Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

the roads out of Northampton. But they never caught up with him, and here we are still hot on his trail. If ever Drogo lays hands on him he'll flay him, but he won't cripple him, he's too valuable to waste. But he'll have every morsel of his grudge out of the lad's skin, and then wring every penny of profit out of his skills lifelong, and make good sure he never gets the chance to run again.'
    'Then he had better make a good job of it now,' agreed Cadfael wryly. 'If well-wishing can help him, he has it. Now hold still a moment there! And this ointment you can take with you and use as often as you choose. It helps take out the sting and lower the swelling.'
    Warin turned the little jar curiously in his hand, and touched a finger to his cheek. 'What's in it, to work such healing?'
    'Saint John's wort and the small daisy, both good for wounds. And if chance offers tomorrow, let me see you again and hear how you do. And keep out of his reach!' said Cadfael warmly, and turned to bed down his brazier again with fresh turves, to smoulder quietly and safely until morning.
    Drogo Bosiet duly appeared at chapter next morning, large, loud and authoritative in an assembly where a wiser man would have realised that authority lay with the abbot, and the abbot's grip on it was absolute, however calm and measured his voice and austere his face. So much the better, thought Cadfael, watching narrowly and somewhat anxiously from his retired stall, Radulfus will know how to weigh the man, and let nothing slip too soon.
    'My lord abbot,' said Drogo, straddling the flags of the floor like a bull before the charge, 'I am here in search of a malefactor who attacked and injured my steward and fled my lands. He is known to have made for Northampton, my manor, to which he is tied, being several miles south-east of the town, and I have it in mind that he would make for the Welsh border. We have hunted for him all this way, and from Warwick I have taken this road from Shrewsbury, while my son goes on to Stafford, and will join me here from that place. All I ask here is whether any stranger of his years has lately come into these parts.'
    'I take it,' said the abbot after a long and thoughtful pause, and steadily eyeing the powerful face and arrogant stance of his visitor, 'that this man is your villein.'
    'He is.'
    'And you do know,' pursued Radulfus mildly, 'that since it would seem you have failed to reclaim him within four days, it will be necessary to apply to the courts to regain possession of him legally?'
    'My lord,' said Drogo with impatient scorn, 'so I can well do, if I can but find him. The man is mine, and I mean to have him. He has been a cause of trouble to me, but he has skills which are valuable, and I do not mean to be robbed of what is mine. The law will give me my rights in the lands where the offence arose.' And so, no doubt, such a law as survived in his own shire would certainly do, at the mere nod of his head.
    'If you will tell us what your fugitive is like,' said the abbot reasonably, 'Brother Denis can tell you at once whether we have had such a one as guest in our halls.'
    'He goes by the name of Brand - twenty years old, dark of hair but reddish, lean and strong, beardless -'
    'No,' said Brother Denis the hospitaller without hesitation, 'I have had no such young man lodged here, not for five or six weeks back certainly. If he had found work along the way with some trader or merchant carrying goods, such as come with three or four servants, then he might have passed this way. But a young man alone - no, none.'
    'As to that,' said the abbot with authority, forestalling reply from any other, though indeed no one but Prior Robert would have ventured to speak before him, 'you would do well to take your question to the sheriff at the castle, for his officers are far more likely than we here within the enclave to know of any newcomers entering the town. The pursuit of criminals and offenders such as you describe is their business, and they are thorough and careful about it. The guildsmen of the town are also wary and jealous of their rights, and have good reason to keep their eyes open, and their wits about them. I recommend you to apply to them.'
    'So I intend, my lord. But you will bear in mind what I have asked, and if any here should recall anything to the purpose, let me hear of it.'
    'This house will do whatever is incumbent upon it in good conscience,' said the abbot with chilly emphasis, and watched with an