One Corpse Too Many
Edith Pargeter
 In the summer of 1138, King Stephen is besieging rebels loyal to Empress Matilda in Shrewsbury Castle. Brother Cadfael welcomes the assistance of a young man called Godric, who has been brought to the Abbey by his "aunt". Cadfael soon recognises that "Godric" is actually a girl. She admits that she is actually Godith Adeney, daughter of Fulke Adeney, one of the rebel ringleaders inside the castle. Cadfael agrees to keep her secret, thus beginning 10 adventurous days in August. Aline Siward and Hugh Beringar enter King Stephen's camp to pledge their loyalty. Aline Siward is welcomed even though her elder brother, Giles, has declared for the Empress. Hugh Beringar is treated with more reserve, as he was formerly an associate of the rebel ringleaders and betrothed as a child to Godith. To prove his loyalty, he is instructed to find Godith and deliver her to the King. Two young men fall for Aline on first sight at the King's camp, Beringar and the man designated to be deputy sheriff once the castle falls, Adam Courcelle. The castle falls the next morning, but the ringleaders FitzAlan, made sheriff by King Stephen's appointment, and Adeney escape. Infuriated, King Stephen orders the ninety-four survivors of the turncoat garrison executed that very afternoon. Abbot Heribert of Shrewsbury Abbey asks that the men be given Christian burial. King Stephen assents, and Heribert delegates the task to Cadfael for the next morning. Counting the bodies, Cadfael realises that there are not ninety-four bodies, but ninety-five - one corpse too many. The extra corpse is unidentified. Aline is horrified to find the body of her brother Giles among the other ninety-four. Aline notes that a dagger has been stolen from Giles's body. Courcelle gave Aline her brother's cloak, found in the castle. She in turn gives her brother's clothing to Cadfael to distribute as alms. Godith identifies the murdered man as Nicholas Faintree, a young squire of the rebel leader FitzAlan. At her suggestion, Cadfael visits her old nurse, Petronella Flesher, and her husband Edric, the town butcher, to reassure them of Godith's safety. They reveal that FitzAlan ordered squires Faintree and Torold Blund to slip out of the castle and take his treasury from its hiding place in Frankwell to safety in Wales, then Normandy. They warn Cadfael that Beringar asked after Godith the day before the castle fell. Cadfael suspects that Beringar likely learned of the plan to move the treasury by eavesdropping. The murdered man Nicholas Faintree is buried in the Abbey church, a great honor. While aiding in the Abbey's corn harvest, Godric encounters a wounded man. She and Cadfael return to help him that evening and the next day, learning his story and his name. Torold Blund relates how he and Faintree tried to escape with FitzAlan's treasure. Faintree's horse was lamed by a caltrop, planted on a forested track by someone who knew their route in advance. Faintree waited at a forest hut near Frankwell while Blund found a fresh horse. When Blund returned he found Faintree dead, and was himself attacked by a stranger. Blund fought off his attacker and fled. He hid the treasure under the bridge near the castle, letting the horses go free. He was then pursued by the King's men and forced to jump into the river Severn. Cadfael went to the barn in Frankwell, the hut where the murder and the fight took place, and met the farmer who supplied the fresh horse to Blund, confirming every aspect of the story. In the hut, he found a jewel meant as decoration to a dagger, a yellow topaz, in the dirt floor. Cadfael sends Godric with food and medicine to Torold, who is much recovered. As they talk, Blund wrestles in jest with Godric, thus discovering that she is a girl named Godith. Cadfael returns to the mill, talks with the two young people. Cadfael agrees to help Torold and Godith escape to Wales with the treasure. He and Torold hear footsteps, so cut short their conversation. Cadfael and Godric walk to the Abbey, encountering Hugh Beringar. Godric is sent off to the herbarium. Knowing that the King is about to commandeer horses for his army, Beringar asks Cadfael if there is a place where he can conceal his two most valuable mounts. They take the horses to a grange belonging to the Abbey, south of Shrewsbury. The next day, Cadfael knows that Hugh Beringar has a spirit like his own as to the cause of justice and a clever mind for pursuing it. He spends the day testing his theory that Hugh is following him, dispatching Godric to other tasks. That night, Cadfael locates the treasure hidden in the river. He has a bundle matching it in appearance, which he carries to the grange, aware that Beringar is watching him. To Cadfael's alarm the next morning, Sheriff Prestcote began the raid of the Abbey before he woke. King Stephen needs supplies from Shrewsbury and is searching for Godith. Godith awoke early, made her own plan for action, ensuring her own safety and that of the treasure. Before the mid morning service, Aline Siward tells Cadfael that Godric is safe in her quarters. Though she is formally on Stephen's side, Aline has no interest in helping his men catch a young girl. Torold has been forced to flee from the mill as the King's men seize supplies. He fears that Beringar saw him, then decides he has been too fearful in a day of hiding on the run. He mentions this while reporting his day to Cadfael in the herbarium. That night, Cadfael, Torold and Godith walk to the grange with the treasure, so the pair can depart for Wales on Beringar's horses. Cadfael has them hide the treasure in a tree that will be on the road to Wales, then swing back to approach the grange from the usual path. At the grange, Beringar and his men stop them, taking control of the situation. Beringar's intentions are honourable; he has planned all along to aid Godith in her escape to safety, as his duty to her from past connections. He will, however, secure the treasure for the King. Godith and Torold depart for Wales on Beringar's horses, silently aware of Cadfael's success. Cadfael and Beringar speculate that the two will be married before they reach Godith's father. Cadfael and Beringar carry the saddlebags from the grange back to the abbey. On reaching Cadfael's workshop, Beringar is stunned to find them filled with stones Cadfael exchanged for the treasure. Beringar is mystified that the saddlebags also contain Faintree's old clothes and the jewel from the dagger. Cadfael is thus satisfied Beringar had no part in Faintree's murder. Beringar laughs that Cadfael won the game, keeping the treasure with Godith. Beringar recalls that Aline described a dagger decorated with jewel, a family heirloom that was lost when Giles was hanged. They wonder, who has the rest of the dagger? Cadfael and Beringar cooperate to determine the truth, both seeking proof for each supposition. Beringar is aided by Aline, who confirms the topaz. Cadfael is aided by the beggar who received the cloak once belonging to Giles. The night before the castle fell, Giles Siward slipped into the siege camp, seen by the beggar. Giles betrayed Fitz Alan's plan to the officer of the watch, Courcelle, in exchange for his life. Courcelle, rather than reporting the matter to the King, arranged for Giles to be hanged not saved. Then Courcelle laid a trap for Faintree and Blund, hoping to take the treasure for himself. Courcelle stole the dagger from Giles's corpse. He had it when he fought with Blund in the barn, where the jewel broke off and was pushed into the dirt floor. They still do not have the dagger or know its whereabouts, but Cadfael is certain that Courcelle is the guilty man, officer of the watch that night. Hugh Beringar is eager that Aline never learns the full extent of her brother's foul deed the night before he was hanged; Cadfael agrees. The only way to assure that is to silence the murderer, the only other person who knows of this perfidy. The last chance to present their evidence against Courcelle is during King Stephen's farewell banquet that evening. Cadfael attends the feast as servant to the Abbot. Leaving the banquet room to bring food to the beggar, he sees a kitchen boy eating his own meal with Giles' missing dagger, fished out of the Severn. Wholly trusting Cadfael's view, Beringar publicly accuses Courcelle of the murder of Faintree and the theft of the dagger, staking his own life in the charge. He tossed the yellow topaz on the table. Re-entering the room, Cadfael gives the dagger to the King, who then fits the two together, completing the proof. Courcelle denies all. The King is eager for justice for this crime, but impatient to move on as planned. He says, no time for a proper trial. He and Courcelle accept Beringar's suggestion that the matter be settled by trial by combat. Beringar and Courcelle fight with swords and then daggers outside the town the next day, watched by a large crowd. Aline arrives after the combat began, now knowing she loves Hugh Beringar. The two men are evenly matched; the contest lasts for hours. In close fighting, Courcelle falls on his own dagger blade and dies. With Beringar vindicated by fate, King Stephen appoints him Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire in Courcelle's place. He and Aline are betrothed. Cadfael, who by now is also his firm friend, gives him Giles's dagger, which has been restored by craftsmen at the Abbey. Cadfael concludes by resolving to pray both for Nicholas Faintree, "a clean young man of mind and life", and for Adam Courcelle, "dead in his guilt", because "every untimely death, every man cut down in his vigour and strength without time for repentance and reparation, is one corpse too many."