Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters

has it. Now hold still a moment there! And this
ointment you can take with you and use as often as you choose. It helps take
out the sting and lower the swelling.”
    Warin
turned the little jar curiously in his hand, and touched a finger to his cheek.
“What’s in it, to work such healing?”
    “Saint
John’s wort and the small daisy, both good for wounds. And if chance offers
tomorrow, let me see you again and hear how you do. And keep out of his reach!”
said Cadfael warmly, and turned to bed down his brazier again with fresh
turves, to smoulder quietly and safely until morning.
     
    Drogo
Bosiet duly appeared at chapter next morning, large, loud and authoritative in
an assembly where a wiser man would have realised that authority lay with the
abbot, and the abbot’s grip on it was absolute, however calm and measured his
voice and austere his face. So much the better, thought Cadfael, watching
narrowly and somewhat anxiously from his retired stall, Radulfus will know how
to weigh the man, and let nothing slip too soon. “My lord abbot,” said Drogo,
straddling the flags of the floor like a bull before the charge, “I am here in
search of a malefactor who attacked and injured my steward and fled my lands.
He is known to have made for Northampton, my manor, to which he is tied, being
several miles south-east of the town, and I have it in mind that he would make
for the Welsh border. We have hunted for him all this way, and from Warwick I
have taken this road from Shrewsbury, while my son goes on to Stafford, and
will join me here from that place. All I ask here is whether any stranger of
his years has lately come into these parts.”
    “I
take it,” said the abbot after a long and thoughtful pause, and steadily eyeing
the powerful face and arrogant stance of his visitor, “that this man is your
villein.”
    “He
is.”
    “And
you do know,” pursued Radulfus mildly, “that since it would seem you have
failed to reclaim him within four days, it will be necessary to apply to the
courts to regain possession of him legally?”
    “My
lord,” said Drogo with impatient scorn, “so I can well do, if I can but find
him. The man is mine, and I mean to have him. He has been a cause of trouble to
me, but he has skills which are valuable, and I do not mean to be robbed of
what is mine. The law will give me my rights in the lands where the offence arose.”
And so, no doubt, such a law as survived in his own shire would certainly do,
at the mere nod of his head.
    “If
you will tell us what your fugitive is like,” said the abbot reasonably,
“Brother Denis can tell you at once whether we have had such a one as guest in
our halls.”
    “He
goes by the name of Brand—twenty years old, dark of hair but reddish, lean and
strong, beardless—”
    “No,”
said Brother Denis the hospitaller without hesitation, “I have had no such
young man lodged here, not for five or six weeks back certainly. If he had
found work along the way with some trader or merchant carrying goods, such as
come with three or four servants, then he might have passed this way. But a
young man alone—no, none.”
    “As
to that,” said the abbot with authority, forestalling reply from any other,
though indeed no one but Prior Robert would have ventured to speak before him,
“you would do well to take your question to the sheriff at the castle, for his
officers are far more likely than we here within the enclave to know of any
newcomers entering the town. The pursuit of criminals and offenders such as you
describe is their business, and they are thorough and careful about it. The
guildsmen of the town are also wary and jealous of their rights, and have good
reason to keep their eyes open, and their wits about them. I recommend you to
apply to them.”
    “So
I intend, my lord. But you will bear in mind what I have asked, and if any here
should recall anything to the purpose, let me hear of