Brother Cadfael 16: The Heretic's Apprentice

believe she would ever be more to him than she was now, or he to her. But he went with her, and the warm dimness of the hall received them.
    Conan looked after them for a long moment, before he went on towards the stable, his thick brows drawn together, and his wits very busy in his head.
    Chapter Four
    It was fully dark when Conan came home again, and he came alone.
    "I went as far as Forton, but he'd gone on to Nesse early in the day. Likely he'd have finished there and moved on before night. I thought it best to come back. He'll not be home tomorrow, not until too late to see old William to his grave, not knowing the need."
    "He'll be sorry to let the old man go without him," said Margaret, shaking her head, "but there's nothing to be done about it now. Well, we'll have to manage everything properly on his behalf. I suppose it would have been a pity to fetch him back so far and lose two days or more in the middle of the shearing time. Perhaps it's just as well he was out of reach."
    "Uncle William will sleep just as well," said Jevan, unperturbed. "He had an eye to business in his day. He wouldn't favour waste of time, or risk of another dealer picking up one of his customers while his back was turned. Never fret, we'll make a good family showing tomorrow. And if you want to be up early to prepare your table, Meg, you'd best be off to bed and get your rest."
    "Yes," she said, sighing, and braced her hands on the table to rise. "Never mind, Conan, you did what you could. There's meat and bread and ale in the kitchen for you, as soon as you've stabled the pony. Good night to you both! Jevan, you'll put out the lamp and see the door bolted?"
    "I will. When did you know me to forget? Good night, Meg!"
    The master bedchamber was the only one on this main floor. Fortunata had a small room above, closed off from the larger part of the loft where the menservants had their beds, and Jevan slept in a small chamber over the entry from the street into the yard, where he kept his choicest wares and his chest of books.
    Margaret's door closed behind her. Conan had turned to go out to the kitchen, but in the doorway he looked back, and asked: "Did he stay long? The young fellow? He was for going, the same time I left, but we met with Fortunata in the yard, and he turned back with her."
    Jevan looked up in tolerant surprise. "He stayed and ate with us. He's bidden back with us tomorrow, too. Our girl seemed pleased to see him." His grave, long face, very solemn in repose, was nevertheless lit by a pair of glittering black eyes that missed very little, and seemed to be seeing too far into Conan at this moment for Conan's comfort, and finding what they saw mildly amusing. "Nothing to fret you," said Jevan. "He's no shepherd, to put a spoke in your wheel. Go and get your supper, and let Aldwin do the fretting, if there's any to be done."
    It was a thought which had not been in Conan's mind until that moment, but it had its validity, just as surely as the other possibility which had really been preoccupying him. He went off to the kitchen with the two considerations churning in his brain, to find the meal left for him, and Aldwin sitting morosely at the trestle table with a half-empty mug of ale.
    "I never thought," said Conan, spreading his elbows on the other side of the table, "we should ever see that young spark again. All those perils by land and sea that we hear about, cutthroats and robbers by land, storm and shipwreck and pirates on the sea, and he has to wriggle his way between the lot of them and come safe home. More than his master did!"
    "Did you find Girard?" asked Aldwin.
    "No, he's too far west. There was no time to go farther after him. They'll have to bury the old man without him. Small grief to me," said Conan candidly, "if it was Elave we were burying."
    "He'll be off again," Aldwin said, strenuously hoping so. "He'll be too big for us now, he won't stay."
    Conan gave vent to a laugh that held no amusement. "Go, will he? He was for going this afternoon until he set eyes on Fortunata. He came back fast enough when she took him by the hand and bade him in again. And by what I saw of the looks between them, she'll have no eyes for another man while he's around."
    Aldwin gave him a wary and disbelieving look. "Are you taking a fancy to get the girl for yourself? I never saw sign of it before."
    "I like her well enough, always have. But for all they treat her like a daughter, she's none of their kin, just a foundling