“Ruald’s field?” said Hugh, when he heard ofthe morning’s business at chapter. “That’s thebig field the near side of Longner, where he used to have his croftand his kiln? I remember the gift to Haughmond, I was a witness toit. Early October of last year, that was. The Blounts were alwaysgood patrons to Haughmond. Not that the canons ever made much useof that land when they had it. It will do better in yourhands.”

“It’s a long time since I passed that wayclose,” said Cadfael. “Why is it so neglected? WhenRuald came into the cloister there was no one to take over hiscraft, I know, but at least Haughmond put a tenant into thecottage.”

“So they did, an old widow woman, what could she do withthe ground? Now even she is gone, to her daughter’s householdin the town. The kiln has been looted for stone, and the cottage isfalling into decay. It’s time someone took the place over.The canons never even bothered to take the hay crop in, thisyear,they’ll be glad to get it off their hands.”

“It suits both sides very well,” said Cadfaelthoughtfully. “And young Eudo Blount at Longner has noobjection, so Matthew reports. Though the prior of Haughmond musthave asked his leave beforehand, since the gift came from hisfather in the first place. A pity,” he said ruefully,“the giver is gone to his maker untimely, and isn’there to say a word for himself in the matter.”

Eudo Blount the elder, of the manor of Longner, had left hislands in the charge of his son and heir only a few weeks aftermaking the gift of the field to the priory, and gone in arms tojoin King Stephen’s army, then besieging the Empress and herforces in Oxford. That campaign he had survived, only to die a fewmonths later in the unexpected rout of Wilton. The king, not forthe first time, had underestimated his most formidable opponent,Earl Robert of Gloucester, miscalculated the speed at which theenemy could move, and ridden with only his vanguard into a perilous