Read Online Brother Cadfael 17: The Potter's Field by Ellis Peters - Free Book Online Page B

The simple use of Hugh's name startled both Cadfael and Radulfus. The abbot turned sharply to take a longer look at the young face confidingly raised to his. 'You know the lord sheriff here? How is that?'

'It is the reason - it is one reason - why I am sent here, Father. I am native here. My name is Sulien Blount. My brother is lord of Longner. You will never have seen me, but Hugh Beringar knows my family well.'

So this, thought Cadfael, enlightened, and studying the boy afresh from head to foot, this is the younger brother who chose to enter the Benedictine Order just over a year ago, and went off to become a novice at Ramsey in late September, about the time his father made over the Potter's Field to Haughmond Abbey. Now why, I wonder, did he choose the Benedictines rather than his family's favourite Augustinians? He could as well have gone with the field, and lived quietly and peacefully among the canons of Haughmond. Still, reflected Cadfael, looking down upon the young man's tonsure, with its new fuzz of dark gold within the ring of damp brown hair, should I quarrel with a preference that flatters my own choice? He liked the moderation and good sense of human kindliness of Saint Benedict, as I did. It was a little disconcerting that this comfortable reflection should only raise other and equally pertinent questions. Why all the way to Ramsey? Why not here in Shrewsbury?

'Hugh Beringar shall know from me, without delay,' said the abbot reassuringly, 'all that you can tell me. You say de Mandeville has seized Ramsey. When did this happen? And how?'

Sulien moistened his lips and put together, sensibly and calmly enough, the picture he had carried in his mind for seven days.

'It was the ninth day back from today. We knew, as all that countryside knew, that the earl had returned to lands which formerly were his own, and gathered together those who had served him in the past and all those living wild, or at odds with law, willing to serve him now in his exile. But we did not know where his forces were, and had no warning of any intent towards us. You know that Ramsey is almost an island, with only one causeway dryshod into it? It is why it was first favoured as a place of retirement from the world.'

'And undoubtedly the reason why the earl coveted it,' said Radulfus grimly. 'Yes, that we knew.'

'But what need had we ever had to guard that causeway? And how could we, being brothers, guard it in arms even if we had known? They came in thousands,' said Sulien, clearly considering what he said of numbers, and meaning his words, 'crossed and took possession. They drove us out into the court and out from the gate, seizing everything we had but our habits. Some part of our enclave they fired. Some of us who showed defiance, though without violence, they beat or killed. Some who lingered in the neighbourhood though outside the island, they shot at with arrows. They have turned our house into a den of bandits and torturers, and filled it with weapons and armed men, and from that stronghold they go forth to rob and pillage and slay. No one for miles around has the means to till his fields or keep anything of value in his house. This is how it happened, Father, and I saw it happen.'

'And your abbot?' asked Radulfus.

'Abbot Walter is a valiant man indeed, Father. The next day he went alone into their camp and laid about him with a brand out of their fire, burning some of their tents. He has pronounced excommunication against them all, and the marvel is they did not kill him, but only mocked him and let him go unharmed. De Mandeville has seized all those of the abbey's manors that lie near at hand, and given them to his fellows to garrison, but some