Free Brother Cadfael 08: The Devil's Novice by Ellis Peters Page A

qualities admirable in themselves, even here,' said Radulfus half-regretfully, 'but alas, not at home here. Not for thirty years, and after satiety with the world, after marriage, and child-getting and child-rearing, and the transmission of a name and a pride of birth. We have our ambience, but they - they are necessary to continue both what they know, and what we can teach them. These things you understand, as do all too few of us who harbour here and escape the tempest. Will you go to Aspley in my behalf?'
    'With all my heart, Father,' said Cadfael.
    'Tomorrow?'
    'Gladly, if you so wish. But may I, then, go now and see both what can be done to settle Brother Meriet, mind and body, and also what I can learn from him?'
    'Do so, with my goodwill,' said the abbot.
    In his small stone penal cell, with nothing in it but a hard bed, a stool, a cross hung on the wall, and the necessary stone vessel for the prisoner's bodily needs, Brother Meriet looked curiously more open, easy and content than Cadfael had yet seen him. Alone, unobserved and in the dark, at least he was freed from the necessity of watching his every word and motion, and fending off all such as came too near. When the door was suddenly unlocked, and someone came in with a tiny lamp in hand, he certainly stiffened for a moment, and reared his head from his folded arms to stare; and Cadfael took it as a compliment and an encouragement that on recognising him the young man just as spontaneously sighed, softened, and laid his cheek back on his forearms, though in such a way that he could watch the newcomer. He was lying on his belly on the pallet, shirtless, his habit stripped down to the waist to leave his weals open to the air. He was defiantly calm, for his blood was still up. If he had confessed to all that was charged against him, in perfect honesty, he had regretted nothing.
    'What do they want of me now?' he demanded directly, but without noticeable apprehension.
    'Nothing. Lie still, and let me put this lamp somewhere steady. There, you hear? We're locked in together. I shall have to hammer at the door before you'll be rid of me again.' Cadfael set his light on the bracket below the cross, where it would shine upon the bed. 'I've brought what will help you to a night's sleep, within and without. If you choose to trust my medicines? There's a draught can dull your pain and put you to sleep, if you want it?'
    'I don't,' said Meriet flatly, and lay watchful with his chin on his folded arms. His body was brown and lissome and sturdy, the bluish welts on his back were not too gross a disfigurement. Some lay servant had held his hand; perhaps he himself had no great love for Brother Jerome. 'I want wakeful. This is quiet here.'
    'Then at least keep still and let me salve this copper hide of yours. I told you he would have it!' Cadfael sat down on the edge of the narrow pallet, opened his jar, and began to anoint the slender shoulders that rippled and twitched to his touch. 'Fool boy,' he said chidingly, 'you could have spared yourself all.'
    'Oh, that!' said Meriet indifferently, nevertheless passive under the soothing fingers. 'I've had worse,' he said, lax and easy on his spread arms. 'My father, if he was roused, could teach them something here.'
    'He failed to teach you much sense, at any rate. Though I won't say,' admitted Cadfael generously, 'that I haven't sometimes wanted to strangle Brother Jerome myself. But on the other hand, the man was only doing his duty, if in a heavy-handed fashion. He is a confessor to the novices, of whom I hear - can I believe it? - you are one. And if you do so aspire, you are held to be renouncing all ado with women, my friend, and all concern with personal property. Do him justice he had grounds for complaint of you.'
    'He had no grounds for stealing from me,' flared Meriet hotly.
    'He had a right to confiscate what is forbidden here.'
    'I still call it stealing. And he had no right to destroy it before my eyes - nor to speak as