January, 1144. Hugh Bradecote does not want his betrothed heading off on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Edgyth at Polesworth, but the Archbishop of Canterbury '?" s envoy and his entourage of monks seem Heaven-sent as escorts, right up until they are captured by a renegade who wants his forger out of the lord sheriff '?" s cells; a renegade who loathes the Benedictines, and kills for pleasure. Against a backdrop of a hard winter and even a frozen...