He vows a pilgrimage to atone for his past error, uncovering an unexpected story, and a murdered woman, before he and Cadfael return to the Abbey.

Sheriff Hugh Beringar learns that the Empress took advantage of the heavy snow and frozen rivers for a miraculous escape.

She and several allies crossed the frozen river through Stephen's lines, and walked to Abingdon, where they got horses to ride to Wallingford Castle.

Robert of Gloucester returned from Normandy with a boy of nine years named Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of the Empress and her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou.

King Stephen joined his brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, and calls his sheriffs to meet him there for the Christmas feast.

At Shrewsbury Abbey, the heavy snowfall in mid-December 1142 causes severe damage to the slate tile roof of the guest hall.

Hugh Beringar tells Cadfael that the wife of de Clary lives at Hales, while her son Audemar, sworn to King Stephen, resides in Staffordshire.

At sunrise, a curious Roscelin arrives at the church timely to assist Cadfael in bringing Haluin to his feet.

As evening nears, they approach the new Benedictine convent at Farewell planned by Bishop Roger de Clinton.

Cadfael negotiates an hour's meeting between Brother Haluin and Sister Benedicta with Mother Patrice, who informs the family that Helisende is safe with them.

It was a dramatic event, amazing given the presence of the King and his army besieging the town for months, hardly any food left for them.

As remarked by the characters in the novel, it is as if the years of warring factions, since Empress Maud came from Normandy and Anjou to Arundel and began the confrontation, begin anew when they might have ended with a clear-cut victory.

When he survives his injuries, he makes a pilgrimage seeking forgiveness from the one person he thinks is the only survivor offended by his sin.

[11][12] The places named in the novel are real, including Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury Abbey, Hales, Lichfield, Elford, the Priory at Farewell[13][14] under construction by Bishop Roger de Clinton (temporary wooden structures being built in stone),[15] and every stop along the way with a place name, including crossing the River Tame shortly before arriving in the village of Elford.

[16][17][18] Bertrand de Clary felt the call to the Crusades once his two children were born, leaving his wife more power than she might otherwise have exerted on her seventeen-year-old daughter.

Young men in their teens often travelled to another manor to learn military skills (squires[19]), or in the case of Haluin, clerk duties.

Adelais de Clary used her power to ruin her daughter's life, and tried to do the same to the handsome young man who had been living at her manor for four years.

Kirkus Reviews says A new adventure for canny, urbane Brother Cadfael, herbalist monk at Shrewsbury's Benedictine Abbey in 1142, that provides more romance than detection.

Brother Haluin, the Abbey's gifted illustrator, has suffered a near-fatal accident and, in what seems to be a deathbed confession, tells of his love 20 years ago for Bertrade, daughter of Adelais de Clary of Hales.

Crippled and on crutches, with Cadfael at his side, he sets out on a pilgrimage to Bertrade's tomb to make a nightlong vigil of atonement.

The two make their tortuous way to Hales—with Cadfael witnessing another seemingly doomed love affair; delving into old mysteries; solving a new one for his own satisfaction; righting old wrongs, and changing some lives forever.

As always with Peters, an absorbing passage to another world, but this one lacks some of the swift pacing, tension, and excitement of her best work (The Rose Rent, etc.).

[21]Publishers Weekly says It is up to Brother Cadfael to untangle the threads that bind the past to the present to avert another tragedy.

[22]Library Journal says of the audio book Eventually, he and Cadfael embark on a penitential journey to Hales, where they find answers to old and new mysteries alike in this wonderful novel of love and redemption.

Stephen Thorne is one of the truly great readers; his ability to render perfectly the medieval world of Cadfael's Shrewsbury makes this an essential purchase for libraries.

(c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: Aug/Sep 2002][24]Stephen Knapp makes a concise point about the 12th century world depicted in this novel, a major difference from the present day.

The novel takes "a satisfying journey through mid 12th century England and warm feeling for the comfort and security the people of that time had for an all-knowing and benevolent God.