Read Online Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow by Ellis Peters - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ellis Peters
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here. I stick in their craw like a husk.'
'They're accustomed to calm,' said Cadfael sympathetically. 'It is not calm you bring. You must make allowances, as they must. At least from tonight you may sleep secure. The deputy sheriff should be in town by this evening. In his authority, I promise you, you can trust.'
Trust would still come very hardly to Liliwin, after all he had experienced in a short life, but the toys he had tucked away so tenderly under his pallet were a promise. He bent his head over his patient stitching, and said no word.
'And therefore,' said Cadfael briskly, 'You'd best consider on the half-tale you told me, and own to the part you left out. For you did not creep away so docilely as you let us all think, did you? What were you doing, hugging the door-post of Master Walter's workshop, long after you claim you had made off into the night? With the door open, and your head against the post, and the goldsmith's coffer in full view ... and also open? And he bending over it!'
Liliwin's needle had started in his fingers and pricked his left hand. He dropped needle, thread and coat, and sat sucking his pierced thumb, and staring at Brother Cadfael with immense, frightened eyes. He began to protest shrilly: 'I never went there ... I know nothing about it ...' Voice and eyes sank together. He blinked down at his open hands, lashes long and thick as a well-bred cow's brushing his staring cheekbones.
'Child,' said Cadfael, sighing, 'you were there in the doorway, peering in. You left your mark there. A lad your size, with a bloodied head, leaned long enough against that door-post to leave a little clot of his blood, and two flax-white hairs gummed into it. No, no other has seen it, it's gone, blown away on the wind, but I saw it, and I know. Now tell me truth. What passed between you and him?'
He did not ask why Liliwin had lied in omitting this part of his story, there was no need. What, place himself there on the spot, there were the blow had been struck? Innocence would have avoided admission every bit as desperately as guilt.
Liliwin sat and shivered, fluttering like a leaf in that same wind which had carried off his stray hairs. Here in the cloister the air was still chilly, and he had only a patched shirt and hose on him, the half-mended coat lying on his knees. He swallowed hard and sighed.
'It's true, I did wait ... It was not fair!' he blurted, shaking. 'I stayed there in the dark. They were not all as hard as she, I thought I might plead ... I saw him go to the shop with a light and I followed. He was not so furious when the pitcher was broken, he did try to calm her, I dared approach him. I went in and pleaded for the fee I was promised, and he gave me a second penny. He gave it to me and I went. I swear it!'
He had sworn the other version, too. But fear does so, the fear bred of a lifetime's hounding and battering.
'And then you left? And you saw no more of him? More to the point still, did you see ought of any other who may have been lurking as you did, and entered to him afterwards?'
'No, there was no one. I went, I was glad to go, it was all over. If he lives, he'll tell you he gave me the second penny.'
'He lives, and will,' said Cadfael. 'It was not a fatal blow. But he's said nothing yet.'
'But he will, he will, he'll tell you how I begged him, and how he took pity on me. I was afraid,' he said quivering, 'I was afraid! If I'd said I went there, it would have been all over with me.'
'Well, but consider,' said Cadfael reasonably, 'when Walter is his own man again, and comes forth with that very tale, how would it look if he brought it out when you had said no word of it? And besides, when his wits settle and he recalls what befell, it may well be that he'll be able to name his attacker, and clear you of all blame.'
He was watching closely as he said it, for to an innocent man that notion would come as powerful comfort, but to a guilty one as the ultimate terror; and Liliwin's troubled
'They're accustomed to calm,' said Cadfael sympathetically. 'It is not calm you bring. You must make allowances, as they must. At least from tonight you may sleep secure. The deputy sheriff should be in town by this evening. In his authority, I promise you, you can trust.'
Trust would still come very hardly to Liliwin, after all he had experienced in a short life, but the toys he had tucked away so tenderly under his pallet were a promise. He bent his head over his patient stitching, and said no word.
'And therefore,' said Cadfael briskly, 'You'd best consider on the half-tale you told me, and own to the part you left out. For you did not creep away so docilely as you let us all think, did you? What were you doing, hugging the door-post of Master Walter's workshop, long after you claim you had made off into the night? With the door open, and your head against the post, and the goldsmith's coffer in full view ... and also open? And he bending over it!'
Liliwin's needle had started in his fingers and pricked his left hand. He dropped needle, thread and coat, and sat sucking his pierced thumb, and staring at Brother Cadfael with immense, frightened eyes. He began to protest shrilly: 'I never went there ... I know nothing about it ...' Voice and eyes sank together. He blinked down at his open hands, lashes long and thick as a well-bred cow's brushing his staring cheekbones.
'Child,' said Cadfael, sighing, 'you were there in the doorway, peering in. You left your mark there. A lad your size, with a bloodied head, leaned long enough against that door-post to leave a little clot of his blood, and two flax-white hairs gummed into it. No, no other has seen it, it's gone, blown away on the wind, but I saw it, and I know. Now tell me truth. What passed between you and him?'
He did not ask why Liliwin had lied in omitting this part of his story, there was no need. What, place himself there on the spot, there were the blow had been struck? Innocence would have avoided admission every bit as desperately as guilt.
Liliwin sat and shivered, fluttering like a leaf in that same wind which had carried off his stray hairs. Here in the cloister the air was still chilly, and he had only a patched shirt and hose on him, the half-mended coat lying on his knees. He swallowed hard and sighed.
'It's true, I did wait ... It was not fair!' he blurted, shaking. 'I stayed there in the dark. They were not all as hard as she, I thought I might plead ... I saw him go to the shop with a light and I followed. He was not so furious when the pitcher was broken, he did try to calm her, I dared approach him. I went in and pleaded for the fee I was promised, and he gave me a second penny. He gave it to me and I went. I swear it!'
He had sworn the other version, too. But fear does so, the fear bred of a lifetime's hounding and battering.
'And then you left? And you saw no more of him? More to the point still, did you see ought of any other who may have been lurking as you did, and entered to him afterwards?'
'No, there was no one. I went, I was glad to go, it was all over. If he lives, he'll tell you he gave me the second penny.'
'He lives, and will,' said Cadfael. 'It was not a fatal blow. But he's said nothing yet.'
'But he will, he will, he'll tell you how I begged him, and how he took pity on me. I was afraid,' he said quivering, 'I was afraid! If I'd said I went there, it would have been all over with me.'
'Well, but consider,' said Cadfael reasonably, 'when Walter is his own man again, and comes forth with that very tale, how would it look if he brought it out when you had said no word of it? And besides, when his wits settle and he recalls what befell, it may well be that he'll be able to name his attacker, and clear you of all blame.'
He was watching closely as he said it, for to an innocent man that notion would come as powerful comfort, but to a guilty one as the ultimate terror; and Liliwin's troubled
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