Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

keeping a wary eye on that corner of the court from the doorway of the guesthall, for some reason found this reaction perfectly logical. So did Cadfael, emerging at the same moment from the garden. But in view of this want of surprise and consternation on the custodian's part, it behoved someone else to supply the deficiency. Daalny slipped back to her preparations within, and left them to deal with it as they thought best.
    "He's gone!" said Brother Porter. "Now, how is that possible?"
    It was a serious question, not a protest. He looked at the large, heavy key on his tray, and back to the open door, and knitted his thick grizzled brows.
    "Gone?" said Cadfael, very creditably astonished. "How could he be gone, and the door locked, and the key in your lodge?"
    "Look for yourself," said the porter. "Unless the devil has fetched his own away, then someone else has laid hands on this key in the night to good purpose and turned him loose in this world. Empty as a pauper's purse in there, and the bed hardly dented. He'll be well away by this. Sub-Prior Herluin will be out of his mind when he hears. He's with Father Abbot at breakfast now, I'd best go and spoil his porridge for him." He did not sound greatly grieved about it, but not exactly eager to bear the news, either.
    "I'm bound there myself," said Cadfael, not quite mendaciously, for he had just conceived the intention. "You get rid of the tray and follow me down, I'll go before and break the news."
    "I never knew," observed the porter, "that you had a bent for martyrdom. But lead the way and welcome. And I'll come. Praise God, his lordship is set to leave this day, if he wants a safe journey Herluin and his fellows would be fools to lose the chance for the sake of hunting a slippery lad like that, with a night's start into the bargain. We'll be rid of them all before noon." And he went off amiably to free his hands of the tray. He was in two minds whether he should return the key to its nail, but in the end he took it with him, as some manner of corroborative evidence, and followed Cadfael down towards the abbot's lodging, but in no haste.
    It was a different matter when Herluin heard the news. He surged up from the abbot's table in his deprivation and loss, bereft now not only of his treasure gleaned here in Shrewsbury, but of his vengeance also, enraged beyond measure at having to go back to Ramsey almost empty-handed. For a short time, even though he himself did not know the whole of it, he had been on his way back a triumphant success, with generous largesse for the restoration, and the immeasurable blessing of a miracle-working saint. All gone now, and the culprit slipped through his fingers, so that he was left to trail home a manifest failure, meagrely re-paid for his travels, and short of a novice not, perhaps, exemplary in his behaviour, but valued for his voice, and therefore also in his way profitable.
    "He must be pursued!" said Herluin, biting off every word with snapping, irregular teeth in his fury. "And, Father Abbot, surely your guard upon his captivity has been lax in the extreme, or how could any unauthorized person have gained possession of the key to his cell? I should have taken care of the matter myself rather than trust to others. But he must be pursued and taken. He has charges to answer, offences to expiate. The delinquent must not be allowed to go uncorrected."
    The abbot in evident and formidable displeasure, though whether with the absconding prisoner, his unwary guardians, or this fulminating avenger deprived of his scapegoat, there was no knowing, said acidly: "He may be sought within my premises, certainly. My writ does not presume to pursue men for punishment in the outside world."
    Earl Robert was also a guest at the abbot's table on this last morning, but thus far he had remained seated equably in his place, saying no word, his quizzical glance proceeding silently from face to face, not omitting Cadfael, who had shot his disruptive bolt without expression and in the flattest of voices, to be backed up sturdily by the porter, still gripping the key that must have been lifted from its nail during Vespers, or so he judged, and put back again before the office ended. Since such interference with the abbatial orders here on monastic ground was unheard-of, he had taken no precautions against it, though most of the time the lodge was manned, and the whole range of keys under the occupant's eye, and safe enough. The porter excused himself