Sanctuary Sparrow

 

By Ellis Peters

Its 1140 CE in Britain. Liliwin is an itinerant entertainer. He juggles, dances, plays a rebec and sings, and is an acrobat. He was hired to entertain at a wedding reception but during his performance the guests got rowdy and jostled Liliwin, and a vase is broken. 

The matriarch of the family is a tightfisted old harridan and she refuses to pay Liliwin his full fee, deducting the cost of vase from his pay. This upsets Liliwin and words are exchanged and he leaves. But he comes back later, to speak to the father of the groom, asking to be paid, and is successful.  Liliwin leaves and goes to sleep in the fields since he cannot afford to pay for a room, being a very poor young man.

But the father is attacked soon after Liliwin was there. He gets bashed in the head and robbed, but doesn't see his attacker. The wedding party is still going on and the guests jump to the conclusion that Liliwin was the attacker and set forth in an angry mob to hunt him down. Liliwin hears them coming but manages to escape to the Abbey, where he claims sanctuary. The mob is forced to back off when the Abbot honors Liliwin's claim and give him sanctuary. Claiming sanctuary was an old custom where a person can reside within the safety of a church for about a month. So Liliwin can remain safely within the bounds of the church for forty days while the sheriff's men investigate the attack on Walter Aurifaber, the father of the groom. Of course, the one of the investigators is Brother Cadfael, member of the Abbey and well-known for his investigative skills and herbal concoctions.

Clearly Liliwin is innocent of the attack and the theft of Aurifaber's treasure. It doesn't take long to turn up another likely suspect, the man's own son, Daniel. Even though Daniel is the newlywed, he has lover, a beautiful and greedy young woman who is the wife of a much older man, an older man who often has to travel out of town on business. In order to keep her happy, both men ply her with gifts, the spouse, of course, not aware of Daniel's connection to his wife. The spouse can afford the gifts and trinkets she requires. But Daniel cannot. His tightfisted grandmother keeps control of the family finances and that means Daniel is chronically short of funds. Did his desperation to placate his lover drive him to attack and rob his own father? 

But then someone else turns up dead: a local busybody who was known to stick his pointy nose in other people's business. Was he killed because he knew too much? Or did he try to blackmail the wrong person? Brother Cadfael will root out the murderer and all the secrets too. 

This was an enjoyable read, with an interesting mystery that Cadfael figures out with his usual wit and compassion and his vast knowledge of plants and herbs. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.