Brother Cadfael 13: The Rose Rent

time she came here making her gift to the house. I have not set eyes on her today. But Master Coliar here says she left home very early..."
    "Very early," Miles confirmed vehemently. "Before I was waking."
    "And with intent to come here on some errand to the lord abbot," concluded the porter.
    "So her maid told me," said Miles, sweating. "Judith told her so last night, when the girl attended her to bed. I knew nothing of it until this morning. But it seems she has not been here. She never reached here. And she has not come home again. Midday, and she has not come home! I dread something ill has befallen her."
    Chapter Six
    There were five of them gathered in the abbot's parlour that afternoon, in urgent conclave: Radulfus himself, Brothers Anselm and Cadfael, witnesses to the charter which had somehow precipitated these dire events, Miles Coliar, restless and fevered with anxiety, and Hugh Beringar, who had ridden south in haste from Maesbury with Eluric's murder on his mind, to find on arrival that a second crisis had followed hard on the heels of the first. He had already deputed Alan Herbard to send men hunting through the town and the Foregate for any sign or news of the missing lady, with orders to send word if by any chance she should have returned home. There could, after all, be legitimate reasons for her absence, something unforeseen that had met and deflected her on her way. But minute by minute it began to look less likely. Branwen had told her tearful story, and there was no question but Judith had indeed set out from home to visit the abbey. None, either, that she had never reached it.
    "The girl never told me what my cousin had said, until this morning," said Miles, twisting frustrated hands. "I knew nothing of it, or I could have borne her company. So short a walk, down here from the town! And the watchman at the town gate said good day to her and saw her start across the bridge, but after that he was busy, and had no call to watch her go. And not a sign of her from that moment."
    "And she said her errand was to remit the rose rent," said Hugh intently, "and make her gift to the abbey free of all conditions?"
    "So her maid says. So Judith told her. She was much distressed," said Miles, "over the young brother's death. She surely took it to heart that it was her whim brought about that murder."
    "It has yet to be explained," said Abbot Radulfus, "why that should be. Truly it does appear that Brother Eluric interrupted the attack upon the rose-bush, and was killed for his pains, perhaps in mere panic, yet killed he was. What I do not understand is why anyone should wish to destroy the rose-bush in the first place. But for that inexplicable deed there would have been no interruption and no death. Who could want to hack down the bush? What possible motive could there be?"
    "Ah, but, Father, there could!" Miles turned on him with feverish vehemence. "There were some not best pleased when my cousin gave away so valuable a property, worth the half of all she has. If the bush was hacked down and all the roses dead by the day of Saint Winifred's translation, the rent could not be paid, and the terms of the charter would have been broken. The whole bargain could be repudiated."
    "Could," Hugh pointed out briskly, "but would not. The matter would still be in the lady's hands, she could remit the rent at will. And you see she had the will."
    "She could remit it," Miles echoed with sharp intent, "if she were here to do it. But she is not here. Four days until the payment is due, and she has vanished. Time gained, time gained! Whoever failed to destroy the bush has now abducted my cousin. She is not here to grant or deny. What he did not accomplish by one way he now approaches by another."
    There was a brief, intent silence, and then the abbot said slowly: "Do you indeed believe that? You speak as one believing."
    "I do, my lord. I see no other possibility. Yesterday she announced her intention of making her gift unconditional. Today that has been prevented. There was no time to be lost."
    "Yet you yourself did not know what she meant to do," said Hugh, "not until today. Did any other know of it?"
    "Her maid owns she repeated it in the kitchen. Who knows how many heard it then, or got it from those who did? Such things come out through keyholes and the chinks of shutters. Moreover, Judith may have met with some acquaintance on the bridge or in the Foregate, and told them where she was bound. However lightly and