St. Peter's Fair

Hugh Beringar has to choose between loyalty to the king and friendship with Cadfael when Cadfael puts him to the test. At the annual St Peter's Fair in Shrewsbury, the townspeople come into conflict with the Abbey authorities over the tolls levied on the visiting merchants. When the curfew is ignored, it leads to the murder of one of the wine merchants, but was it a consequence of the scrap between the townsfolk and the merchants, or was there a more substantial motive? Cadfael thinks that something more is going on among those attending the fair.