Read Brother Cadfael 05: Leper of Saint Giles for Free Online Page A

cup from a shelf, and selected one from a row of bottles. He was in the act of pouring when a voice cold and piercing as fine steel said behind them, with deliberation: "Iveta!"
    All three of them swung round in a very fair show of being innocently startled. Agnes came forward into the hut, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
    "What are you doing here? I have been looking for you. You are keeping everyone waiting for supper."
    "Your lady niece, madam," said Cadfael, forestalling whatever the girl might have roused herself to say, "is suffering from a common distress after the exertion of travel, and Brother Infirmarer rightly recommended her to come to me for a remedy." He held out the cup to Iveta, who took it like one in a dream. She was white and still, the sum of her frustration and fear showed only in her eyes. "Drink it off now, at once, before you go to supper. You may safely, it will do you nothing but good."
    And so it would, whether her head ached or no. It was one of his best wines, he kept it for his special favourites, since the amount he made of it each year was small. He had the satisfaction of seeing faint astonishment and pleasure sparkle through the desperation of her eyes, even if it faded soon, She put the empty cup back into his hand, and gave him the palest of smiles. At Joscelin she did not venture to look at all.
    In a small voice she said: "Thank you, brother. You are very good." And to the presence that loomed darkly watching her: "I am sorry I have delayed you, aunt. I am ready now."
    Agnes Picard said never a word more, but stood aside in cold invitation to the girl to precede her out of the room, eyed her steadily and glitteringly as she passed, and then, before following her, gave the young man a long, intent look that threatened all possible evil. The civilities might have been preserved, but very certainly Agnes had not been deceived, never for a moment.
    They were gone, the bride and her keeper, the last rustle of skirts silenced. There was a long moment of stillness while the two left behind gazed helplessly at each other. Then Joscelin let out his breath in a great groan, and threw himself down on the bench that stood against the wall.
    "The hag should fall from the bridge and drown in the fish-pond, now, this moment, while she's crossing! But things never work out as they should. Brother, don't think me ungrateful for the goodwill and the wit you've spent for us, but I doubt it was all thrown away. She's had her suspicions of me some while, I fancy. She'll find some way of making me pay for this."
    "At that, she may be right," said Cadfael honestly. "And God forgive me for the lies!"
    "You told none. Or if she has not a headache, she has what's worse, an ache of the heart." He ran angry fingers through his shock of flaxen hair, and leaned his head back against the wall. "What was it you gave her?"
    On impulse Cadfael refilled the cup and held it out to him. "Here! The like potion might not do you any harm. God he knows whether you deserve it, but we'll scamp the judgment until I know more of you."
    Joscelin's eyebrows, winged and expressive, and darker by many shades than his hair, rose in appreciative surprise at the savour of the wine. His forehead and cheeks had the rich golden tan of an outdoor life, rare among those of such fair colouring. The eyes, now conning Cadfael rather warily over the rim of the cup, were as radiantly blue as Cadfael remembered them from Saint Giles, like cornflowers in a wheat-field. He did not look like a deceiver or a seducer, rather like an overgrown schoolboy, honest, impatient, clever after his fashion, and probably unwise. Cleverness and wisdom are not inevitable yoke-fellows.
    "This is the best medicine I ever tasted. And you have been uncommonly generous to us, as you were uncommonly quick in the uptake," said the boy, warmed and disarmed. "And you know nothing about us, and had never seen either of us before!"
    "I had seen you both before," Cadfael