Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

treasury, and bestowed the coffer on the altar of Saint Mary until the time should come to commit it to the care of Nicol, his most trusted servant, for the journey home. Two days more, and they would be setting out. The abbey had loaned a large wagon for transport, and the town provided the loan of a team to draw it. Horses from the abbey stable would carry Herluin and Tutilo on their further journey. Shrewsbury had done very well by its sister-house, and Donata's gold was the crown of the effort. Many eyes followed the turning of the key, and the installation of the coffer on the altar, where awe of heaven would keep it from violation. God has a powerful attraction.
    Leaving the church, Cadfael halted for a moment to snuff the air and survey the sky, which by this hour hung heavy with dropsical clouds, through which the moon occasionally glared for an instant, and was as quickly obscured again. When he went to close up his workshop for the night he observed that the waters of the brook had laid claim to another yard or so of the lower rim of his peasefields.
    All night long from the Matins bell it rained heavily.
    In the morning, about Prime, Hugh Beringar, King Stephen's sheriff of Shropshire, came down in haste out of the town to carry the first warning of trouble ahead, sending his officers to cry the news along the Foregate, while he brought it in person to Abbot Radulfus.
    "Word from Pool last evening, Severn's well out below the town, and still raining heavily in Wales. Upriver beyond Montford the meadows are under water, and the main bulk still on its way down, and fast. I'd advise moving what's valuable, stores can't be risked, with transport threatened." In time of flood the town, all but the encrustation of fishermen's and small craft dwellings along the riverside, and the gardens under the wall, would be safe enough, but the Foregate could soon be under water, and parts of the abbey enclave were the lowest ground, threatened on every side by the river itself, the Meole Brook driven backwards by the weight of water, and the mill-pond swelled by the pressure from both. "I'd lend you some men, but we'll need to get some of the waterside dwellers up into the town."
    "We have hands enough, we can shift for ourselves," said the abbot. "My thanks for the warning. You think it will be a serious flood?"
    "No knowing yet, but you'll have time to prepare. If you mean to load that timber from Longner this evening, better have your wagon round by the Horse Fair. The level there is safe enough, and you can go in and out to your stable and loft by the cemetery gates."
    "Just as well," said Radulfus, "if Herluin's men can get their load away tomorrow, and be on their way home." He rose to go and rally his household to the labour pending, and Hugh, for once, made for the gatehouse without looking up Brother Cadfael on the way. But it happened that Cadfael was rounding the hedge from the garden in considerable haste, just in time to cross his friend's path. The Meole Brook was boiling back upstream, and the mill pool rising.
    "Ah!" said Cadfael, pulling up sharply. "You've been before me, have you? The abbot's warned?"
    "He is, and you can pause and draw breath," said Hugh, checking in his own flight to fling an arm about Cadfael's shoulders. "Not that we know what we can expect, not yet. It may be less than we fear, but better be armed. The lowest of the town's awash. Bring me to the gate, I've scarcely seen you this side Christmas."
    "It won't last long," Cadfael assured him breathlessly. "Soon up, soon down. Two or three days wading, longer to clean up after it, but we've done it all before."
    "Better make sure of what medicines may be wanted, and get them above-stairs in the infirmary. Too much wading, and you'll be in a sickbed yourself."
    "I've been putting them together already," Cadfael assured him. "I'm off to have a word with Edmund now. Thanks be, Aline and Giles are high and dry, up there by Saint Mary's. All's well with them?"
    "Very well, but that it's too long since you came to see your godson." Hugh's horse was hitched by the gatehouse; he reached to the bridle. "Make it soon, once Severn's back in its bed."
    "I will so. Greet her for me, and make my peace with the lad."
    And Hugh was in the saddle, and away along the highroad to hunt out and confer with the provost of the Foregate; and Cadfael tucked up his habit and made for the infirmary. There would be heavier valuables to move to higher ground later,