It is winter 1139 and the tranquil life in the monastery gardens in Shrewsbury is again interrupted by violence. Raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester.
Among them are two orphans from a noble family, a boy of thirteen and an eighteen year old girl of great beauty, with their companion, a young Benedictine nun. But the trio have disappeared somewhere in the wild countryside.
Cadfael fears for these three lost lambs, but his skills are needed to tend to a wounded monk, found naked and bleeding at the roadside. Why this holy man has been attacked and what his fevered ravings reveal soon give brother Cadfael a clue to the fate of the missing travellers and he sets out to find them. The search will lead him to discover a chilling and terrible murder, and a tale of passion gone astray.
- ISBN10 0333329147
- ISBN13 9780333329146
- Publish Date 25 June 1987 (first published 12 March 1984)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 6 February 1997
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English