An Excellent Mystery
Ellis Peters
The Eleventh Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
EBook Design Group [EDG] digital edition
v2 HTML – January 14,2003
First published in 1985 by Macmillan LondonLimited, Great Britain.
CONTENTS
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter One
^ »
August came in, that summer of 1141, tawny as alion and somnolent and purring as a hearthside cat. After theplenteous rains of the spring the weather had settled into angeliccalm and sunlight for the feast of Saint Winifred, and preservedthe same benign countenance throughout the corn harvest. Lammascame for once strict to its day, the wheat-fields were alreadygleaned and white, ready for the flocks and herds that would beturned into them to make use of what aftermath the season brought.The loaf-Mass had been celebrated with great contentment, and theearly plums in the orchard along the riverside were darkening intoripeness. The abbey barns were full, the well-dried straw bound andstacked, and if there was still no rain to bring on fresh greenfodder in the reaped fields for the sheep, there were heavy morningdews. When this golden weather broke at last, it might well breakin violent storms, but as yet the skies remained bleached andclear, the palest imaginable blue.