Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

possibilities opening up before them.
    "Is it possible?" ventured Brother Richard the Sub-Prior, almost hopefully. "In the darkness and confusion? Some order misunderstood? Can it have been put on to the cart by mistake?"
    "No," said Cadfael, bluntly cutting off that consideration. "If she was moved from her altar, then she was put somewhere else with deliberate intent. Nevertheless, yes, the cart departed next morning, and she may have gone with it. But not by chance, not in error."
    "Then this is sacrilegious theft!" declaimed Robert. "Offence against the laws of God and of the realm, and must be pursued with all rigour."
    "We must not say so," reproved Radulfus, lifting a restraining hand, "until we have questioned every man who was present on that day and may have testimony to add to what we know. And that we have not yet done. Sub-Prior Herluin and Brother Tutilo were with us then, and as I know, Tutilo was helping with the removal of the altar furnishings until well into the evening. And were there not some others who came in to help? We should speak to every one who may have seen anything to the purpose, before we cry theft."
    "Eudo Blount's carters who came with the wood," offered Richard, "left the load and came in to help, until all was done, before they finished transferring the timber from the Longner cart. Should we not ask them? Dark as it was by then, they may have noticed something to the purpose."
    "We will neglect nothing," said the abbot. "Father Herluin and Brother Tutilo, I know, will be coming back here to return our horses, but that may be some days, and we should not delay. Robert, they will be in Worcester by now, will you ride after them and hear what account they can give of that day?"
    "With very good will," said Robert fervently. "But, Father, if this becomes in all earnest a matter of theft, ought we not to confide it to the sheriff, and see if he thinks fit to have a man of his garrison go with me? In the end it may be as much for the king's justice as for ours, and as you say, time is precious."
    "You are right," agreed Radulfus. "I will speak with Hugh Beringar. And for the Longner men, we will send and hear what they have to say."
    "If you give me leave," said Cadfael, "I will undertake that." He had no wish to see someone of Prior Robert's mind descending on Eudo Blount's decent household, probing in a manner suggestive of black suspicions of duplicity and theft.
    "Do so, Cadfael, if you will. You know the people there better than any of us, they will speak freely to you. Find her," said Abbot Radulfus grimly, "we must and will. Tomorrow Hugh Beringar shall know what has happened, and pursue it as he sees fit."
    Hugh came from conference with the abbot half an hour after the end of Prime. "Well," he said, plumping himself down on the bench against the timber wall of Cadfael's workshop, "I hear you've got yourself into a pretty awkward corner this time. How did you come to lose your seeming saint? And what will you do, my friend, if someone, somewhere, decides to take the lid off that very pretty coffin?"
    "Why should they?" said Cadfael, but none too confidently.
    "Given human curiosity, of which you should know more than I," said Hugh, grinning, "why should they not? Say the thing finds its way where no one knows what it is, or what it signifies, how better to find out what they have in their hands? You would be the first to break the seals."
    "I was the first," said Cadfael, unguardedly since here a guard was useless, for Hugh knew exactly what was in Saint Winifred's reliquary. "And also, I hope, the last. Hugh, I doubt if you are taking this with the gravity it deserves."
    "I find it difficult," Hugh owned, "not to be amused. But be sure I'll preserve your secrets if I can. I'm interested. All my local troublers of the peace seem to be frozen in until spring, I can afford to ride to Worcester. Even in Robert's company it may be entertaining. And I'll keep an eye open for your interests as well as I may. What do you think of this loss? Has someone conspired to rob you, or is it all a foolish tangle spawned out of the flood?"
    "No," said Cadfael positively, and turned from the board on which he was fashioning troches for queasy stomachs in the infirmary. "No tangle. A clear mind shifted that reliquary from the altar, and swathed and planted a log of wood from the undercroft in its place. So that both could be moved away well out of sight and out of mind, possibly for several days,