“Why should I? I never gave it a thought, what difference could it make? And you did make a hash of it. I heard you start to say grandmother instead of mother—yes, and they instead of we. And so did Brother Cadfael, or how did he guess I was listening outside?”
“He heard you, of course! Blowing like a wheezy old man—and shivering,” added Edwy for good measure.
There was no ill-will whatever in these exchanges, they were the normal endearments current between these two, who would certainly have championed each other to the death against any outside threat. There was no malice in it when Edwin punched his nephew neatly and painfully in the muscles of the upper arm, and Edwy as promptly plucked Edwin round by the shoulder while he was less securely balanced, and spilled him on to the floor. Cadfael took them both by the scruff of the neck, a fistful of capuchon in either hand, and plumped them back firmly on to the beach, a yard apart this time, rather in defence of his softly bubbling syrup than in any very serious exasperation. The brief scuffle had warmed them, and shaken fear away to a magical distance; they sat grinning, only slightly abashed.
“Will you sit still a minute, and let me get the measure of you? You, Edwin, are the uncle, and the younger… yes, I could know you apart. You’re darker, and sturdier in the build, and I think your eyes must be brown. And Edwy’s…”
“Hazel,” said Edwin helpfully.
“And you have a small scar by your ear, close to the cheekbone. A small white crescent.”
“He fell out of a tree, three years ago,” Edwy informed him. “He never could climb.”
“Now, enough of that! Master Edwin, now that you are here, and I know which one you are, let me ask you the same question I asked your proxy here a while ago. On your soul and honour, did you strike the blow that killed Master Bonel?”
The boy looked back at him with great eyes suddenly solemn enough, and said firmly: “I did not. I carry no weapon, and even if I did, why should I try to harm him? I know what they must be saying of me, that I grudged it that he broke his word, for so he did. But I was not born to manor, but to trade, and I can make my way in trade, I would be ashamed if I could not. No, whoever wounded him to the death—but how could it happen, so suddenly?—it was not I. On my soul!”
Cadfael was in very little doubt of him by then, but he gave no sign yet. “Tell me what did happen.”
“I left Meurig in the infirmary with the old man, and went on to my mother’s house alone. But I don’t understand about the infirmary. Is that important?”
“Never mind that now, go on. How were you welcomed?”
“My mother was pleased,” said the boy. “But my stepfather crowed over me like a cock that’s won its bout. I answered him as little as I might, and bore it for my mother’s sake, and that angered him more, so that he would find some way to sting me. We were three sitting at table, and Aldith had served the meat, and she told him the prior had paid him the compliment of sending a dish for him from his own table. My mother tried to talk about that, and flatter him with the distinction of it, but he wanted me to burn and smart at all costs, and he wouldn’t be put off. He said I’d come, as he knew I would, my tail between my legs, like a whipped hound, to beg him to change his mind and restore me my inheritance, and he said if I wanted it, I should kneel and beg him, and he might take pity on me. And I lost my temper, for all I could do, and shouted back at him that I’d see him dead before I’d so much as once ask him a favour, let alone crawl on my knees. I don’t know now all I said, but he began throwing things, and… and my mother was crying, and I rushed out, and straight back over the bridge and into the town.”
“But not to Master Bellecote’s house. And did you hear Aelfric calling after you as far as the bridge, to fetch you back?”
“Yes, but what would have been the use? It would only have made things worse.”
“But you did not go home.”
“I was not fit. And I was ashamed.”
“He went to brood in Father’s wood-store by the river,” said Edwy helpfully. “He always does when he’s out of sorts with the world. Or if we’re in trouble, we hide there until it’s blown over, or at least past the worst. That’s where I found him. When the sheriff’s sergeant came to the shop, and said they wanted him, and his stepfather was murdered, I knew where to look for him. Not that I ever supposed he’d done any wrong,” stated Edwy firmly, “though he can make a great fool of himself sometimes. But I knew something bad must have happened to him. So I went to warn him, and of course he knew nothing whatever about the murder, he’d left the man alive and well, only in a rage.”
“And you’ve both been hiding since then? You’ve not been home?”
“He couldn’t, could he? They’ll be watching for him. And I had to stay with him. We had to leave the woodyard, we knew they’d come there. But there are places we know of. And then Alys came and told us about you.”
“And that’s the whole truth,” said Edwin. “And now what are we to do?”
“First,” said Cadfael, “let me get this brew of mine off the fire, and stand it to cool before I bottle it. There! You got in here, I suppose, by the parish door of the church, and through the cloisters?” The west door of the abbey church was outside the walls, and never closed except during the bad days of the siege of the town, that part of the church being parochial. “And followed your noses, I daresay, once you were in the gardens. This syrup-boiling gives off a powerful odour.”
“It smells good,” said Edwy, and his respectful stare ranged the workshop, and the bunches and bags of dried herbs stirring and rustling gently in the rising heat from the brazier.
“Not all my medicines smell so appetising. Though myself I would not call even this unpleasant. Powerful, certainly, but a fine, clean smell.” He unstoppered the great jar of anointing oil of monk’s-hood, and tilted the neck beneath Edwin’s inquisitive nose. The boy blinked at the sharp scent, drew back his head, and sneezed. He looked up at Cadfael with an open face, and laughed at his own pricked tears. Then he leaned cautiously and inhaled again, and frowned thoughtfully.
“It smells like that stuff Meurig was using to rub the old man’s shoulder. Not this morning, the last time I came with him. There was a flask of it in the infirmary cupboard. Is it the same?”
“It is,” said Cadfael, and hoisted the jar back to its shelf. The boy’s face was quite serene, the odour meant nothing more to him than a memory blessedly removed from any connection with tragedy and guilt. For Edwin, Gervase Bonel had died, inexplicably suddenly, of some armed attack, and the only guilt he felt was because he had lost his temper, infringed his own youthful dignity, and made his mother cry. Cadfael no longer had any doubts at all. The child was honest as the day, and caught in a deadly situation, and above all, badly in need of friends.
He was also very quick and alert of mind. The diversion began to trouble him just as it was over. “Brother Cadfael…” he began hesitantly, the name new and almost reverent on his lips, not for this elderly and ordinary monk, but for the crusader Cadfael he had once been, fondly remembered even by a happy and fulfilled wife and mother, who had certainly much exaggerated his good looks, gallantry and daring. “You knew about my going to the infirmary with Meurig… you asked Edwy about it. I couldn’t understand why. Is it important? Has it something to do with my stepfather’s death? I can’t see how.”
“That you can’t see how, child,” said Brother Cadfael, “is your proof of an innocence we may have difficulty in proving to others, though I accept it absolutely. Sit down again by your nephew—dear God, shall I ever get these relationships straight?—and refrain from fighting him for a little while, till I explain to you what isn’t yet public knowledge outside these walls. Yes, your two visits to the infirmary are truly of great importance, and so is this oil you have seen used there, though I must say that many others know of it, and are better acquainted than you with its properties, both bad and good. You must forgive me if I gave you to understand that Master Bonel was hacked down in his blood with dagger or sword. And forgive me you should, since in accepting that tale you quite delivered yourselves from any guilt, at least to my satisfaction. It was not so, boys. Master Bonel died of poison, given in the dish the prior sent him, and the poison was this same oil of monk’s-hood. Whoever added it to the partridge drew it either from this workshop or from the flask in the infirmary, and all who knew of either source, and knew the peril if it was swallowed, are in suspicion.”