St. Peter's Fair by Ellis Peters Read Free Book Online Page A

before he could seek his bed.
No one would be early to bed on this night, however. Thomas of Bristol was not
the man to leave the supervision of his booth and the disposition of his goods
to others, however trustworthy his three servants might be; he would soon be
off to the horse-fair to see everything safely stowed to his own satisfaction,
ready for the morrow. And if he thought fit to leave those two handsome young
people together here until his return, that was his affair. Mention of the
manor of Stanton Cobbold, and as the least part of Corbière’s honour, at that,
had made its impression. There had been no real need for that careful mention
of Mistress Emma’s prospective wealth; but dutiful uncles and guardians must be
ever on the alert for good matches for their girls, and this young man was
already taken with her face before ever he heard of her fortune. Small wonder,
she was a beautiful child by any standards.
    Brother
Cadfael excused himself from lingering, wished the company goodnight, and
walked back at leisure to the gatehouse. The Foregate stretched busy and
populous, but at peace. Order had been restored, and Saint Peter’s Fair could
open on the morrow without further disruption.

 
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    HUGH
BERINGAR CAME BACK FROM A FINAL PATROL along the Foregate well past ten
o’clock, an hour when all dutiful brothers should have been fast asleep in the
dortoir. He was by no means surprised to find that Cadfael was not. They met in
the great court, as Cadfael came back from closing his workshop in the herb-garden.
It was still a clear twilight, and the west had a brilliant afterglow.
    “I
hear you’ve been in the thick of it,” said Hugh, stretching and yawning. “Did
ever I know you when you were not? Mad young fools, what did they hope to do,
that their elders could not! And then to run wild as they did, and ruin their
case even with those who had sympathy for them! Now their sires will have fines
to pay, and the town lose more for the night’s work than ever it stood to gain.
Cadfael, I take no joy in heaving decent, silly lads into prison, I have a foul
taste in my mouth from it. Come into the gatehouse for a while, and share a cup
with me. You may as well stay awake until Matins now.”
    “Aline
will be waiting for you,” objected Cadfael.
    “Aline,
bless her good sense, will be fast asleep, for I’m bound to the castle yet to
report on this disturbance. I doubt I shall be there over the night. Come and
tell me how all this went wrong, for they tell me it began down at the jetty,
where you were.”
    Cadfael
went with him willingly. They sat together in the anteroom of the gatehouse,
and the porter, used to such nocturnal activities when the deputy sheriff of
the shire waslodged within, brought them wine, made tolerant
enquiry of progress, and left them to their colloquy.
    “How
many have you taken up?” asked Cadfael, when he had given an account of what
had happened by the river.
    “Seventeen.
And it should have been eighteen,” owned Hugh grimly, “if I had not hauled
Bellecote’s boy Edwy aside without witnesses, put the fear of God into him, and
sent him home with a flea in his ear. Not sixteen yet! But sharp enough to know
very well what he was about, the imp! I should not have done it.”
    “His
father was one of yesterday’s delegates,” said Cadfael, “and he’s a loyal child,
as well as a bold one. I’m glad you let him away home. And young Corviser?”
    “No,
we’ve not laid hand on him, though a dozen witnesses say he was the ringleader,
and captained the whole enterprise. But he has to go home some time, and he’ll
not get in at the gate a free man. Not a hope of it!”
    “He
came lecturing like a doctor,” said Cadfael seriously, “and never a threatening
move. It was when he was struck down that the wild lads took the bit between
their teeth and laid about them. I saw it! The man who struck him