He swept away, elongated and silvery and majestic, and had to stoop his headto enter under the low round arch of the church door. Brother Richard, BrotherJerome, Brother Columbanus vanished within on his heels. Not all the time theywere together there would be spent in prayer. They would be considering whatarguments would be most likely to carry the day with Father Huw’s freeassembly, or what oblique ecclesiastical threats daunt them into submission.

Brother John looked after the lofty silver head until it stooped withaccurate dignity just low enough to pass under the stone, and let out somethingbetween a sigh and an arrested gurgle of laughter, as though he had beenpraying for a miscalculation. What with the journey, and the exercise, and theoutdoor living, he looked ruddier and healthier and more athletic than ever.

“I’ve been hoping all this while for a chance to get my leg overthat dapple-gray,” he said. “Richard rides him like abadly-balanced woolsack. I hope Father Huw’s stabling is a mile or moreaway.”

Father Huw’s plans for them, it seemed, involved two of the nearer andmore prosperous members of his flock, but even so, in the scattered Welsh way,their houses were dispersed in valley and forest.

“I shall give up my own house to the prior and sub-prior, ofcourse,” he said, “and sleep in the loft above my cow. For thebeasts, my grazing here is too small, and I have no stable, but Bened the smithhas a good paddock above the water-meadows, and stabling with a loft, if thisyoung brother will not mind being lodged the better part of a mite from hisfellows. And for you and your two companions, Brother Cadfael, there is openhouse half a mile from here through the woods, with Cadwallon, who has one ofthe biggest holdings in these parts.”

Brother Cadfael considered the prospect of being housed with Jerome andColumbanus, and found it unattractive. “Since I am the only one among uswho has fluent Welsh,” he said diplomatically, “I should remainclose to Prior Robert’s side. With your goodwill, Huw, I’ll shareyour loft above the cow-byre, and be very comfortable there.”