Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

him back again, once she had him, and force is further out of the abbot's reach than it is out of hers.'
    'It is to be hoped,' said Brother Edmund, aghast at the suggestion, 'that she has not yet used up all her persuasions, if the last resort is to be violence.'
    No one could quite determine exactly how young Richard came to know every twist and turn of the contention over his future. He could not have overheard anything of what went on at chapter, nor were the novices present at the daily gatherings, and there was none among the brothers likely to gossip about the matter to the child at the centre of the conflict. Yet it was clear that Richard did know all that went on, and took perverse pleasure in it. Mischief made life more interesting, and here within the enclave he felt quite safe from any real danger, while he could enjoy being fought over.
    'He watches the comings and goings from Eaton,' said Brother Paul, confiding his mild anxiety to Cadfael in the peace of the herb garden, 'and is sharp enough to be very well aware what they mean. And he understood all too well what went on at his father's funeral. I could wish him less acute, for his own sake.'
    'As well he should have his wits about him,' said Cadfael comfortably. 'It's the knowing innocents that avoid the snares. And the lady's made no move now for ten days. Maybe she's grown resigned, and given up the struggle.' But he was by no means convinced of that. Dame Dionisia was not used to being thwarted.
    'It may be so,' agreed Paul hopefully, 'for I hear she's taken in some reverend pilgrim, and refurbished the old hermitage in her woodland for his use. She wants his prayers daily for her son's soul. Edmund was telling us about it when he brought our allowance of venison. We saw the man, Cadfael, at the funeral. He was there with the two brothers from Buildwas. He'd been lodged with them a week, they give him a very saintly report.'
    Cadfael straightened up with a grunt from his bed of mint, grown wiry and thin of leaf now in late October. 'The fellow who wore the scallop shell? And the medal of Saint James? Yes, I remember noticing him. So he's settling among us, is he? And chooses a cell and a little square of garden in the woods rather than a grey habit at Buildwas! I never was drawn to the solitary life myself, but I've known those who can think and pray the better that way. It's a long time since that cell was lived in.'
    He knew the place, though he seldom passed that way, the abbey's forester having excellent health, and very little need of herbal remedies. The hermitage, disused now for many years, lay in a thickly wooded dell, a stone-built hut with a square of ground once fenced and cultivated, now overgrown and wild. Here the belt of forest embraced both Eaton ground and the abbey's woodland of Eyton, and the hermitage occupied a spot where the Ludel border jutted into neighbour territory, close to the forester's cherished coppice. 'He'll be quiet enough there,' said Cadfael, 'if he means to stay. By what name are we to know him?'
    'They call him Cuthred. A neighbour saint is a fine thing to have, and it seems they're already beginning to bring their troubles to him to sort. It may be,' ventured Brother Paul optimistically, 'that it's he who has tamed the lady. He must have a strong influence over her, or she'd never have entreated him to stay. And there's been no move from her these ten days. It may be we're all in his debt.'
    And indeed, as the soft October days slid away tranquilly one after another, in dim, misty dawns, noondays bright but veiled, and moist green twilights magically still, it seemed that there was to be no further combat over young Richard, that Dame Dionisia had thought better of the threat of law, and resigned herself to submission. She even sent, by her parish priest, a gift of money to pay for Masses in the Lady Chapel for her son's soul, a gesture which could only be interpreted as a move towards reconciliation. So, at least, Brother Francis, the new custodian of Saint Mary's altar, considered it.
    'Father Andrew tells me,' he reported after the visitor had departed, 'that since the Savigniac brothers from Buildwas brought this Cuthred into her house she sets great store by his counsel, and rules herself by his advice and example. The man has won a great report for holiness already. They say he's taken strict vows in the old way, and never leaves his cell and garden now. But he never refuses help or prayers to any who