty, "I saw him pared away to the bone in a searing fever, and had no art to cool him. A man remembers that."
    "You've seen many such," said Hugh reasonably, "here and on the fields of Syria, long ago."
    "So I have! So I have! Did ever you hear me say I'd forgotten any one of them? But a young, handsome man, shrivelled away before his time, before even his prime, and his girl left without even his child to keep him in mind... A sad enough case, you'll allow."
    "She's young," said Hugh with indifferent practicality, his mind being on other things. "She should marry again."
    "So think a good many of our merchant fathers in the town," agreed Cadfael with a wry smile, "the lady being as wealthy as she is, and sole mistress of the Vestiers' clothier business. But after what she lost, I doubt if she'll look at a grey old skinflint like Godfrey Fuller, who's buried two wives already and made a profit out of both of them, and has his eye on a third fortune with the next. Or a fancy young fellow in search of an easy living!"
    "Such as?" invited Hugh, amused.
    "Two or three I could name. William Hynde's youngster, for one, if my gossips tell me truth. And the lad who's foreman of her own weavers is a very well-looking young man, and fancies his chance with her. Even her neighbour the saddler is looking for a wife, I'm told, and thinks she might very well do."
    Hugh burst into affectionate laughter, and clapped him boisterously on the shoulders as they emerged into the great court, and the quiet, purposeful bustle before Mass. "How many eyes and ears have you in every street in Shrewsbury? I wish my own intelligencers knew half as much of what goes on. A pity your influence falls short of Normandy. I might get some inkling then of what Robert and Geoffrey are up to there. Though I think," he said, growing grave again as he turned back to his own preoccupations, "Geoffrey is far more concerned with getting possession of Normandy than with wasting his time on England. From all accounts he's making fast inroads there, he's not likely to draw off now. Far more like to inveigle Robert into helping him than offering much help to Robert.
    "He certainly shows very little interest in his wife," agreed Cadfael dryly, "or her ambitions. Well, we shall see if Robert can sway him. Are you coming in to Mass this morning?"
    "No, I'm away to Maesbury tomorrow for a week or two. They should have been shearing before this, but they put it off for a while because of the cold. They'll be hard at it now. I'll leave Aline and Giles there for the summer. But I'll be back and forth, in case of need."
    "A summer without Aline, and without my godson," said Cadfael reprovingly, "is no prospect to spring on me without preamble, like this. Are you not ashamed?"
    "Not a whit! For I came, among other errands, to bid you to supper with us tonight, before we leave early in the morning. Abbot Radulfus has given his leave and blessing. Go, pray for fair weather and a smooth ride for us," said Hugh heartily, and gave his friend a vigorous shove towards the corner of the cloister and the south door of the church.
    It was purely by chance, or a symbol of that strange compulsion that brings the substance hard on the heels of the recollection, that the sparse company of worshippers in the parish part of the church at the monastic Mass that day should include the Widow Perle. There were always a few of the laity there on their knees beyond the parish altar, some who had missed their parish Mass for varying reasons, some who were old and solitary and filled up their lonely time with supererogatory worship, some who had special pleas to make, and sought an extra opportunity of approaching grace. Some, even, who