“Let it be,” said Cadfael placatingly, seeing howthe boy laboured at the thing he could not understand. “Hereare three of us not prepared to let Olivier lie unransomed. Waitfor Coventry, and we shall see what we can uncoverthere.”

They rode into Coventry in mid-afternoon of thefollowing day, a fine, brisk day with gleams of chilly sunshine.The pleasure of the ride had diverted Yves for a while from hisobsession, brightened his eyes and stung high colour into hischeeks. Approaching the city from the north, they found EarlLeofric’s old defences still in timber, but sturdy enough,and the tangle of streets within well paved and maintained sincethe bishops had made this city their main base within the see.Roger de Clinton had continued the practice, though Lichfield wasdearer to his own heart, for in these disturbed times Coventry wasnearer the seat of dissension, and in more danger from the sporadicraids of rival armies, and he was not a man to steer clear ofperils himself while his flock endured them.

And certainly his redoubtable presence had afforded the city ameasure of protection, but for all that there were some scars anddilapidations to be seen along the streets, and an occasionalraw-edged gap where a house had been stripped down to itsfoundations and not yet replaced. In a country which for severalyears now had been disputed in arms between two very uncousinlycousins, it was no wonder if private enemies and equallyacquisitive neighbours joined in the plundering for themselves,independently of either faction. Even the Earl of Chester’ssmall timber castle within the town had its scars to show, andwould hardly be suitable for his occupation with the kind ofretinue he intended to bring to the conference table, much less forentertaining his newly appeased and reconciled king. He wouldprefer the discreet distance of Mountsorrel in which to continuehis careful wooing.