flight. He was still undersized, and slightly wary of authority, but healthyand wiry, and good at making things grow, and he was acquiring a sure anddelicate touch with the making of medicines, and an eager interest in them.Mute among his fellows, he made up for it by being voluble enough in the gardenworkshop, and with none but Cadfael by. It was always Mark, for all his silenceand withdrawal about the cloister and court, who brought all the gossip beforeothers knew it.

He came in from an errand to the mill, an hour before Vespers, full of news.

“Do you know what Prior Robert has done? Taken up residence in the abbot’slodging! Truly! Brother Sub-prior has orders to sleep in the prior’s cell inthe dormitory from tonight. And Abbot Heribert barely out of the gates! I callit great presumption!”

So did Cadfael, though he felt it hardly incumbent upon him either to sayso, or to let Brother Mark utter his thoughts quite so openly. “Beware how youpass judgment on your superiors,” he said mildly, “at least until you know howto put yourself in their place and see from their view. For all we know, AbbotHeribert may have required him to move into the lodging, as an instance of hisauthority while we’re without an abbot. It is the place set aside for thespiritual father of this convent.”

“But Prior Robert is not that, not yet! And Abbot Heribert would have saidso at chapter if he had wished it so. At least he would have told BrotherSub-prior, and no one did, I saw his face, he is as astonished as anyone, andshocked. He would not have taken such a liberty!”

Too true, thought Cadfael, busy pounding roots in a mortar, Brother Richardthe sub-prior was the last man to presume; large, good-natured and peace-lovingto the point of laziness, he never exerted himself to advance even by legitimatemeans. It might dawn on some of the younger and more audacious brothers shortlythat they had gained an advantage in the exchange. With Richard inthe prior’s cell that commanded the length of the dortoir, it would be fareasier for the occasional sinner to slip out by the night-stairs after thelights were out; even if the crime were detected it would probably never bereported. A blind eye is the easiest thing in the world to turn on whatever istroublesome.