you. When you came to argument, and meant it with all your heart, you let yourvoice soar. And never a crack in it, mind you, to cover the change. That can belearned, I’ll show you when we have leisure. And then, when I bade youstrip and be easy—ah, never blush, child, I was all but certainthen!—of course you put me off. And last, when I got you to toss a stoneacross the brook, you did it like a girl, under-arm, with a round swing. Whendid you ever see a boy throw like that? Don’t let anyone else trick youinto such another throw, not until you master the art. It betrays you atonce.”

He stood patiently silent then, for she had dropped on to the bed, and satwith her head in her hands, and first she began to laugh, and then to cry, andthen both together; and all the while he let her alone, for she was no more outof control than a man tossed between gain and loss, and manfully balancing hisbooks. Now he could believe she was seventeen, a budding woman, and a fine one,too.

When she was ready, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand, and lookedup alertly, smiling like sunlight through a rainbow. “And did you meanit?” she said. “That you’re responsible for me? I saidI trusted you to extremes!”

“Daughter dear,” said Cadfael patiently, “what should I dowith you now but serve you as best I can, and see you safe out of here towherever you would be?”

“And you don’t even know who I am,” she said, marvelling.“Who is trusting too far now?”

“What difference should it make to me, child, what your name may be? Alass left forlorn here to weather out this storm and be restored to her ownpeople—is not that enough? What you want to tell, you’ll tell, andI need no more.”

“I think I want to tell you everything,” said the girl simply,looking up at him with eyes wide and candid as the sky. “My father iseither in Shrewsbury castle this minute with his death hanging over him, or outof it and running for his life with William FitzAlan for the empress’slands in Normandy, with a hue and cry ready to be loosed after him any moment.I’m a burden to anyone who befriends me now, and likely to be a huntedhostage as soon as I’m missed from where I should be. Even to you,Brother Cadfael, I could be dangerous. I’m daughter to FitzAlan’schief ally and friend. My name is Godith Adeney.”