Brother Cadfael 15: The Confession of Brother Haluin

And there Helisende fled for sanctuary from too painful stresses. So they are all under one roof at last."
    After a moment of silence Audemar said softly, " 'We asked lodging last night at the abbey of Farewell' - you have said almost enough, yet add one thing more - name him!"
    "He entered the cloister long ago. He is a brother with me in the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, at Shrewsbury. You have seen him, my lord, that same brother who came to Elford with me, on crutches every step of the way. Monk and priest, the same, my lord Cenred, whom you asked to marry Helisende to the man you had chosen for her. His name is Haluin."
    Now they had all begun dazedly to believe what they could not yet fully grasp in all its implications. With glazed glances they stared within at the slow realization of what this must mean to them. To Roscelin, quivering and glowing like a newly lighted torch, the sudden dizzy lightness and liberty of guilt and grief lifted from him, the very air of the day intoxicating as wine, the world expanded into a vast brightness of hope and joy that dazzled his eyes and muted his tongue. To de Perronet, the stinging challenge of finding himself faced with a formidable rival where he had looked for no conflict, and the instinctive stiffening of his pride and determination to fight for the threatened prize with all his might. To Cenred the overturning of all his family memories, a father made to seem belittled, even senile, by his fond acceptance of such a deception, a sister abruptly withdrawn into a stranger, an interloper without rights in his house. To Emma, silent and fearful in her corner, the grief of an offense against her lord, and the loss of one she had looked upon almost as her own daughter.
    "So she is no sister of mine," said Cenred heavily, rather to himself than to any other, and as quickly repeated it with sudden anger to them all: "She is no sister of mine!"
    "None," said Adelais. "But until now she believed herself so. It is not her fault, never cast blame on her."
    "She is no kin to me. I owe her nothing, neither dowry nor lands. She has no claim on me." He said it bitterly rather than vengefully, lamenting the abrupt severance of a strong affection.
    "None. But she is kin to me," said Adelais. "Her mother's dower lands went to Polesworth when she took the veil, but Helisende is my granddaughter and my heiress. The lands I hold in my own right will go to her. She will not be penniless." She looked at de Perronet as she spoke, and smiled, but wryly. No need to make the lovers' path too smooth by rendering the girl less profitable, and therefore less attractive in the rival's eyes.
    "Madam, you mistake me," said Cenred with muted fury. "This house has been her home, she will still think of it as home. Where else is there for her? It is we here who are suddenly cut off, like topped limbs. Her father and mother, both, are in the cloister, and what guidance, what care has she ever had from you? Kin to us or not, she belongs here at Vivers."
    "But nothing prevents now," cried Roscelin triumphantly. "I may approach her, I may lawfully ask for her, there is no barrier now. We've done no wrong, there's no shadow over us, no ban between us. I'll go and bring her home. She'll come, blithely she'll come! I knew," he exulted, his blue eyes brilliant with vindicated joy, "I knew we did no wrong in loving, never, never! It was you persuaded me I sinned. Sir, let me go and fetch her home!"
    At that de Perronet took fire in his turn, with a hiss like a sulphur match flaring, and took two rapid strides forward to confront the boy. "You leap too soon and too far, my friend! Your rights are no better than mine. I do not withdraw my suit, I urge it, I will pursue it with my might."
    "And so you may," exulted Roscelin, too drunk with relief and delight to be ungenerous or take easy offence. "I don't grudge any man his say, but on fair terms now, you and I and any who come, and we shall see what Helisende replies." But he knew what her reply would be, his very certainty was offence, though it meant none, and de Perronet had his hand on his dagger and hotter words mounting in his throat when Audemar smote the table and bellowed them both into silence.
    "Hush your noise! Am I overlord here, or no? The girl is not without kin, for she is niece to me. If there is anyone here who has rights in her and a duty towards her - any who has not farmed out both upon another man long since! - it is I, and I say that