Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

you know Hugh Beringar better than to doubt his fairness.'
    But no, Eilmund did not know him, not as Cadfael knew him. The forester was shaking his head doubtfully. A sheriff is a sheriff, pledged to law, and law is rigid and weighted, all in all, against the peasant and the serf and the landless man. 'He's a decent, fair-minded man, sure enough,' said Eilmund, 'but I dare not stake this boy's life on any king's officer. No, leave us keep as we are, Cadfael. Say nothing to any man, not until Bosiet's come and gone.'
    They were all linked against him. He did his best, arguing quietly what ease it would be to know that the hunt would not be pressed home against Hyacinth, that his innocence, once communicated privily to Hugh, would set free the forces of law to look elsewhere for Drogo's murderer, and also allow them to press their search for Richard more thoroughly, and with more resources, through these forests where the child had vanished. But they had their arguments, too, and there was matter in them.
    'If you told the sheriff, even secretly,' urged Annet, 'and if he did believe you, he would still have Bosiet to deal with. His father's man will tell him it's as good as certain his runaway is somewhere here in hiding, murderer or no. He'll go the length of using hounds, if the sheriff draws his men off. No, say nothing to anyone, not yet. Wait until they give up and go home. Then we'll come forth. Promise! Promise us silence until then!'
    There was nothing to be done about it. He promised. They had trusted him, and against their absolute prohibition he could not hold out. He sighed and promised.
    It was very late when he rose at last, his word given, to begin the night ride back to the abbey. He had given a promise also to Hugh, never thinking how hard it might be to keep. He had said that if he had anything to tell, Hugh should hear it before any other. A subtle, if guileless, arrangement of words, through which a devious mind could find several loopholes, but what he meant had been as clear to Hugh as it was to Cadfael. And now he could not make it good. Not yet, not until Aymer Bosiet should grow restive, count the costs of his vengeance, and think it better to go home and enjoy his new inheritance instead.
    In the doorway he turned back to ask of Hyacinth one last question, a sudden afterthought. 'What of Cuthred? With you two living so close - did he have any part in all this mischief of yours in Eilmund's forest?'
    Hyacinth stared at him gravely, in mild surprise, his amber eyes wide and candid. 'How could he?' he said simply. 'He never leaves his own pale.'
    Aymer Bosiet rode into the great court of the abbey about noon of the next day, with a young groom at his back. Brother Denis the hospitaller had orders to bring him to Abbot Radulfus as soon as he arrived, for the abbot was unwilling to delegate to anyone else the task of breaking to him the news of his father's death. It was achieved with a delicacy for which, it seemed, there was little need. The bereaved son sat silently revolving the news and all its implications at length, and having apparently digested and come to terms with it, expressed his filial grief very suitably, but with his mind still engaged on side issues, a shrewdly calculating mind behind a face less powerful and brutal than his father's, but showing little evidence of sorrow. He did frown over the event, for it involved troublesome duties, such as commissioning coffin and cart and extra help for the journey home, and making the best possible use of such time as he could afford here. Radulfus had already had Martin Bellecote, the master carpenter in the town, make a plain inner coffin for the body, which was not yet covered, since doubtless Aymer would want to look upon his father's face for a last time and take his farewells.
    The bereaved son revolved the matter in his mind, and asked point-blank and with sharp intent: 'He had not found our runaway villein?'
    'No,' said Radulfus, and if he was shaken he contrived to contain the shock. 'There was a suggestion that the young man was in the neighbourhood, but no certainty that the youth in question was really the one sought. And I believe now no one knows where he is gone.'
    'My father's murderer is being sought?'
    'Very assiduously, with all the sheriffs men.'
    'My villein also, I trust. Whether or not,' said Aymer grimly, 'the two turn out to be the same. The law is bound to do all it can to recover my property for me. The rogue is a