Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

party among three. I submit gladly to some more disinterested tribunal. If you are setting out for Shrewsbury tomorrow, so must Saint Winifred. And I will bear my part in escorting her, and ride with you."
    Chapter Five.
    Brother Cadfael had made one journey to the hamlet of Preston in search of the young man Aldhelm, only to find that he was away in the riverside fields of the manor of Upton, busy with the lambing, for the season had been complicated by having to retrieve some of the ewes in haste from the rising water, and the shepherds were working all the hours of the day. On his second attempt, Cadfael made straight for Upton to enquire where their younger shepherd was to be found, and set out stoutly to tramp the further mile to a fold high and dry above the water-meadows.
    Aldhelm got up from the turf on which a new and unsteady lamb was also trying to get to its feet, nuzzled by the quivering ewe. The shepherd was a loose-limbed fellow all elbows and knees, but quick and deft in movement for all that. He had a blunt, good natured face and a thick head of reddish hair. Haled in to help salvage the church's treasures, he had set to and done whatever was asked of him without curiosity, but there was nothing amiss with his sharp and assured memory, once he understood what was being asked of him.
    "Yes, Brother, I was there. I went down to give Gregory and Lambert a hand with the timber, and Brother Richard called us in to help shift things within. There was another fellow running about there like us, someone from the guesthall, hefting things around off the altars. He seemed to know his way round, and what was needed. I just did what they asked of me."
    "And did any ask of you, towards the end of the evening, to help him hoist a long bundle on to the wagon with the wood?" asked Cadfael, directly but without much expectation, and shook to the simple answer.
    "Yes, so he did. He said it was to go with the wagon to Ramsey, and we put it in among the logs, well wedged in. It was padded safely enough, it wouldn't come to any harm."
    It had come to harm enough, but he was not to know that. "The two lads from Longner never noticed it," said Cadfael. "How could that be?"
    "Why, it was well dark then, and raining, and they were busy shifting the logs in the Longner cart down to the tail, to be easy to heft out and carry across. They might well have missed noticing. I never thought to mention it again, it was what the brother wanted, just one more thing to move. I took it he knew what he was about, and it was no business of ours to be curious about the abbey's affairs."
    It was certainly true that the brother in question had known all too well what he was about, and there was small doubt left as to who he must be, but he could not be accused without witness.
    "What was he like, this brother? Had you spoken with him before, in the church?"
    "No. He came running out and took me by the sleeve in the darkness. It was raining, his cowl was drawn up close. A Benedictine brother for certain, is all I know. Not very tall, less than me. By his voice a young fellow. What else can I tell you? I could point him out to you, though, if I see him," he said positively.
    "Seen once in the dark, and cowled? And you could know him again?"
    "So I could, no question. I went back in with him to hoist this load, and the altar lamp was still bright. I saw his face close, with the light on it. To picture a man in words, one's much like another," said Aldhelm, "but bring me to see him, I'll pick him out from a thousand."
    "I have found him," said Cadfael, reporting the result of his quest in private to Abbot Radulfus, "and he says he will know his man again."
    "He is certain?"
    "He is certain. And I am persuaded. He is the only one who saw the monk's face, by the altar lamp as they lifted the reliquary. That means close and clear, the light falling directly into the cowl. The others were outside, in the darkness and the rain. Yes, I think he can speak with certainty."
    "And he will come?" asked Radulfus.
    "He will come, but on his own terms. He has a master, and work to do, and they are still lambing. While one of his ewes is in trouble he will not budge. But when I send for him, by the evening, when his day's work is over, he'll come. It cannot be yet," said Cadfael, "not until they are back from Worcester. But the day I send for him, he will come."
    "Good!" said Radulfus, but none too happily. "Since we have no choice but to pursue it." No need