“I will say so, my lord,” said John with a straight,wide stare and a deep reverence, and walked jauntily out of thechapterhouse.

Brother Cadfael and Brother Edmund the infirmareremerged into the great court just in time to see the messenger fromEaton mount his stocky Welsh cob at the gatehouse and rideunhurriedly out into the Foregate.

“There goes a man, unless I’m much mistaken,”remarked Brother Cadfael sagely, “no way seriously displeasedat taking back a flat refusal. Nor at all afraid of delivering it.A man might almost think he’ll savour the moment.”

“He is not dependent on the dame’s good will,”said Brother Edmund. “Only the sheriff as overlord canthreaten his tenure, until the boy is his own master, and Johnknows his worth. And so does she, for that matter, having a shrewdhead and proper appreciation of good management. For the sake ofpeace he’ll do her bidding, he does not have to relish thetask, only to keep his mouth shut.”

And John of Longwood was a man of few words at the best oftimes, it would probably be no hardship to him to contain hisdissent and keep a wooden face.

“But this will not be the end of it,” Cadfaelwarned. “If she has a greedy eye on Wroxeter and Leightonshe’ll not give up so easily, and the boy’s her onlymeans of getting her hands on them. We shall yet hear more fromDame Dionisia Ludel.”

Abbot Radulfus had taken the warning seriously.Young Richard was accompanied to Eaton by Brother Paul, BrotherAnselm and Brother Cadfael, a bodyguard stout enough to fend offeven an attempt at abduction by force, which was unlikely in theextreme. Far more probable that the lady would try using the fond