1. The story opens in the days leading up to St. Peter's Fair, a time when merchants from all over England and Wales sell their wares as guests of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. This year, the citizens of Shrewsbury are unhappy, and they complain to the abbot. Why? They hate strangers and want the fair to be canceled. They are unhappy with the merchants whom the abbey has invited; they demand a wider selection of goods. They think it's sacrilegious for a holy monastery to be involved in a money-making enterprise. They want a share of the proceeds from the fair.

2. On the evening before the fair, Brother Cadfael is sent to translate for one of the more important merchants. What language, relatively rare in Shrewsbury, does he speak? Greek Gaelic Welsh French

3. Several aggrieved youngsters from the town come to the wharf to plead their case to the merchants unloading their wares. One merchant, Thomas of Bristol, comes to blows with the youths' leader. What is the name of this young shoemaker, son of the town's provost? Ivo Corbière Rhodri ap Huw Turstan Fowler Philip Corviser

4. Thomas of Bristol has a beautiful niece and heiress, Emma Vernold, who turns heads wherever she goes. It is she who comes to Cadfael, and to his friend Hugh Beringar the deputy sheriff, when her uncle is late coming home on the night before the fair. Where is her uncle's body found the next morning? In a narrow passage between booths at the fair In the Severn River Balanced in the lower branches of a tree Locked inside his own booth at the fair

5. Without her uncle to chaperone her on their barge, and with a murderer about, Emma clearly cannot stay on the ship. Who takes her as a guest, for her protection? Sheriff Gilbert Prestcote and his lady, Isabelle Abbot Radulfus Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar and his lady, Aline The Corviser family

6. The mystery deepens when Emma's uncle's barge is broken into and searched, a fact she discovers in Cadfael's presence. What does she claim was stolen? the mermaid figurehead of the ship a portrait of her uncle and a bag of gold coins a small metal clasp and a pair of embroidered gloves a stack of fine linens

7. In the midst of all this tragedy, love blooms. The provost's son, under suspicion of murdering her uncle, is clearly in love with Emma. She is also being genteelly courted by a nobleman staying at the abbey, a handsome man of what name? Hugh Beringar Ivo Corbière Gilbert Prestcote Adam Courcelle

8. Thomas of Bristol's booth is ransacked; the thieves take only the strongbox. Brother Cadfael begins to suspect that Emma knows exactly what they're looking for, a suspicion confirmed when she slips away one morning to make contact with the person she's supposed to hand the item over to. But her contact is found murdered. Who was he? Rhodri ap Huw, the Welsh trader Martin Bellecote, the carpenter Wat the innkeeper Euan of Shotwick, the glover

9. Examining the crime scene, Cadfael realizes that the latest victim managed to wound his attacker, a fact which allows them to track him down. In whose employ is the murderer? Abbot Radulfus Hugh Beringar Ivo Corbière Gilbert Prestcote

10. It's a good thing Emma is level-headed, because she ends up face-to-face with the man who plotted her uncle's murder and is now willing to murder her in order to get what object? A letter to King Stephen, revealing the location of treasure buried by King Arthur An ancient mask made of pure gold A letter to Earl Ranulf, listing the important noblemen who have secretly taken Maud's side in the civil war A letter to Earl Ranulf, divulging insider trading information that could make a man rich