Read Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow for Free Online Page B

the bargain. Mischief enough for one wretched little minstrel to wreak in one night. But he'll pay for it! Forty days or no, we shall be waiting for him, he won't escape us.'
    'If he ran from here loaded with your goods,' said Cadfael, shaking out a little powder into his palm, 'he certainly brought none of them into the church with him. If he has your one miserly penny on him, that's all.' He turned to the young woman who stood anxiously beside the head of the bed. 'Have you wine there, or milk? Either does. Stir this into a cup of it.'
    She was a small, round, homely girl, this Margery, perhaps twenty years old, with fresh, rosy colouring and a great untidy mass of yellow hair. Her eyes were round and wary. No wonder if she felt lost in this unfamiliar and disrupted household, but she moved quietly and sensibly, and her hands were steady on pitcher and cup.
    'He had time to hide his plunder somewhere,' the old woman insisted grimly. 'Walter was gone above half an hour before Susanna began to wonder, and went to look for him. The wretch could have been over the bridge and into the bushes by then.'
    She accepted the drink that was presented to her lips, and swallowed it down readily. Whatever her dissatisfaction with abbot and abbey, she trusted Cadfael's remedies. The two of them were unlikely to agree on any subject under the sun, but for all that they respected each other. Even this avaricious, formidable old woman, tyrant of her family and terror of her servants, had certain virtues of courage, spirit and honesty that were not to be despised.
    'He swears he never touched your son or your gold,' said Cadfael. 'As I grant he may be lying, so you had better grant that you and yours may be mistaken.'
    She was contemptuous. She pushed away from under her wrinkled neck the skimpy braid of brittle grey hair that irritated her skin. 'Who else could it have been? The only stranger, and with a grudge because I docked him the value of what he broke ...'
    'Of what he says some boisterous young fellow hustled him and caused him to break.'
    'He must take a company as he finds it, wherever he hires himself out. And now I recall,' she said, 'we put him out without those painted toys of his, wooden rings and balls. I want nothing of his, and what he's taken of mine I'll have back before the end. Susanna will give you the playthings for him, and welcome. He shall not be able to say we've matched his thievery.'
    She would give him, scrupulously, what was his, but she would see his neck wrung without a qualm.
    'Be content, you've already broken his head for him. One more blow like that, and you might have had the law crying murder on you. And you'd best listen to me soberly now! One more rage like that, and you'll be your own death. Learn to take life gently and keep your temper, or there'll be a third and worse seizure, and it may well be the last.'
    She looked, for once, seriously thoughtful. Perhaps she had been saying as much to herself, even without his warning. 'I am as I am,' she said, rather admitting than boasting.
    'Be so as long as you may, and leave it to the young to fly into frenzies over upsets that will all pass, given time. Now here I'm leaving you this flask - it's the decoction of heart trefoil, the best thing I know to strengthen the heart. Take it as I taught you before, and keep your bed today, and I'll take another look at you tomorrow. And now,' said Cadfael, 'I'm going along to see how Master Walter fares.'
    The goldsmith, his balding head swathed and his long, suspicious face fallen slack in sleep, was snoring heavily, and it seemed the best treatment to let him continue sleeping. Cadfael went down thoughtfully to find Susanna, who was out in the kitchen at the rear of the house. A skinny little girl laboured at feeding a sluggish fire and heaving a great pot to the hook over it. Cadfael had caught a glimpse of the child once before, all great dark eyes in a pale, grubby face, and a tangle of dark hair. Some poor