The Rose Rent

The Rose Rent
Cover of the Grand Central Publishing paperback edition
Author(s)	Ellis Peters
Series	Brother Cadfael
Genre(s)	Mystery novel
Publisher	Macmillan
Publication date	1986
Media type	Print (hardcover, paperback) & audio book
Pages	190 pp (hardcover edition), 240 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0333426827 (hardcover edition) , ISBN 0446405337 (paperback edition)
OCLC Number	59097624
Preceded by	The Raven in the Foregate
Followed by	The Hermit of Eyton Forest

The Rose Rent is a medieval mystery novel set in the summer of 1142 by Ellis Peters, first published in 1986. This is the thirteenth novel in the Brother Cadfael series. It was adapted for television in 1997 by Central for ITV.

Explanation of the novel's title

A widow has entered into a charter with the Shrewsbury Abbey in which they take rights to the property where she lived with her deceased husband and daughter. The rent to be paid for the property is a single white rose from the bush on the north wall of the property, which must be delivered to her each year on the feast day of Saint Winifred. The title may also be a pun on the fact that the rose bush is damaged (i.e. 'rent') in a significant scene.

Plot summary

In the spring of 1142 the Benedictine friars of Shrewsbury Abbey are thinking of the approaching feast day of Saint Winifred. On that day the abbey must pay the rent on a piece of property given to it by the widow Judith Perle. Her husband and child died within twenty days of each other four years before. She made a charter with the abbey where the abbey was given her house and gardens where she had lived, in exchange for a single white rose from the garden, to be delivered to her on the feast day of Saint Winifred. Brother Eluric, who has delivered the rose for the past three years, asks Abbot Radulfus to be released from this duty, as he is tormented by his desire for the widow Perle. Abbot Radulfus releases him and with the help of Cadfael he decides to have the rose rent delivered by Niall the bronzesmith, who rents the property from the abbey.

Judith visits the bronzesmith to ask him to repair a girdle, and he is touched by her beauty and loneliness. Judith Perle has several suitors but is not interested in marrying again. She discusses with Sister Magdalen the option of taking the veil and living with the sisters at Godric's Ford. Sister Magdalen convinces her to wait but says that her door is always open if she is in need of a place to rest and think.

Niall, a widower, keeps his young daughter with relatives in nearby Pulley. He returns from an overnight visit and finds that the white rose bush has been hacked up. At its base lies Brother Eluric, dead with a knife by his side. While investigating the scene, Brother Cadfael finds a distinctive footprint and makes a wax impression. Cadfael tells Judith about Brother Eluric's desire for her. Before going to bed that night, Judith tells her servant Branwen that in the morning she will go to the abbey to draw up a new charter and make the gift of the property unconditional. The next day, Judith fails to arrive at the abbey and eventually is presumed missing. Sheriff Hugh Beringar, Cadfael, and Abbot Radulfus believe that Judith may have been kidnapped, perhaps to be forced into a marriage. If the rose is not delivered into her hands on the appointed day, the charter would be broken and the property would be revert to her and her husband. The search begins and Cadfael finds the bronze tag from Judith's girdle that Niall had just repaired for her. It is found under a bridge where a boat had been hauled up in hiding. Cadfael's search of the river with Madog finds a stolen boat discarded downstream on the River Severn.

Bertred, one of Judith's foremen, remembers that on the night that Judith announced that she would be going to the abbey to remake the charter, one of Vivian Hynde's men left suddenly after the announcement. Bertred believes he knows where she is being held. In the middle of the night, he makes his way to Hynde's old counting-house that had been securely shuttered and barred earlier that day. Bertred can hear Judith Perle inside with her gaoler, Vivian Hynde. Vivian is urging Judith to marry him, but she scornfully rejects him. Bertred has been holding onto the sill and it gives way and makes a sound, which alerts those within and the watchman. Bertred runs toward the river to escape. The watchman and his dog follow and the watchman gives him a glancing blow in the head but Bertred dives into the water, hits some rocks and is knocked senseless. He is not followed by either the watchman or the dog as they believe he is across the river.

Back in the counting-house, Judith convinces Vivian to take her to Sister Magdalen, where she will say she has been in retreat during the past days. She promises not to reveal the truth about Vivian. She just wants this episode behind her. Someone comes upon Bertred in the shallows, checks to see if he is alive, and then kicks him out into the current of the river. Cadfael, on a walk along the river the next morning, finds the dead body of Bertred. After examining Bertred's body, Cadfael notices that Bertred's boots are a match for the wax impression of the boot found near the rose bush when Brother Eluric was killed. They have apparently found the murderer of Brother Eluric. Hugh and Cadfael talk to the watchman and discover that Bertred had been at Vivian Hynde's storehouse the night before, where they find the broken window sill. They ask to search within but find nothing, even in the locked room where Judith had been held.

Niall goes to Pulley again to visit his daughter. He would like to bring her home to live with him, but she needs a mother. On his return in the middle of the night, he hears sounds and takes cover, believing he can hear bandits. He sees a man leading a woman on a horse and recognizes her as Judith Perle. He follows them for an hour until he hears Judith tell the man to let her go the rest of the way alone. After the man leaves, Niall approaches closer when suddenly he hears her scream as someone is attacking her with a knife. He struggles with her attacker and eventually knocks the knife away, after getting a gash on his left arm. He and Judith continue to the Benedictine nuns at Godric's Ford. Judith tells Sister Magdalene their story and she agrees to go along with Judith's deception about being with the Sisters for three days. Sister Magdalene accompanies them back to Shrewsbury.

After her reunion at her home, Judith tells her tale of being attacked to Hugh. She tells him the truth about her abduction, adding that after being released by Vivian she just wants the matter to end and will not bear witness against him. She says Vivian was with her when they heard Bertred fall and be chased by the night watchman, so he could not have killed Bertred. Cadfael asks one of Judith Perle's servants to obtain two left shoes for him from her household. The servant returns and Cadfael examines the shoe that belonged to Bertred. It does not match the mold of the print from Brother Eluric's murder. The other shoe does match.

Thinking there might be trouble with the rose bush, Cadfael investigates and finds that the bush is on fire. Someone has covered it with oil and dropped a burning torch on it. The bush is destroyed. Hugh visits Judith Perle and her cousin Miles, who manages her cloth-making business, and asks Miles when he gave his boots to Bertred. Miles' mother reveals that he did it on the day Brother Eluric was found dead. Miles had killed Brother Eluric and later given his boots to Bertred.

Miles confesses, appearing more bewildered than guilty, and he is taken away. Cadfael reasons that Miles, hoping that Judith would enter the convent and leave her shop and property to him, had the idea of destroying the rose bush and causing the house to revert to her estate. But Eluric discovered and attacked him, and Miles stabbed him. Later, he had to kill Bertred, and attempt to kill Judith, when it looked like he was close to being found out. Cadfael and Judith reflect sadly that he never intended to do so much evil, but his first step led him down a path he could not escape.

Later, after Miles is taken away, Niall and his young daughter arrive at Judith's house with a white rose. He had picked it the night before the fire. He delivers the rose rent to her, thus securing the abbey's charter. He begins to leave, but Judith asks him to stay. The implication is that they will marry.

Characters in The Rose Rent

• Brother Cadfael is a Benedictine monk and herbalist at Shrewsbury Abbey in Shrewsbury.
• Hugh Beringar — Sheriff of Shrewsbury
• Abbot Radulfus — Head of Shrewsbury Abbey
• Judith Perle — Widow and sole mistress of the Vertiers' clothier business
• Brother Eluric — a brother at Shrewsbury Abbey
• Sister Magdalen — A sister at the Benedictine cell at Godric's Ford
• Niall — a bronzesmith who had a shop and workshop on the property give to the abbey by Judith Perle
• Miles Coliar — Judith Perle's cousin, he manages the family business for Judith.
• Vivian Hynde — Suitor of Judith Perle, owned the biggest sheep flock in the central western uplands of the shire
• Branwen — Servant girl in the house of Judith Perle.
• Godfrey Fuller — Suitor of Judith Perle, a local merchant
• Bertred — Judith Perle's foreman weaver.
• Madog of the Dead-Boat — An expert in locating people who have drowned in the river Severn.

Literary significance and reception

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."

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The Rose Rent was adapted into a television program as part of the Brother Cadfael series by Central for ITV. It filmed on location in Hungary and starred Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael, Kitty Aldridge as Judith, and Tom Mannion as Niall Bronzesmith.

The adaptation makes some changes from the book. 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.