'A Morbid Taste for Bones', tx. 25/8/1996

The young novice Brother Columbanus suffers a fit, and has a vision of St Winifred. This is seen as a sign that Winifred belongs in the abbey, and Abbot Radulfus sends Cadfael and some others to Wales to retrieve her.

Lord Rhysart is in charge of the village where the bones are buried, and his daughter Sioned is due to marry Peredur but loves the ox-herder Godwin. The monks arrive and are received by hostile villagers who revere St Winifred. Prior Robert tries to bribe Rhysart, but he tells the monks to leave by dawn or be killed. As dawn rises Cadfael finds Rhysart dead with an arrow in his chest. The locals identify Godwin's arrow and pursue him from the village, but Cadfael realises that in fact Rhysart was stabbed to death. The monks now become suspects, so Cadfael promises they will stay and help to identify the murderer.

Cadfael talks to Peredur, who has helped Godwin to flee, and confronts Sioned when he realises she has seen Godwin since he left the village. She counters this by telling Cadfael to test the monks by having them place their hand on Rhysart's body to see if blood will rise. When Sioned later asks the monks to look after her father's body, she notices that Jerome refuses to touch it, and takes this as a sign of guilt.

Meanwhile, Columbanus has another vision, and he tells the assembled throng that he is to be a unifying force between the monks and villagers, and that Rhysart should be buried in Winifred's grave, while her bones are taken away to the abbey. The villagers find this suspicious, but their priest, Ianto, agrees that the bones can be disinterred, but removed only after Rhysart's murder is solved. The monks disinter the bones, and put the body in the reliquary. Peredur confesses that he pushed the arrow into Rhysart's body to scare off Godwin, and thus have Sioned to himself.

Jerome feels guilty about Rhysart's death because he nurtured feelings of hate towards him. Cadfael realises that on the night of the murder Jerome was drugged by Columbanus, and he gently confronts him. Columbanus confesses to murdering Rhysart, but is accidentally killed in a struggle with Godwin. Cadfael realises Columbanus's death will be politically difficult, so he secretly has his body placed in the reliquary and returns St Winifred's bones to the villagers.