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SUMMARY: Judith Perle, a young widow who had greatly loved her husband, has conveyed one of her properties to the Abbey of Shrewsbury in return for the annual rent of one white rose from the bush growing on the property's north wall. A few years later, in 1142, the delivery of the rose became an issue, since there were men in Shrewsbury who desired Judith for her beauty or her substantial dowry. The first crisis appears to have been averted by the handling of the monks of the Benedictine Abbey, among them Brother Cadfael. But a sudden brutal murder cries out for investigation and punishment...