Brother Cadfael 16: The Heretic's Apprentice

briskly. "I thought you were north among your own lands, getting in the hay."
    "So I was, until yesterday. The hay's in, the shearing's done, and I've brought Aline and Giles back to the town. Just in time to be summoned to pay my respects to some grand magnate who's visiting here, and is none too pleased about it. If his horse hadn't fallen lame he'd still be on his way to Chester. Have you not a drink, Cadfael, for a thirsty man? Though why I should be parched," he added absently, "when he did all the talking, is more than I know."
    Cadfael had a wine of his own within the workshop, new but fit to drink. He brought a jug of it out into the sunshine, and they sat down together on the bench against the north wail of the garden, to sun themselves in unashamed idleness.
    "I saw the horse," said Cadfael. "He'll be days yet before he's fit to take the road to Chester. I saw the man, too, if it's he the abbot made haste to welcome. By the sound of it he was not expected. If he's in haste to get to Chester he'll need a fresh horse, or more patience than I fancy he possesses."
    "Oh, he's reconciled. Radulfus may have him on his hands a week or more yet. If he made for Chester now he wouldn't find his man there, there's no haste. Earl Ranulf is on the Welsh border, fending off another raid from Gwynedd. Owain will keep him busy a while."
    "And who is this cleric on his way to Chester?" asked Cadfael curiously. "And what did he want with you?"
    "Well, being frustrated himself - until I told him there was no hurry, for the earl was away riding his borders - he had a mind to be as busy a nuisance to all about him as possible. Send for the sheriff, at least exact the reverence due! But there is a grain of purpose in it, too. He wanted whatever information I had about the whereabouts and intentions of Owain Gwynedd, and especially he wished to know how big a threat our Welsh prince is being to Earl Ranulf, how glad the earl might be to have some help in the matter, and how willing he might be to pay for it in kind."
    "In the king's interests," Cadfael deduced, after a moment of frowning thought. "Is he one of Bishop Henry's familiars, then?"
    "Not he! Stephen's making wise use of the archbishop for once, instead of his brother of Winchester. Henry's busy elsewhere. No, your guest is one Gerbert, of the Augustinian canons of Canterbury, a big man in the household of Archbishop Theobald. His errand is to make a cautious gesture of peace and goodwill to Earl Ranulf, whose loyalty - to Stephen's or any side! - is never better than shaky, but might be secured - or Stephen hopes it might! - on terms of mutual gain. You give me full and fair support there in the north, and I'll help you hold off Owain Gwynedd and his Welshmen. Stronger together than apart!"
    Cadfael's bushy eyebrows were arched towards his grizzled tonsure. "What, when Ranulf is still holding Lincoln castle, in Stephen's despite? Yes, and other royal castles he holds illegally? Has Stephen shut his eyes to that fashion of support and friendship?"
    "Stephen has forgotten nothing. But he's willing to dissemble if it will keep Ranulf quiet and complacent for a few months. There's more than one unchancy ally getting too big for his boots," said Hugh. "I fancy Stephen has it in mind to deal with one at a time, and there's one at least is a bigger threat than Ranulf of Chester. He'll get his due, all in good time, but there's one Stephen has more against than a few purloined castles, and it's worth buying Chester's complacence until Essex is dealt with."
    "You sound certain of what's in the king's mind," said Cadfael mildly.
    "As good as certain, yes. I saw how the man bore himself at court, last Christmas. A stranger might have doubted which among us was the king. Easygoing Stephen may be, meek he is not. And there were rumors that the earl of Essex was bargaining again with the empress while she was in Oxford, but changed his mind when the siege went against her. He's been back and forth between the two of them times enough already. I think he's near the end of his rope."
    "And Ranulf is to be placated until his fellow-earl has been dealt with." Cadfael rubbed dubiously at his blunt brown nose, and thought that over for a moment in silence. "That seems to me more like the bishop of Winchester's way of thinking than King Stephen's," he said warily.
    "So it may be. And perhaps that's why the king is using one of Canterbury's household for this errand, and not Winchester's.