“Does he realise,” wondered Cadfael, closing the lidof a stone jar on his selected seed, “how near he’scome to getting her into his power at last? How would you feel,Hugh, if you were in his shoes, and truly got your hands onher?”

“Heaven forefend!” said Hugh fervently, and grinnedat the very thought. “For I shouldn’t know what to dowith her! And the devil of it is, neither will Stephen, if ever itcomes to that. He could have kept her tight shut into Arundel theday she landed, if he’d had the sense. And what did he do?Gave her an escort, and sent her off to Bristol to join herbrother! But if the queen ever gets the lady into her power, thatwill be another story. If he’s a grand fighter, she’sthe better general, and knows how to hold on to heradvantages.”

Hugh rose and stretched, and a rising breeze from the open doorruffled his smooth black hair, and rustled the dangling bunches ofdried herbs hanging from the roof beams. “Well, there’sno hurrying the siege to an end, we must wait and see. I hearthey’ve finally given you a lad to help you in the herbgarden, is it true? I noticed your hedge has had a second clipping,was that his work?”

“It was.” Cadfael went out with him along the gravelpath between the patterned beds of herbs, grown a little wiry atthis end of the growing season. The box hedge at one side hadindeed been neatly trimmed of the straggling shoots that come latein the summer. “Brother Winfrid—you’ll see himbusy in the patch where we’ve cleared the bean vines, diggingin the holms. A big, gangling lad all elbows and knees. Not longout of his novitiate. Willing, but slow. But he’ll do. Theysent him to me, I fancy, because he turned out fumble-fisted witheither pen or brush, but give him a spade, and that’s morehis measure. He’ll do!”