Brother Cadfael 13: The Rose Rent

going to the Benedictine nuns at Godric's Ford."
    He asked her nothing more. Her plans were her own, there was nothing here for him to do but see that they were not impeded. He kept an arm about her as they set off down the path, until presently it widened into a grassy ride, where a faint light came in like mist. Invisibly beyond the trees the moon was rising at last. Somewhere before them there was the elusive gleam of water in motion, in mysterious, vibrant glimpses that shifted and vanished, and emerging from the misty air on their side of it, the sharp black edges of roofs and a fence, and a little bell-turret, the only vertical line.
    "This is the place?" asked Niall. He had heard of the cell, but never before questioned where it lay, or been anywhere near it.
    "Yes."
    "I'll bring you as far as the gate, and see you within."
    "No, you must come in with me. You must not go back now, alone. Tomorrow, by daylight, we shall be safe enough."
    "There's no place here for me," he said doubtfully.
    "Sister Magdalen will find a place." And she said with sudden passionate entreaty: "Don't leave me now!"
    They came down together to the high timber fence that enclosed the cell and its gardens. Though the moon was still hidden from their sight beyond the forested uplands, its reflected light was growing with every moment; buildings, trees, bushes, the curve of the brook and cushioned strips of meadow along its banks, all emerged slowly from black obscurity into subtle modulations of grey, soon to be silvered as the moon climbed. Niall hesitated with his hand on the rope of the bell at the closed gate, such a violation it seemed to break the silence. When he did rouse himself to pull, the jangle of sound went echoing along the water, and rang back from the trees of the opposite shore. But there was only a short wait before the portress came grumbling and yawning to open the grille and peer out at them.
    "Who is it? Benighted, are you?" She saw a man and a woman, both unknown to her and astray here in the forest at night, and took them for what they seemed, respectable travellers who had lost their way and found themselves in unfrequented solitudes where any shelter was more than welcome. "You want a night's lodging?"
    "My name is Judith Perle," said Judith. "Sister Magdalen knows of me, and once offered me a place of refuge when I needed it. Sister, I need it now. And here with me is my good friend who has stood between me and danger and brought me safely here. I pray shelter through the night for him, too."
    "I'll call Sister Magdalen," said the portress with wise caution, and went away to do so, leaving the grille open. In a very few minutes the two returned together, and Sister Magdalen's bright, shrewd brown eyes looked through the lattice with wide-awake interest, alert even at this hour of the night.
    "You may open," she said cheerfully. "Here is a friend, and a friend's friend is just as welcome."
    In the tiny parlour, without fuss and without questions, Sister Magdalen did first things first, mulled strong wine to warm the last chill of shock and fright out of them, rolled back Niall's bloody sleeve, bathed and bandaged the long gash in his forearm, anointed the scratch on Judith's shoulder, and briskly repaired the long tear in her bodice and sleeve.
    "It is but cobbled," she said. "I was never a good hand with a needle. But it will serve until you're home." And she picked up the bowl of stained water and bore it away, leaving them for the first time alone together by candle-light, gazing earnestly and wonderingly at each other.
    "And you have asked me nothing," said Judith slowly. "Neither where I have been all these days past, nor how I came to be riding through the night to this place, in company with a man. Neither how I vanished, nor how I got my freedom again. And I owe you so much, and I have not even thanked you. But I do, from my heart! But for you I should be lying dead in the forest. He meant killing!"
    "I know well enough," said Niall steadily, "that you never would willingly have left us all in distress and dismay for you these three days. And I know that if you choose now to spare the man who put you to such straits, you do it of good intent, and in the kindness of your heart. What more do I need to know?"
    "I want it buried for my own sake, too," she said ruefully. "What is there to gain by denouncing him? And much to lose. He is no such great villain, only presumptuous and vain and foolish. He has