everything he said only: “I am enjoined to silence until midnight of the third
day.” And when they asked by whom? he smiled seraphically, and was silent.
It
was Robert himself who broke the news to Hamo FitzHamon, in the morning, before
Mass. The uproar, though vicious, was somewhat tempered by the after-effects of
Cadfael’s poppy draught, which dulled the edges of energy, if not of malice.
His body-servant, the older groom Sweyn, was keeping well back out of reach,
even with Robert still present, and the lady sat somewhat apart, too, as though
still frail and possibly a little out of temper. She exclaimed dutifully, and
apparently sincerely, at the outrage done to her husband, and echoed his demand
that the thief should be hunted down, and the candlesticks recovered. Prior
Robert was just as zealous in the matter. No effort should be spared to regain
the princely gift, of that they could be sure. He had already made certain of
various circumstances which should limit the hunt. There had been a brief fall
of snow after Compline, just enough to lay down a clean film of white on the
ground. No single footprint had as yet marked this pure layer. He had only to
look for himself at the paths leading from both parish doors of the church to
see that no one had left by that way. The porter would swear that no one had
passed the gatehouse; and on the one side of the abbey grounds not walled, the
Meole brook was full and frozen, but the snow on both sides of it was virgin.
Within the enclave, of course, tracks and cross-tracks were trodden out
everywhere; but no one had left the enclave since Compline, when the
candlesticks were still in their place.
“So
the miscreant is still within the walls?” said Hamo, glinting vengefully. “So
much the better! Then his booty is still here within, too, and if we have to
turn all your abode doors out of dortoirs, we’ll find it! It, and him!”
“We
will search everywhere,” agreed Robert, “and question every man. We are as
deeply offended as your lordship at this blasphemous crime. You may yourself
oversee the search, if you will.”
So
all that Christmas Day, alongside the solemn rejoicings in the church, an angry
hunt raged about the precincts in full cry. It was not difficult for all the
monks to account for their time to the last minute, their routine being so
ordered that brother inevitably extricated brother from suspicion; and such as
had special duties that took them out of the general view, like Cadfael in his
visit to the herb garden, had all witnesses to vouch for them. The lay brothers
ranged more freely, but tended to work in pairs, at least. The servants and the
few guests protested their innocence, and if they had not, all of them, others
willing to prove it, neither could Hamo prove the contrary. When it came to his
own two grooms, there were several witnesses to testify that Sweyn had returned
to his bed in the lofts of the stables as soon as he had put his lord to bed,
and certainly empty-handed; and Sweyn, as Cadfael noted with interest, swore
unblinkingly that young Madoc, who had come in an hour after him, had none the
less returned with him, and spent that hour, at Sweyn’s order, tending one of
the pack-ponies, which showed signs of a cough, and that otherwise they had
been together throughout.
A
villein instinctively closing ranks with his kind against his lord? wondered
Cadfael. Or does Sweyn know very well where that young man was last night, or
at least what he was about, and is he intent on protecting him from a worse
vengeance? No wonder Madoc looked a shade less merry and ruddy than usual this
morning, though on the whole he kept his countenance very well, and refrained
from even looking at the lady, while her tone to him was cool, sharp and
distant.
Cadfael
left them hard at it again after the miserable meal they made of dinner, and
went into the church alone. While they were feverishly
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