Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

novices like blown leaves, and rode away again for home at a pace her staid jennet did not relish, with her grooms trailing mute and awed well in the rear.
    'There goes a lady who is used to getting her own way,' remarked Brother Anselm, 'but for once, I fancy, she's met her match.'
    'We have not heard the last of it, however,' said Brother Cadfael dryly, watching the dust settle after her going.
    'I don't doubt her will,' agreed Anselm, 'but what can she do?'
    'That,' said Cadfael, not without quickening interest, 'no doubt we shall see, all in good time.'
    They had but two days to wait. Dame Dionisia's man of law announced himself ceremoniously at chapter, requesting a hearing. An elderly clerk, meagre of person but brisk of bearing and irascible of feature, bustled into the chapterhouse with a bundle of parchments under his arm, and addressed the assembly with chill, reproachful dignity, in sorrow rather than in anger. He marvelled that a cleric and scholar of the abbot's known uprightness and benevolence should deny the ties of blood, and refuse to return Richard Ludel to the custody and loving care of his only surviving close kinswoman, now left quite bereft of all her other menfolk, and anxious to help, guide and advise her grandson in his new lordship. A great wrong was being done to both grandmother and child, in the denial of their natural need and the frustration of their mutual affection. And yet once more the clerk put forth the solemn request that the wrong should be set right, and Richard Ludel sent back with him to his manor of Eaton.
    Abbot Radulfus sat with a patient and unmoved face and listened to the end of this studied speech very courteously. 'I thank you for your errand,' he said then mildly, 'it was well done. I cannot well change the answer I gave to your lady. Richard Ludel who is dead committed the care of his son to me, by letter properly drawn and witnessed. I accepted that charge, and I cannot renounce it now. It was the father's wish that the son should be educated here until he comes to manhood, and takes command of his own life and affairs. That I promised, and that I shall fulfil. The death of the father only makes my obligation the more sacred and binding. Tell your mistress so.'
    'My lord,' said the clerk, plainly having expected no other answer, and ready with the next step in his embassage, 'in changed circumstances such a private legal document need not be the only argument valid in a court of law. The king's justices would listen no less to the plea of a matron of rank, widowed and now bereaved of her son, and fully able to provide all her grandson's needs, besides the natural need she has of the comfort of his presence. My mistress desires to inform you that if you do not give up the boy, she intends to bring suit at law to regain him.'
    'Then I can but approve her intention,' said the abbot serenely. 'A judicial decision in the king's court must be satisfying to us both, since it lifts the burden of choice from us. Tell her so, and say that I await the hearing with due submission. But until such a judgement is made, I must hold to my own sworn undertaking. I am glad,' he said with a dry and private smile, 'that we are thus agreed.'
    There was nothing left for the clerk to do but accept this unexpectedly pliant response at its face value, and bow himself out as gracefully as he could. A slight rustle and stir of curiosity and wonder had rippled round the chapterhouse stalls, but Abbot Radulfus suppressed it with a look, and it was not until the brothers emerged into the great court and dispersed to their work that comment and speculation could break out openly.
    'Was he wise to encourage her?' marvelled Brother Edmund, crossing towards the infirmary with Cadfael at his side. 'How if she does indeed take us to law? A judge might very well take the part of a lone lady who wants her grandchild home.'
    'Be easy,' said Cadfael placidly. 'It's but an empty threat. She knows as well as any that the law is slow and costs dear, at the best of times, and this is none of the best, with the king far away and busy with more urgent matters, and half his kingdom cut off from any manner of justice at all. No, she hoped to make the lord abbot think again and yield ground for fear of long vexation. She had the wrong man. He knows she has no intention of going to law. Far more likely to take law into her own hands and try to steal the boy away. It would take slow law or swift action to snatch