The Hermit of Eyton Forest (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #14), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road (ASIN: ‎B00LUZNWNG), 2014 (originally published in 1987).

Summary: A hermit’s arrival brings death and mayhem in a quarrel over a boy’s fate, damage to Eyton Forest, and a search for a fugitive villein.

Richard Ludel is a spirited ten year old boy being educated at Shrewbury Abbey. Richard’s father, severely wounded in the war between Stephen and Maud, entrusted him to the care of Abbot Radulfus. Brother Paul sits Richard down in the fall of 1142 to tell him his father has died. He is now the lord of Eaton Manor. Because Richard is a minor, Sheriff Beringar oversees the manor and steward John of Longwood ably care for it. But they have not reckoned with another interested party, Richard’s grandmother, Dame Dionesia.

She comes to the funeral with her newly acquired hermit, Cuthred and his assistant, a young man named Hyacinth. He lives in a hermitage in Eyton Forest, between the manor and the abbey. She demands that Richard return with her. Richard knows it is part of her design to marry him off to the much older daughter of an adjacent landowner. Having accepted the charge by Richard’s father to educate him until his majority, Abbot Radulfus refuses the request.

Suddenly, Eyton Forest, on which the abbey depends, turns hostile. Hyacinth brings a message that it is due to the boy being withheld from his grandmother that all this is occurring. Then a tree falls on Eilmund, forester of the abbey. Hyacinth rescues him and fetches Brother Cadfael to attend him. Hyacinth meets Annet, Eilmund’s daughter. Immediately they are smitten with each other.

With the arrival of Drogo Bosiet, Peters introduces a new plot element. Drogo seeks his fugitive villein, a talented young man, Brand. Brother Jerome tells Bosiet that a man fitting the description is Cuthred’s assistant. Young Richard overhears the conversation. Previously, Hyacinth had treated Richard with kindness. Now Richard returns the favor and sets off to warn Hyacinth. Meanwhile, Drogo also goes after Hyacinth. Neither returns to the abbey.

The next day, Cadfael goes to the forest to check on Eilmund. He finds Bosiet’s riderless horse on the path to the hermitage. Soon, he finds Bosiet as well–stabbed in the back. Meanwhile, back at the abbey, the brothers discover Richard’s absence. Hugh and his men scour the countryside, both to find Richard, and Hyacinth, the leading suspect in the murder.

Once again, Cadfael and Hugh engage in a delicate dance of “don’t ask; don’t tell.” Cadfael knows where Hyacinth is hiding and that he couldn’t be the murderer. Both know that to capture Hyacinth means turning him over to Bosiet’s son. And Bosiet’s son is as vicious as the father. And when Cuthred is murdered, both Hugh and Cadfael walk a line that distinguishes justice from law.

This one finishes delightfully. The abbot gets the last laugh while Dame Dionesia gets her comeuppance. And don’t forget that there is a love story. Peters loves to throw these into her plots. In this story, she expertly weaves three subplots together. And for once, she tells a story that turns more on what Cadfael does not do.