“Very proper!” agreed the abbot heartily. “It would beill-done to distract his mind from his great purpose at this stage. I shouldsay no word to him of the reason for adding this young man to the party. PriorRobert in his own unshaken certainty is apt to take an austere view of any manwho looks back, once having set his hand to the plough.”
“Yet, Father, we were not all cut out to be ploughmen. Some could bemore useful labouring in other ways.”
“True!” said the abbot, and warily smiled, pondering therecurring but often forgotten riddle of Brother Cadfael himself. “I havewondered, I confess… But never mind! Very well, tell me this youngbrother’s name, and you shall have him.”
Chapter Two
Prior Robert’s fine, frosty face momentarily registered displeasureand suspicion when he heard how his delegation was to be augmented. BrotherCadfael’s gnarled, guileless-eyed self-sufficiency caused him discomfortwithout a word amiss or a glance out of place, as though his dignity weresomehow under siege. Of Brother John he knew no particular evil, but theredness of his hair, the exuberance of his health and high spirits, the veryway he put live blood back into old martyrdoms with his extravagant gusto inthe reading, were all offensive in themselves, and jarred on the prior’saesthetic sensibilities. However, since Abbot Heribert had innocently decreedthat they should join the party, and since there was no denying that a fluentWelsh speaker might become an urgent necessity at some stage, Prior Robertaccepted the fiat without demur, and made the best of it.
They set out as soon as the fine reliquary for the saint’s bones wasready, polished oak ornamented with silver, to serve as a proof what honoursawaited Winifred in her new shrine. In the third week of May they came toBangor, and told their story to Bishop David, who was sympathetic, and readily