A Morbid Taste for Bones
Edith Pargeter
 The book is set in 1137. Brother Cadfael is introduced, working in the herb gardens of Shrewsbury Abbey. A Welshman who has been on Crusade before joining the Order of Saint Benedict in middle life, he has far more worldly experience than most of his brother monks. He has two young monks to assist him in his work; John, who is practical and down-to-earth, and Columbanus, who is ambitious and sanctimonious. One morning, Columbanus is taken ill with what some take to be the "falling sickness" (epilepsy) but which Cadfael reckons to be a hysterical fit. Brother Jerome, clerk to the ambitious Prior Robert, prays over Columbanus during the night and announces the next day that a young woman appeared to him and told him to take Columbanus to St Winefride's Well in North Wales. When they return, Columbanus is recovered. He in turn says that Saint Winefride appeared to him and stated that her grave at Gwytherin in North Wales had long been neglected, and she desired to be interred somewhere more accessible to pilgrims. Neither Cadfael nor John believe the tales. Prior Robert is known to have been searching for some time for a suitable saint's relics to grace Shrewsbury Abbey. Robert, the lazy Sub-Prior Richard, Jerome and Columbanus prepare to journey to Wales to retrieve Winefride's remains. Cadfael induces Abbot Heribert to send him with them, as a fluent Welsh-speaker will be required, and John, to do the menial work. The Bishop of Bangor and Owain Gwynedd, prince of Gwynedd, give their assent, and the monks reach Gwytherin, a community stretching for several miles along the Cledwen River. The local priest, Father Huw, is hospitable, but objects to Winefride's remains being removed without first calling an assembly of the free men of the parish. When it is held the next morning, Rhisiart, the most influential landowner in the community, opposes the Saint's removal. Prior Robert makes a misguided attempt to bribe him. Rhisiart storms off, announcing that he is implacably opposed to Robert. The assembly breaks up, with every man agreeing with Rhisiart. Robert and Jerome take the view that Rhisiart is committing blasphemy, but Father Huw persuades Robert to appeal to Rhisiart for another meeting. At the house of Cai, Rhisiart's ploughman, John talks to Annest, the niece of Bened the blacksmith, and they quickly fall in love despite the difference in language. Rhisiart meanwhile does not change his views, but agrees to meet Prior Robert at Huw's house at noon the next day. The next morning Robert tells John to make himself useful to the servants and sends Jerome and Columbanus to pray at Winefride's chapel while he, Richard, Cadfael and Huw wait for Rhisiart. Rhisiart does not appear. When he has been missing for some hours, a search is mounted, and he is found dead in some dense woods, apparently shot from in front with a bow and arrow. The arrow bears the mark of Engelard, an Englishman who has fled into Wales to avoid punishment for poaching, and who is in love with Rhisiart's daughter Sioned. When Engelard appears, many locals insist that he had motive to kill Rhisiart. At Robert's insistence, they prepare to take him into custody. On the spur of the moment, Engelard flees, and Brother John impedes the only local man close enough to stop him. Robert furiously orders John to be held for breaking the law of Gwynedd and his own vow of obedience. Since he is to be held at Rhisiart's house, where he will have contact with Annest, John meekly complies. Cadfael meanwhile realises that Engelard's arrow did not kill Rhisiart. It had rained for an hour about noon. Rhisiart's back, on which he lay, is damp, while his front is dry. Rhisiart was stabbed from behind, by a dagger which penetrated through his body, and fell face down. Some time later, after it rained, someone turned him over and pushed the arrow into the wound from the front. For the moment, Cadfael can only speculate why anyone would do this. Although the monks from Shrewsbury all appear to have alibis for the time of Rhisiart's death, Columbanus confesses the next morning to sleeping rather than praying all the previous day, making Jerome a suspect. Father Huw tells Robert that his flock have taken Rhisiart's death as an omen and no longer oppose Winefride's removal. Robert declares that he will exhume the remains only after three nights' vigil and prayer. Cadfael takes advantage of the superstition that a corpse will bleed afresh if touched by the murderer (though he does not believe it himself, having seen men who died in battle being handled by those who killed them). At his suggestion, Sioned asks that after each night's prayer, the two who maintained the vigil place their hand upon Rhisiart's heart in token of forgiveness. On the first morning, Jerome appears to hesitate, but eventually does as Sioned asks. The next night, Robert excuses himself from the vigil on the pretext of relating the recent events to Prince Owain's bailiff. On the third night, Cadfael and Columbanus share the vigil, but Columbanus once again has a fit of religious ecstasy and is carried off unconscious in the morning. He recovers after Mass, and relates that Winefride appeared once again to him and said that Rhisiart should be buried in her grave when she is removed. They begin digging out Winefride's grave. Cadfael finds the body several feet down, and the monks carefully place it in the coffin brought from Shrewsbury. Prior Robert places wax seals on the coffin to prevent anyone from disturbing the contents. As they prepare to bury Rhisiart in her place, Sioned asks Peredur, another young man who has been in love with her, to place a jewelled cross on the body. Peredur refuses, terrified, and claims that Rhisiart cannot accuse him. He confesses that he found Rhisiart dead and pushed one of Engelard's arrows into the wound, thinking that Engelard would flee into England and thus remove himself as rival for Sioned's hand. Shocked by these revelations, Peredur's mother Branwen becomes hysterical. Cadfael had previously prepared a flask of a tranquilising syrup derived from poppies, in case of further hysterical fits by Columbanus. He retrieves it from Columbanus's belongings and finds most of it is gone, though enough remains to calm Branwen. He then recalls that on the day of Rhisiart's murder, Columbanus confessed to sleeping while at vigil, but only Jerome drank some of the wine provided for sustenance. Had it been laced with the syrup, Jerome would almost certainly have slept through the vigil, but would have been ashamed to admit it. Cadfael is distracted from this train of thought by the news that the Prince's bailiff is about to take John into custody. When the bailiff arrives at Sioned's dwelling, he is met by Cai, who is wearing a bloodstained bandage and says that John broke free after striking him with a board. Though Robert is displeased, the bailiff, Cai, Bened and Annest all seem rather complacent over the escape. On the last night before the monks depart, Columbanus, who Sioned and Cadfael reckon is taking the glory of the translation of the saint for himself, offers to mount another solitary vigil. As he believes himself to be unobserved, he composes himself to sleep. He is awakened by the vision of a young woman demanding to know why he murdered Rhisiart, her champion. Unnerved, Columbanus confesses and begs forgiveness from the saint, saying that the deed was for her glory. As she calls him a liar, Columbanus realises that the "saint" is actually Sioned, and slashes at her with a knife, inflicting only a graze, before fleeing. Cadfael and Engelard tackle him outside the chapel. Seeing Sioned bleeding from her wounds, an enraged Engelard hurls Columbanus to the ground hard enough to break his neck. Faced with this unexpected development, Cadfael recalls Sioned's inspired words about Rhisiart being her champion. He, Engelard, and Sioned quickly undress Columbanus, open St. Winifrede's coffin, replace the remains of the saint in her grave above Rhisiart's body, and place Columbanus's naked body in the coffin. Cadfael uses his knowledge of seals (and, more importantly, how to inconspicuously break them) to give the appearance that the coffin remained undisturbed. The three then prepare the chapel for discovery in the morning. The next morning, Columbanus's shirt and habit are found empty on the floor of the chapel. Hawthorn petals are scattered around them. Though some wonder whether Columbanus has gone mad and is wandering naked, Robert proclaims that Columbanus's prayers to be taken from the world into a state of grace have been answered. The villagers help load the saint's suspiciously heavy coffin aboard a cart without any outward sign that anything is wrong, yet Cadfael suspects that every one of them knows what happened during the night. As they leave Gwytherin, John can be seen (by Cadfael) bidding them farewell. Two years later, Bened, the smith from Gwytherin, calls at Shrewsbury Abbey while on a pilgrimage to Walsingham. He tells Cadfael that John and Annest are married, and John will become the smith after Bened. Sioned and Engelard are also married, and have christened their first child Cadfael. To Robert's chagrin, he relates that what Robert fondly imagines to be Saint Winefride's former resting place in Gwytherin is the scene of many pilgrimages and miraculous cures, when the ornate tomb in the Abbey is treated with indifference by pilgrims and apparently the saint herself. Cadfael is left musing that the saint is unlikely to object to sharing a grave with Rhisiart.