Holy Thief by Ellis Peters Read Free Book Online Page B

I,” she said, and smiled. “You need not scruple to take them. They
are mine to give, not from my husband’s family, but my father’s.”
    “But
your son’s wife,” he urged, “and the lady who is to marry your Sulien, have not
they some claim? These are of great value, and women like such things.”
    “My
daughters are in my councils. We are all of one mind. Ramsey may pray for my
soul,” she said serenely, “and that will settle all accounts.”
    He
gave in then, still in some wonder and doubt, accepted the bag from her, and
kissed the hand that bestowed it.
    “Go
now,” said Donata, stretching back into her pillows with a sigh. “Edred will
ride with you to see you over the ferry, and bring back the pony. You should
not go on foot tonight.”
    He
made his farewells to her, still a little anxious, unsure whether he did right
to accept what seemed to him so rich a gift. He turned again in the doorway to
look back, and she shook her head at him, and motioned him away with an
authority that drove him out in haste, as though he had been scolded.
    In
the courtyard the groom was waiting with the ponies. It was already night, but
clear and moonlit, with scudding clouds high overhead. At the ferry the river
was running higher than when they had come, though there had been no rain.
Somewhere upstream there was flood water on its way.
     
    He
delivered his treasures proudly to Sub-Prior Herluin at the end of Compline.
The entire household, and most of the guests, were there to witness the arrival
of the worn leather bag, and glimpsed its contents as Tutilo joyfully displayed
them. Donata’s gifts were bestowed with the alms of the burgesses of Shrewsbury
in the wooden coffer that was to carry them back to Ramsey, with the cartload
of timber from Longner, while Herluin and Tutilo went on to visit Worcester,
and possibly Evesham and Pershore as well, to appeal for further aid.
    Herluin
turned the key on the treasury, and bestowed the coffer on the altar of Saint
Mary until the time should come to commit it to the care of Nicol, his most
trusted servant, for the journey home. Two days more, and they would be setting
out. The abbey had loaned a large wagon for transport, and the town provided
the loan of a team to draw it. Horses from the abbey stable would carry Herluin
and Tutilo on their further journey. Shrewsbury had done very well by its
sister-house, and Donata’s gold was the crown of the effort. Many eyes followed
the turning of the key, and the installation of the coffer on the altar, where
awe of heaven would keep it from violation. God has a powerful attraction.
    Leaving
the church, Cadfael halted for a moment to snuff the air and survey the sky,
which by this hour hung heavy with dropsical clouds, through which the moon
occasionally glared for an instant, and was as quickly obscured again. When he
went to close up his workshop for the night he observed that the waters of the
brook had laid claim to another yard or so of the lower rim of his peasefields.
    All
night long from the Matins bell it rained heavily.
    In
the morning, about Prime, Hugh Beringar, King Stephen’s sheriff of Shropshire,
came down in haste out of the town to carry the first warning of trouble ahead,
sending his officers to cry the news along the Foregate, while he brought it in
person to Abbot Radulfus.
    “Word
from Pool last evening, Severn’s well out below the town, and still raining
heavily in Wales. Upriver beyond Montford the meadows are under water, and the
main bulk still on its way down, and fast. I’d advise moving what’s valuable,
stores can’t be risked, with transport threatened.” In time of flood the town,
all but the encrustation of fishermen’s and small craft dwellings along the
riverside, and the gardens under the wall, would be safe enough, but the
Foregate could soon be under water, and parts of the abbey enclave were the
lowest ground, threatened on every