Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

so.'
    Cadfael went on with his preparations for a minute or two in silence. Converse with Rafe of Coventry found silences acceptable. 'If you'll be riding far the first day,' he said then simply, 'I think you may need my services before you set out. He drew blood,' he said briefly, by way of adequate explanation. And when Rafe was slow to answer: 'A part of my function is to tend illness and injury. There is no seal of confession in my art, but there is a decent reticence.'
    'I have bled before,' said Rafe, but he smiled, a degree beyond his common smile.
    'As you choose. But I am here. If you need me, come to me. It is not wise to neglect a wound, nor to try it too far in the saddle.' He tested the girth, and gathered the reins to mount. The horse sidled and shifted playfully, eager for action.
    'I'll bear it in mind,' said Rafe, 'and I thank you. You will not stop me leaving,' he said in amiable but solemn warning.
    'Have I tried?' said Cadfael, and swung himself up into the saddle and rode out into the court.
    'I never told all the truth,' said Hyacinth, seated beside the hearth in Eilmund's cottage, with the firelight like a copper gloss on cheekbones and jaw and brow, 'not even here to Annet. As to myself I did, she knows the worst I could tell. But not of Cuthred. I knew he was a rogue and a vagabond, but so was I, and I knew nothing worse of him than that, so I kept my mouth shut. One rogue in hiding doesn't betray another. But now you tell me he's a murderer. And dead!'
    'And out of further harm,' said Hugh reasonably, 'at least in this world. I need to know all you can tell. Where did you join fortunes with him?'
    'At Northampton, at the Cluniac priory, as I told Annet and Eilmund, though not quite as I told it. He was no habited pilgrim then, he was in good dark clothes, with cloak and capuchon, and armed, though he kept his sword out of sight. It was almost by chance we got into talk, or I thought so. But I fancy he guessed I was running from something, and he made no secret he was, too, and suggested we might be safer and pass unnoticed together. We were both heading north and west. The pilgrim was his notion, he had the face and bearing for it. Well, you've seen him, you know. I stole the habit for him from the priory store. The scallop shell came easy. The medal of Saint James he had - it may even have been his by right, who knows? By the time we got to Buildwas he had his part by rote, and his hair and beard were well grown. And he came very apt to the dame at Eaton, for her own ends. Oh, she knew no worse of him than that he was willing to earn his keep with her. He said he was a priest, and she believed it. I knew he was none, he owned as much when we were alone. He laughed about it. But he had the gift of tongues, he could carry it off. She gave him the hermitage, so close and handy to the abbey's woods, to do all the mischief he could in the abbot's despite. I said that was my part, and he knew nothing of it, but I lied for him. He'd never blabbed on me, no more would I on him.'
    'He abandoned you,' said Hugh flatly, 'as soon as he knew the hunt was up for you. You need not scruple to speak out on his account.'
    'Well - I live, and he's dead,' said Hyacinth. 'No call now for me to bear him any grudge. You know about Richard? I'd talked with him only once, but he took me so for a true man he'd hear no wrong of me, nor have me run to earth and dragged back into villeinage. That set me up again in my own respect. I never knew till afterwards that he'd been seized like that on his way back, but I was forced to run or hide, and chose to hide till I could make shift to find him. If it hadn't been for Eilmund's goodness to me, and after I'd been a thorn in his flesh, too, your men might have had me a dozen times over. But now you know I never laid hand on Bosiet. And Eilmund and Annet can tell you I've not been a step away from here since I came back from Leighton. What can have happened to Cuthred I know no more than you.'
    'Less, I daresay,' said Hugh mildly, and looked across the fire at Cadfael, smiling. 'Well, after all you may call yourself a lucky lad. From tomorrow you'll be in no peril at the hands of any of my people, you can be off into the town and find yourself a master. And which of your names do you choose to keep for a new life? Best have but one, that we may all know with whom we have to deal.'
    'Whichever is pleasing to Annet,' said Hyacinth. 'It's she will be calling me by it from this