“If that’s your wish,” said Huw simply, “I shall beglad of your company. And now I must set this young man on his way to thesmithy.”

“And I,” said Cadfael, “if you don’t need me alongwith you—and yonder boy will make himself understood in whateverlanguage, or none!—will go a piece of the way back with Urien. If I canpick up an acquaintance or so among your flock, so much the better, for I likethe look of them and their valley.”

Brother John came out from the tiny paddock leading the two tall horses, themules following on leading reins. Huw’s eyes glowed almost as bright asJohn’s, caressing the smooth lines of neck and shoulder.

“How long it is,” he said wistfully, “since I was on agood horse!”

“Come on, then, Father,” urged Brother John, understanding thelook if not the words, “up with you! Here’s a hand, if you fancythe roan. Lead the way in style!” And he cupped a palm for thepriest’s lifted foot, and hoisted him, dazed and enchanted, into thesaddle. Up himself on the grey, he fell in alongside, ready if the older manshould need a steadying hand, but the brown knees gripped happily. He had notforgotten how. “Bravely!” said John, hugely laughing. “Weshall get on famously together, and end up in a race!”

Urien, checking his girth, watched them ride away out or the gentle bowl ofthe clearing “There go two happy men,” he said thoughtfully.

“More and more I wonder,” said Cadfael, “how thatyoungster ever came to commit himself to the monastic life.”

“Or you, for instance?” said Urien, with his toe in the stirrup.“Come, if you want to view the ground, we’ll take the valley way apiece, before I leave you for the hills.”

They parted at the crest of the ridge, among the trees but where a fold ofthe ground showed them the ox-team still doggedly labouring at a second strip,continuing the line of the first, above the richer valley land. Two such stripsin one day was prodigious work.