This practical offer Herluin received with more warmth. He wasstill resentful, Cadfael thought, of his failure to overwhelm allargument and take the backslider home with him, not for thepromised month, but for life. Not that Sulien himself was of suchgreat value, but Herluin was not accustomed to being so stoutlyresisted. All barricades should have fallen like the walls ofJericho at the blast of his trumpet.

Still, he had extracted all he could, and prepared to take hisleave. Tutilo, all attentive ears and modestly lowered eyes in hiscorner, opened the chest quietly, and laid away the psaltery he hadbeen clasping to his heart. The very gentleness with which he laidit within and slowly closed the lid over it brought a small,thoughtful twist to Donata’s ashen mouth.

“I have a favor to ask,” she said, “if youwill hear it. Your songbird here has given me delight and ease. IfI am sometimes sleepless and in pain, will you lend me thatconsolation for an hour, while you remain in Shrewsbury? I will notsend unless I need him. Will you let him come?”

If Herluin was taken aback at such a request, he wasnevertheless shrewdly aware that she had him at a disadvantage,though in all probability, thought Cadfael, interested, he washoping that she was less aware of it. In which hope he wascertainly deluded. She knew very well he could hardly refuse her.To send a susceptible novice to provide music for a woman, and awoman in her bed, at that, was unthinkable, even scandalous. Exceptthat this woman was now so closely acquainted with death that thesubtle creaking of the opening door was present in her voice, andthe transparent pallor of the bodiless soul in her face. She was nolonger responsive to the proprieties of this world, nor afraid ofthe dread uncertainties of the next.