The Shield

by CJ Bentley

  “Okay Sir Kay, just where are we, or, should I ask, when are we? I don’t know just what happened but I am guessing our time just changed from 1962 to…?” I looked around me as I said this and noticed in the distance a curl of smoke climbing towards the periwinkle blue sky.

  “My Lady Eleanor, we are now in the time of King Edward, both my liege and my friend. My Lord, your father and I have served him these past years and will serve him until the end of time.” Sir Kay was looking upwards as he spoke; whether he was looking for something in particular or for divine inspiration, I was not sure.

  “Come my Lady, we must make haste.” He put his hand to his mouth and made a low whistling noise.

  His horse appeared on the horizon and made its way towards us. Sir Kay gave me his hand for me to mount, and I put my foot in the cup both of his hands made and launched myself onto his horse’s back. He gathered up the reins and jumped up behind me and we set off at a walk first and then a steady canter, not knowing where we were going, or, when I was now living. Which century? Which King Edward? There were a few King Edwards I seemed to recall; just which one and when in history were we going to meet? All would be revealed, I guessed, as we steadily rode along the rough pathway…

  It was some time before I became aware we were approaching a small village. Houses made out of what looked like caked mud with rough straw rooves, and wooden doors with gaps which looked to me like they wouldn’t keep out the cold winds in winter. One of the doors opened and a stooped old man, dressed in a belted tunic and loose fitting trousers tied at the lower leg with leather bindings, saw us approaching and called out to us.

  “Sir Kay?” He made as if to make a quick return into his house as he watched to see if it really was Sir Kay, then he saw me riding in front of the knight and came towards us smiling.

  “My Lady Eleanor, your father has been searching for you these past few hours. We are pleased to see you safe and rescued.” He looked relieved and gave me a beaming smile.

  I have to admit to feeling a bit strange; going to another time didn’t feel half as strange as being recognised whilst in it by somebody I had never seen before in my short life. Thankfully, Sir Kay smiled down at the man and spoke for me.

  “I found her some way away, taken a wrong turn on her morning walk to go fishing, but all is well now, Manny. I will take her to the castle and to her father, you can call off the search.” Sir Kay and I rode on past the row of houses. I smiled at the man. If he knew me then I ought to at least recognise that fact.

  As we rode past the row of houses people came out to see what was going on. A few waved at us, so I decided to be friendly and waved back, smiling at them all. One child of around four or five peeped out at me from behind his mother’s skirts timidly, so I gave him a really big smile. It wasn’t long before we climbed a hill where a stone built castle wall came into view. Sir Kay rode towards the wall and the drawbridge and portcullis entry into the castle. A few guards were on duty but when they saw Sir Kay they started waving and smiling, and one of them came towards us.

  “Sir Kay and Lady Eleanor, your father will be pleased to find you home, my Lady.” He bowed low and took hold of Sir Kay’s horse’s reins and started leading us through the entry and into the main area inside the castle’s walls.

  “Is my Lord in the main hall?” Sir Kay enquired.

  “No, Sir Kay, my Lord is heading the search party for the Lady Eleanor. I will organise a rider to find him and tell of the Lady’s return.” The guard glanced up at me and I thought I glimpsed a look of relief on his face.

  “Thank you for your trouble.” My nerves disappeared and my manners returned to me; he looked up at me again but this time with a look of disbelief.

  Why was that I wondered, had I not been the easiest of children in this time? I felt a little uneasy. I would have to be careful and watch and listen and bite my tongue, not easy for me who spoke without thinking most of the time.

  I looked around me with interest as Sir Kay dismounted and handed me carefully to the ground. The guard took Sir Kay’s horse away to a row of buildings where I assumed the horses were kept. I made a mental note to investigate my surroundings at a later stage when all this searching business had died down.

  “Sir Kay?” I looked towards my very own knight in shining armour. “Where am I?”

  “My Lady Eleanor, you are home. Your father in this time, my Lord, you will meet again when he returns shortly. As far as everyone here thinks you have been missing for a few hours only, not a surprise as you do like to walk alone and you ride your horse alone too. You also like to go fishing by yourself and your father worries about you being so independent, but he loves you very much and as you are his only child he lets you have your way, not that he could ever stop you of course.” I didn’t realise Sir Kay could speak for such a long time, he was usually a man of few words.

  “Home is where?” I enquired, hoping to tie him down to a place I would recognise.

  “You have not lived at Preston Castle for long, my Lady, you moved here for your ‘father’ to be closer to the borders to help the King maintain some sort of peace with the Scots.” My goodness, he was on a roll.

  “My ‘father’ must have a name, Sir Kay, I will need to know what he is called when I meet him.” I thought this was logical.

  “Yes my Lady, your ‘father’ has a name, your ‘father’, for this time being, is Lord Preston of Preston Castle but you always call him Papa.” Sir Kay beamed at me.

  Right, I thought, time for a recap. I was in a time other than my own time, with a father different to my own father, no sister and no mother had been mentioned and if that guard’s look when I thanked him was anything to go by I was a girl who didn’t have very good manners. I would have to be careful. Sir Kay didn’t seem worried about any of this but I was more than worried. What if they realised I wasn’t their Lady Eleanor? I might be carted down to the dungeons and tortured by the rack, stretching me a few extra inches in height. Hey, but that would make me taller than Hugh and Richard, always try and think of the positives! I could hear Hugh’s voice in my ear again.

  I was getting pretty upset though. Sir Kay didn’t seem to think anything was wrong and all would turn out right in the end and I had to trust him. Bit difficult that bit, trusting a person I didn’t know in a time I didn’t know. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

  “Come my Lady, you must be hungry and wanting to rest before your father returns.” Sir Kay waved me in front of him towards the castle’s main doorway. It was a huge wooden door studded with black metal studs and the biggest door knocker I had ever seen. As we approached the door it suddenly swung open and a female figure appeared dressed in a dull red gown with a flowing headdress in the same colour.

  “Oh my Lady, where have you been, your father has been beside himself for these past hours.” She bobbed a curtsey as she came towards us. “Look at your dress, we must wash and change you before he returns. Come quickly, thank you for your help Sir Kay, we will see you at table for dinner tonight, yes?” With this she took hold of my hand and led me through the doorway into a cold, stone built entry hall, with staircases to the left and right. I was ushered quickly through the hall towards the left side and up the stairs to the landing above, where I could look down at the doorway. Poor Sir Kay was left in the hall with his mouth open; Glenda had not given him a chance to reply. I watched as Sir Kay waved his arm at me and gave me a smile which I thought said all was well.

  It didn’t feel like all was well though, as this was the first time I was on my own.

  I need not have worried. Glenda, for that was her name, talked non-stop whilst undressing me, bathing me (that was an experience I would not like to repeat) then finding me another dress to wear from a big carved wooden chest at the bottom of what I guessed must be my bed, in my own room. I noticed a variety of colours in the chest and felt pleased when she chose another blue dress for me, as blue is my favourite colour. I looked around my room and I saw my bed was wooden
and carved and with a large tapestry hung all around it like curtains, which matched the bed cover, all different shades of blues. There were rushes on the stone floor and a big fireplace on one wall with a fire laid, ready to light. A tall window on the opposite side wall looked out over the lands below.

  Glenda found a brush from the wooden chest and used it to brush my hair and then she braided it and arranged the braids on the top of my head, something I had seen Linda’s mum do for her on occasions but I nearly always had my hair chopped off when it got too long to cope with. It was a plan to do just that, but later on in the holidays as Mum said the sun always made my hair grow quickly.

  Glenda stopped what she was doing as she looked at my face where big tears welled in my eyes. “Now my Lady, stop that. Your father will not be angry with you, he has never been angry with you since the day you were born and he is not going to start now so dry those eyes.” Little did she know it was the thought of my Mum that had made me feel sad.

  “Come now, let’s get you down to the hall for ’tis time for food and drink to make you feel better, nothing like a mug of beer and some meat to give you energy again.”

  Beer, what’s that all about? My Dad drank a beer on special occasions, like Christmas, or when Mum and he went out for a night out to a dance, or for a birthday meal but I had never had any, nor wanted any. As for meat, I had been bordering on becoming a vegetarian many times but my Mum was such a good cook and adamantly refused to cook different food for me than for the rest of the family, so it was on hold until I got older and could cook for myself.

  I followed her out of my room and down the staircase to the entry hall where we took a right turn under the staircase opposite, to enter a large hall almost the size of a football pitch. The stone walls were covered in tapestries of all colours and designs, hunting scenes mainly but some of trees and fruit. Hung amongst the tapestries were a selection of swords, shields and mean looking axes on long poles with spikes on the top. At the end of the room was a huge stone fireplace with a stone mantle-shelf and I counted four wooden doors, one in each corner of the room. A large carved table with an ornately carved chair in the middle behind it and benches either side stood in front of the fireplace. On each side of the hall were long tables with benches either side, placed so all sitting could observe the main table. It all made me feel very small. I still hadn’t come to any conclusions as to what time in history I was placed in. The rushes on the floor areas made me think it was medieval but there was glass in the windows of the castle, which could make it much later. I hoped it was a peaceful time but I had a feeling I was going to be disappointed on that score from the small amount Sir Kay had explained.

  “Oh my, my Lord is taking his time to return, I hope he has not run into any bandits.” Glenda looked at me with a worried look on her face.

  “Bandits?” I enquired. So that sort of answered my earlier thoughts, I was not in a peaceful time at all. I glanced up at the armoury hung around the walls and wondered if they were placed there for ease if called to battle stations. I hoped not, as I didn’t think I was strong enough to hold many of the weapons displayed. Hugh and Richard would be in their element here. I remembered how they couldn’t wait to visit all the weaponry at the museum when my Dad had taken us all after our school visit. I was full of enthusiasm for all things medieval and had enjoyed my conversation with the curator so much I wanted to visit again. We did, but he was not around which had upset me a little.

  I was starting to feel upset again but there was suddenly a commotion at the main door and a tall well-built man strode into the hall and striding towards us, gathered me up in his strong arms and twirled me around in a big bear hug. I have to say he had a strange smell around him, like he needed to bathe immediately.

  “Eleanor, what have you been up to this day? I have ridden out these past hours looking for you and thank goodness Sir Kay found you, come sit and tell me what you have been up to, my girl.” With that, he took my hand after depositing me on the floor again and led me towards the big table at the end of the room in front of the fireplace. I felt I had to play along with this charade or this ‘father’ might not be as jovial as he first seemed, so I decided to stick as near to the truth as I could.

  “I decided to go fishing, Papa.” I looked up at his face to see what his reaction would be and if I needed to run to the nearest sword to swing it around to protect myself, but all the time thinking if I did manage to reach one it would probably fall on my head and finish me off. I need not have worried, Glenda’s words were correct. My ‘Papa’ could forgive me anything. He bent his head back and laughed as loud a laugh as I had ever heard.

  “My girl, my wonderful girl, how I wish I could go fishing too.” He took his time to stop the laughter and took my hand in his two plate sized ones and looked at me a little seriously.

  “Now is not the time to go fishing alone, Eleanor. Things are not as they should be here. I did think I explained how serious things are for the King and for the supporters of the King, we must be vigilant and I don’t want you to leave the castle walls without a guard from now on.” I gulped. How on earth was I to get back to my time if I had to have a guard with me?

  “Papa, I was not in any danger, I can take care of myself, you have taught me well.” I decided to play along and try to assure him no harm had come to me, which was not really the truth, as it was more harm; not in a physical way of course, but I did think what had happened to me was much worse than breaking an arm. (I had never broken an arm but I did remember Hugh breaking one of his last summer and having a pot put on it at the hospital. He kept on saying it didn’t hurt much. I don’t know if I believed him, I felt he was being brave because we were all together when he did it down at the tree swing and we had to walk him back across the five fields to get him home. His dad took him to the hospital to get it sorted and we all drew things on his pot when he came home that night. The worst thing was he couldn’t go swimming for ages until it was taken off.)

  “Eleanor, please take it as an order, not a request.” He spoke firmly but looked at me still smiling then gestured to the side for me to sit.

  I sat down and an army of servants arrived with food and drink, platters of meat, nothing I recognised, tankards of what I thought must be beer and great chunks of bread. It was then I realised I was starving hungry – travelling back in time gave you an appetite – so I tucked in.

  The ‘beer’ tasted wonderful, not the same as the taste of Dad’s beer I had tried at Christmas, that made me pull a face it was so strong and bitter tasting. No, this tasted like malted honey and I immediately felt better after drinking it. I was later told it was mead, not beer. I enjoyed the bread, which was like the bread Mum sometimes made, brown with bits of whole wheat in it, really tasty. As for the meat, I tried a little of what I thought was chicken, a really skinny chicken. It didn’t really taste like chicken and I had the awful thought it could be rabbit, so I left it alone. The servants arrived back at the table with bowls of fruit and what looked like a jelly. I helped myself to an apple as I thought the jelly could be made of goodness knows what. My ‘father’ tucked in to all on offer, only stopping eating and drinking to greet people as they arrived and took their seats in the hall. Glenda came and sat next to me and watched me eat and drink with a curious look on her face.

  Sir Kay strode confidently into the hall. Out of his armour he looked much smaller. He bowed low to my ‘father’. “My Lord, I have recovered the item we were missing for you.” He looked at me as he spoke and my ‘father’ turned towards me.

  “Yes Sir Kay, I thank you once again for bringing back my most precious item, I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to this precious girl.” I gulped on my drink as he spoke and looked down at my plate.

  How on earth was I going to get out of this scrape, how would I find a replacement for myself? Oh Sir Kay, I thought, we need to have a serious talk.

  “My Lord, you are most welcome. I have also recovered another item w
hich we thought lost for all time, we must plan a visit to the King at the earliest convenience.” With that, Sir Kay bowed low again as my ‘father’ raised his eyebrows at Sir Kay and beckoned him to sit down at the table to eat and drink.

  I couldn’t eat another thing. My mind was whizzing. I needed to talk to Sir Kay as soon as possible but if he and my ‘father’ were going off to visit the King then it would be some time before I would be able to and I needed my questions answering as soon as possible. I waited as Sir Kay ate and drank his fill. I noticed he drank sparingly, and like me ate little of the suspicious meat. Whilst he ate I observed the other diners at our table and those that came in and sat at the tables to the side. Those at our table were quite well dressed, but those at the side tables seemed to be wearing the same sort of tunics and trousers tied to their legs with braiding. Guards stood either side of the doors; they were dressed in armour with swords at their sides and one held one of the really big axes from off the wall. I later found out they were called halberds. I was not going to be allowed to escape from this hall easily, best play my part until I found out from Sir Kay what my destiny was to be.

  “Papa, I am tired, may I be excused from table?” I curtsied low, at least I did the best I could without falling over.

  “Of course my child, you must be tired after the excitement of the day, sleep well.” I hoped I would make it back to my room alone without Glenda, but as I rose from the table she did too and came to stand at my side. Okay, I thought, if this was my gaoler I was going to have to shake her off as best I could.

  “Sir Kay, I thank you for coming to my aide today, I have something I wish to discuss with you about what we found today, could you please spare me a minute of your time?” I looked at Sir Kay with my persuasive look. Hugh always told me I could get anybody to do anything with my persuasive look.