in one day. The second of the abbey's mills was at the end of the field, and because of the same dangers had been abandoned for the season, just when it was beginning to be needed, and had suffered damage which would keep it out of use until repairs could be undertaken.
'You go with the reapers,' said Cadfael to Godith. 'My thumbs prick, and rightly or wrongly, I'd rather have you out of the enclave, if only for a day.'
'Without you?' said Godith, surprised.
'I must stay here and keep an eye on things. If anything threatens, I'll be with you as fast as legs can go. But you'll be well enough, no one is going to have leisure to look hard at you until that corn is in the barns. But stay by Brother Athanasius, he's as blind as a mole, he wouldn't know a stag from a hind. And take care how you swing a sickle, and don't come back short of a foot!'
She went off quite happily among the crowd of reapers in the end, glad of an outing and a change of scene. She was not afraid. Not afraid enough, Cadfael considered censoriously, but then, she had an old fool here to do the fearing for her, just as she'd once had an old nurse, protective as a hen with one chick. He watched them out of the gate house and over the road towards the Gaye, and went back with a relieved sigh to his own labours in the inner gardens. He had not been long on his knees, weeding, when a cool, light voice behind him, almost as quiet as the steps he had not heard in the grass, said: 'So this is where you spend your more peaceful hours. A far cry and a pleasant change from harvesting dead men.'
Brother Cadfael finished the last corner of the bed of mint before he turned to acknowledge the presence of Hugh Beringar. 'A pleasant change, right enough. Let's hope we've finished with that kind of crop, here in Shrewsbury.'
'And you found a name for your stranger in the end. How was that? No one in the town seemed to know him.'
'All questions get their answers,' said Brother Cadfael sententiously, 'if you wait long enough.'
'And all searchers are bound to find? But of course,' said Beringar, smiling, 'you did not say how long is long enough. If a man found at eighty what he was searching for at twenty, he might prove a shade ungrateful.'
'He might well have stopped wanting it long before that,' said Brother Cadfael dryly, 'which is in itself an answer to any want. Is there anything you are looking for here in the herbarium, that I can help you to, or are you curious to learn about these simples of mine?'
'No,' owned Beringar, his smile deepening, 'I would hardly say it was any simplicity I came to study.' He pinched off a sprig of mint, crushed it between his fingers, and set it first to his nose and then closed fine white teeth upon its savour. 'And what should such as I be looking for here? I may have caused a few ills in my time, I'm no hand at healing them. They tell me, Brother Cadfael, you have had a wide-ranging career before you came into the cloister. Don't you find it unbearably dull here, after such battles, with no enemy left to fight?'
'I am not finding it at all dull, these days,' said Cadfael, plucking out willowherb from among the thyme. 'And as for enemies, the devil makes his way in everywhere, even into cloister, and church, and herbarium.'
Beringar threw his head back and laughed aloud, until the short black hair danced on his forehead. 'Vainly, if he comes looking for mischief where you are! But he'd hardly expect to blunt his horns against an old crusader here! I take the hint!'
But all the time, though he scarcely seemed to turn his head or pay much attention to anything round him, his black eyes were missing nothing, and his ears were at stretch while he laughed and jested. By this time he knew that the well-spoken and well-favoured boy of whom Aline had innocently spoken was not going to make his appearance, and more, that Brother Cadfael did not care if he poked his nose into every corner of the garden, sniffed at every drying herb and
'You go with the reapers,' said Cadfael to Godith. 'My thumbs prick, and rightly or wrongly, I'd rather have you out of the enclave, if only for a day.'
'Without you?' said Godith, surprised.
'I must stay here and keep an eye on things. If anything threatens, I'll be with you as fast as legs can go. But you'll be well enough, no one is going to have leisure to look hard at you until that corn is in the barns. But stay by Brother Athanasius, he's as blind as a mole, he wouldn't know a stag from a hind. And take care how you swing a sickle, and don't come back short of a foot!'
She went off quite happily among the crowd of reapers in the end, glad of an outing and a change of scene. She was not afraid. Not afraid enough, Cadfael considered censoriously, but then, she had an old fool here to do the fearing for her, just as she'd once had an old nurse, protective as a hen with one chick. He watched them out of the gate house and over the road towards the Gaye, and went back with a relieved sigh to his own labours in the inner gardens. He had not been long on his knees, weeding, when a cool, light voice behind him, almost as quiet as the steps he had not heard in the grass, said: 'So this is where you spend your more peaceful hours. A far cry and a pleasant change from harvesting dead men.'
Brother Cadfael finished the last corner of the bed of mint before he turned to acknowledge the presence of Hugh Beringar. 'A pleasant change, right enough. Let's hope we've finished with that kind of crop, here in Shrewsbury.'
'And you found a name for your stranger in the end. How was that? No one in the town seemed to know him.'
'All questions get their answers,' said Brother Cadfael sententiously, 'if you wait long enough.'
'And all searchers are bound to find? But of course,' said Beringar, smiling, 'you did not say how long is long enough. If a man found at eighty what he was searching for at twenty, he might prove a shade ungrateful.'
'He might well have stopped wanting it long before that,' said Brother Cadfael dryly, 'which is in itself an answer to any want. Is there anything you are looking for here in the herbarium, that I can help you to, or are you curious to learn about these simples of mine?'
'No,' owned Beringar, his smile deepening, 'I would hardly say it was any simplicity I came to study.' He pinched off a sprig of mint, crushed it between his fingers, and set it first to his nose and then closed fine white teeth upon its savour. 'And what should such as I be looking for here? I may have caused a few ills in my time, I'm no hand at healing them. They tell me, Brother Cadfael, you have had a wide-ranging career before you came into the cloister. Don't you find it unbearably dull here, after such battles, with no enemy left to fight?'
'I am not finding it at all dull, these days,' said Cadfael, plucking out willowherb from among the thyme. 'And as for enemies, the devil makes his way in everywhere, even into cloister, and church, and herbarium.'
Beringar threw his head back and laughed aloud, until the short black hair danced on his forehead. 'Vainly, if he comes looking for mischief where you are! But he'd hardly expect to blunt his horns against an old crusader here! I take the hint!'
But all the time, though he scarcely seemed to turn his head or pay much attention to anything round him, his black eyes were missing nothing, and his ears were at stretch while he laughed and jested. By this time he knew that the well-spoken and well-favoured boy of whom Aline had innocently spoken was not going to make his appearance, and more, that Brother Cadfael did not care if he poked his nose into every corner of the garden, sniffed at every drying herb and
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