The Wicked Winter — Kate Sedley

Despite the chills of winter, Roger the chapman relishes the freedom of his calling. Journeying west, he finds himself following in the footsteps of an itinerant preacher, Brother Simeon, whose sermons are the talk of the countryside. Roger, who's met the friar before and finds his zeal wearying, is less than enthused when they meet beneath the roof of Cederwell Manor where Simeon has come to pray with Lady Cederwell, and Roger to sell her his wares.

But Lady Cederwell is in no state to receive either man. For scarcely have they arrived when she is found dead, the circumstances of her demise strangely fulfilling the prophecy of a babbling hermit Roger had met on the road. Suddenly, the friar and the chapman are united in their aim, to discover the truth behind the death at Cederwell Manor...