Shrewsbury Abbey anticipates two events coming on 22 June in 1142: honouring the day five years earlier when Saint Winifred's reliquary was placed on its altar, and paying the rent due to the widow Judith Perle.

The Sheriff, called back to town, Cadfael, and Abbot Radulfus believe that Judith was kidnapped, either to be forced into marriage or to void the charter by her absence on rent day.

The watchman gives him a glancing blow to the head but Bertred dives into the water, hits rocks on the shelving bank and lies senseless.

The watchman at Hynde's tells Hugh and Cadfael that Bertred was at the storehouse the night before, where they find the broken window sill.

On his return in the moonless night, he sees a man on a horse with a woman riding pillion and recognises Judith Perle.

Early the day of Saint Winifred's translation, Hugh asks Judith's cousin Miles Coliar when he gave his boots to Bertred.

The Library Journal review in 1987 said that "twelfth century England blossoms again as Cadfael in his understated way moves through the now familiar environs of Shrewsbury piecing together a devious plan that went awry.

But then Brother Eluric, the young monk whose job it is to deliver the rose on the day of St. Winifred's translation (the pre-arranged rent-paying day) asks to be excused from the task (he finds he's starting to fall in love with the widow); he is later found murdered near the recently ruined rose rent bush.

The abbey is thrown into a panic; not only has an innocent young monk been killed, but with no rose to pay the rent, the contract is cancelled and the widow's wealth multiplies remarkably.

Peters (The Raven in the Foregate) is in fine form in this 13th book, with a leisurely mystery that once again creates a 12th century world that is both comfortable and strange, and a series of delightful, interesting characters.

A tenuous peace reigns in the north of England in spring of 1142, and Brother Cadfael—herbalist-sage-sleuth of Shrewsbury's Benedictine monastery (The Devil's Novice, etc.)

--is faced with the murder of young, intense Brother Elude, found stabbed to death near a half-destroyed rosebush in the garden of a house donated to the abbey by Judith Perle.

Judith, now 25, widowed three years before, runs the family's prosperous clothing business, with help from her cousin Miles, and is the target of several suitors, among them wealthy fleece-processor Godrey Fuller and Vivian Hynde, charming wastrel son of the shire's biggest sheep-rancher.

The whole town and most of Sheriff Hugh Beringar's garrison turn out to look for her, none more concerned than Naill, the bronzesmith tenant of her gift to the church and caretaker of the rosebush she cherishes.

The author's prolific but unflaggingly inventive Cadfael stories may not be mead for everyone, but they continue to educate, absorb and enchant her legion of fans.

[4]The most recent audio book edition for libraries from Blackstone Audio carries this review: Peters's complex character Brother Cadfael, who applies his forensic skills in an authentic Middle Ages setting, surrounded by other monks, chivalrous knights and flirtatious ladies, has won the author critical acclaim and comparisons with Ngaio Marsh and P.D.

"[6] The description of the clothier trade is also accurate, from "carding and teasing to the loom", "even the dyestuffs came seasonally, and last summer's crop of woad for the blues was generally used up by April or May".

[7] She finds that "Brother Cadfael's continued popularity is the result of the seamless blending of creative mystery plots with historical authenticity, as The Rose Rent beautifully illustrates.

She made one stipulation, that she receive a single white rose from the bush on the property, on the feast day of the translation of Saint Winifred.

The story is set in the real town of Shrewsbury, in the period of the Anarchy, when King Stephen is on the rise after a very rough year in 1141.

During the King's illness early in the year 1142, Empress Maud moved into Oxford, while her staunchest supporter, Robert of Gloucester went over to Normandy for meetings with her husband Geoffrey of Anjou, to give her more help.

In the shire, people focus in June on doing the tasks of agriculture and sheep shearing, delayed by the late frost (longer spell of cold weather in the spring).

The men who have an eye on her and her successful operation are all in the same stratum of society: her foreman, her cousin, a man with large flocks of sheep, a prosperous dyer and fuller, and a bronze smith.

[12] The Rose Rent was adapted into a television program as part of the Brother Cadfael series by Carlton Media and Central for ITV, in Season 3, Episode 1.

It filmed on location in Hungary and starred Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael, Kitty Aldridge as Judith, and Tom Mannion as Niall Bronzesmith.

The most significant change is that Miles (Crispin Bonham-Carter) is motivated not by greed, but by secret love for his cousin, and first attacks the rose bush to convince her to let go of her devotion to her deceased husband.

In the book, there is no such implication; her husband died three years before the novel opens, and references to his death include no hint that Cadfael or the widow acted to hasten his end.