Hoodsman: Queens and Widows
Page 21
"More likely they will be roasted to please some Bishop."
'Raynar, calm yourself,” said Beatrice softly, "Cristina is bound for Winchester. Now you have good reason to escort her the whole way."
Cristina spoke up. "I fear that Judith's summons was more to do with the healers than a reconciliation with Matilda or the Conqueror. If the queen has sent for healers from the Fens, then William must still be ill,” She looked at Raynar's face, and saw a new look. "What?"
"If the healers open and clean the wound, then William will recover. Ahhh,” he almost cursed the fates, but stopped the words just in time.
* * * * *
They rested in Huntingdon for a week to wait for the latest storm to pass. The state of the highways was getting grimmer, or perhaps grimier would be more correct. When they finally left it was on the Anske and London bound.
In London they immediately searched out Wylie at the Temple stable. The monks from the Temple enclosure had given up on London after the fire, and the stable had leased the monks quarters to Wylie and his crew at a good price, a very good price. This was through arrangements with Prior Tucker of Repton Abbey. When Raynar questioned the low rent, Wylie shrugged his shoulders and told him, "The good brother and the abbey are making a fortune from the cart loads of lead we carry from the Peaks to London for them. They can afford to be generous."
"So the lead mines and the porters are flourishing then? This is indeed good news."
"There is bad with the good,” replied Wylie, "Tucker says that the good fortune of the miners has come to the attention of the Sheriff of Nottingham. He wants a share of the earnings. Typical Norman, instead of doing something useful to increase the earnings, he is building a fort just below the richest mines so that he can enforce a tax. Typical Norman poseur, he is naming it after himself, Peverel Castle."
"Damn them and their castles. I suppose I should have expected it” replied Raynar, "there can be no more typical Norman that the bastard son of William. Did Tucker say what the miners are doing about it?"
"Only that there are fewer Welsh with every month. They have been putting coin aside, and now many have enough to leave the Peaks."
"Also typical Norman,” moaned Raynar, "Those mines will not produce as much without the Welsh. Peverel's greed is ruining a healthy business. I suppose next he will enslave the miners to keep them from leaving."
Cristina interrupted. "I am tired and dirty. Please show me to my chambers."
Cristina, the holiest woman and abbess of all Scotland could not, of course, stay at the Temple, or even take a tour of the quarters that Wylie was slowly making more comfortable, for the covenant on the property was that no women were allowed. While the crew of the Anske stayed in the monks old quarters, Wylie arranged rooms for Cristina and Raynar in a merchant's house nearer to Fleet Street. That night, neither of them could sleep due to the continuous noise of the city. The noise did not even cease after midnight.
The last time Raynar had been in London, it had just been ravaged by the great fire. The entire city was now a building site. Wylie's attitude was not positive. "It used to be that it was mostly English and Danes within the walls. The center of the rebuilt London will be housing mostly foreigners, with the English now living outside the center."
* * * * *
A week later, the four of them, Wylie, Much, Raynar, and Cristina, rode into Winchester. The highway between London and Winchester was safe due to the constant patrols of a highway watch, so Raynar had left the crew of the Anske in London with orders not to wait for him, but to look for a paying cargo. With the building boom in London, that would have taken them all of an hour.
Raynar took Cristina directly to the palace to make her arrival known to the queen. As she entered the gates of the inner palace, where Raynar as an Englishman was prohibited, she promised to send him news of Judith. The men lodged at the Winchester stable with John and Marion and their baby son Acca. No one slept much for two days because there was so much news to share.
Having a child had changed Marion. She was no longer so slim and girl like, though she carried the extra weight well due to her height. She and John were now very much a couple. They were inseparable. Even when John was at his forge works down the road at the old mill, she would put the baby on her hip and spend most of the day close to him.
To be fair, they would all follow John to the forge, for they had much business to discuss. They discussed the carting business, the shipping business, the cargoes, the stables, and the inn that Wylie wanted to create out of the monks quarters at the Temple.
To anyone from outside the group it would seem that these men were the lords of many men, but that was not true. In the carting business, each carter ran his own cart. In the shipping business each captain ran his own ship. Yes, these men were partners in those businesses, but they depended on the men working the equipment to make the decisions. What they now discussed were the trends in these businesses so they could pass on good advice to all their many partners.
There were common threads to these businesses. The businesses were chosen and funded so that their bowmen could earn well in peacetime yet be ready to defend villages against armies if need be. They were chosen so that the men could migrate to follow the earnings, meaning that they did not rely on the ownership of land. They were chosen so that bowmen could stay in touch and pass messages to each other. They were organized to share the risk across many, so that if a few failed, the many continued on and could help those who had failed.
Over the years their past decisions had paid well. Their decision to stay with smaller cogs instead of longships meant they could earn well even from less profitable cargoes. Their decision to use metal hubs on carts meant that they could use horses rather than oxen, which meant faster deliveries and instant access to horses for other purposes.
The opening of an inn was different. The rules of their business were based loosely on their training as skirmishers. The main one was that if one man was taken, the others could still escape. How would that work if many men were living in an inn and one of those men brought hostiles to the inn. Raynar and Wylie saw no problem with this because men would use the inn for short stays only. John and Much stated strongly that there were many inns in London run by others, and they did not need to take such a risk.
Marion stopped the bickering short by pointing out that carters and oarsmen rarely stayed in inns. This inn should be promoted as a service for those who owned the cargoes or who were passengers on the carts and ships. They were still mulling her words when Cristina arrived. She obviously needed to talk to someone, so Raynar took her by the arm and tried to pull her to the side. She would have none of it.
"All of your men must hear what I have to say,” she said freeing herself from Raynar’s hold. "Do you know why Matilda offered me the position of prioress at Romsey? Well it was not because of my royal blood. It was because of the refugee camp that I was running on the Tyne. Do you know what William is planning to do in the spring?"
She calmed herself and looked around at them, and began again. "Romsey is on the edge of land that William has marked for afforestation. The town will be flooded with refugees pushed off their forest land and out of their forest villages."
"The Forest Law,” said Raynar, "then it has come to be."
"What is that?” asked John, "A new law."
"It is not a law so much as an enclosure,” replied Raynar, "You know, like a young family does to claim the land of their hut and kitchen garden. But this is an enclosure of an entire forest."
"This spring,” continued Cristina, "William will afforest all the in-common land between Salisbury and the coast. They will move the folk and their animals off the land, and burn their homes. It will be like a harrowing but without the slaughter. I have been brought here to keep the folk healthy until they can be herded to their new lives as serfs."
"But from Salisbury to the coast is thirty miles, and most of it is low rolling hills with a few woodlots and a
few copses around giant trees. There is no dense forest.” said John.
"Over thirty parishes, thousands of folk, all to be turned off their land and then sold to lords that need serfs,” fumed Cristina. She turned to John, "In Latin foresta does not mean a forest as you know it, but wild land. Land without husbandry or settlement. William will turn it into a place of wildness, where his word is law. No one will be allowed to hunt but by his say, or gather wood, or trap, or fish."
Cristina was shaking, she was so upset. Marion handed Acca to John and went to her and put her arms around her and comforted her. She saw men at the road who must have been her escort from the palace and she waved them away. "Come home with me, for you do not need a palace tonight, you need a home."
When the men were alone, Wylie said to John, "Do we have any carters from that land?"
"Some, not many."
"It sounds like it would be better for the folk to move to villages closer to Winchester, than to wait until their families are cleared and sold."
Raynar spoke weakly, "So we save a few. So what. I know something that the rest of you do not. The forest law is not just for land around Winchester. It is for all in-common land in the kingdom, especially the near to Norman strongholds."
"But that is where the folk run to escape serfdom,” said Much.
"Only the men run,” replied Raynar, "for the women there is no escape. For English wombs there is no escape. That was the last thing that Britta ever taught me."
John's hand came down hard on a work bench and it sagged under the blow of his ham fist. "So what can we do?” He knew the answer as soon as he asked it. "Kill William."
"Yes,” said Raynar, "but now we must be very careful to make it look like an accident. Any Normans that are to die for their misdeeds in the creation of this new forest, must die by accident. We all know what the Normans did before when we ambushed Normans. Murdrum. The closest village was fined into slavery, or slaughtered in retribution. That must not happen again. It must always be by accident, and if it will not look like one, then do nothing. I vote that we not warn the folk of their danger."
"There is going to be a lot of accidents, then,” said John who was now bent over inspecting the damage he had done to the table.
"No, not you John, and not you Wylie or you Much. You wear our business face. If you are caught it will bring down everything. Let others do the dirty work and keep any blame far away from you."
"What about you, Ray,” said John. "You are the business face of our ships."
"No, the captains are. All else that I do, can also be done by Hereward and Klaes or by the women, Beatrice, Judith and Roas."
* * * * *
* * * * *
The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows by Skye Smith
Chapter 23 - Cristina decides in Winchester in November 1080
Cristina stayed with them at Marion's house for a few days. She was whisper quiet and spent most of her day watching the bouncing boy for Marion. When she finally spoke to them all again, it was around the dinner table, after the meal, and after Marion had put Acca to bed.
"I have decided what I shall do.” she said.
"A ship back to Scotland can't sail until the winter storms have passed love,” said Raynar, "so you may as well enjoy the milder winters here and enjoy Matilda's court for a few months."
"You jump to conclusions,” Cristina scolded him. "I will stay. I must stay. Matilda wants me to save lives and keep families together. That is important work. I cannot refuse. It is the continuation of the work I was doing for Margaret, but now it is for Matilda."
They were all silent. Marion reached over and held her hand.
"You will laugh when you hear what decided me,” She looked to the rafters so she wouldn't be embarrassed by her own vanity. "I was presented at court as a princess and the sister of a queen and of Edgar who was for a short time a king. While being introduced, some of the knights in the audience recognized me from the Tyne.
They shouted: It is the Valkyrie from the bridge on the Tyne. When they were asked to apologize for their unseemly outburst, they said that I was the tall woman who blocked the entire Norman army by standing alone on a bridge with a bow nocked and asking that Bishop Odo step forth so I could spit him. At court I am now known as the Lady of the Bridge."
She looked down from the rafters and smiled at them. "Well they only exaggerated a little of the story, but then Matilda stood and told the audience that it was all true, and that the men of the court should treat me with respect else she, the queen will ensure they are well spitted."
She looked at them sheepishly, "Well I have never been the center of attention before. All my life it was always Margaret or Edgar. But now I am known to every commander under William as a formidable woman, and that will help me with my work at Romsey."
"That story must have irked Robert,” interrupted Raynar, "as he was leading the army at the time."
"Oh, he and Judith are not at the palace. They are in Southampton together.” Cristina saw Raynar clench his fist and decided to change the subject. "The healers that she brought have been treating William. Matilda has dressed them in Norman clothes so that they look respectable at court, but the healers are angry at her and swear they will go home soon."
"Why is that?” asked Raynar unclenching his fist.
"Because Matilda will not let them dig deep into William's wound to find and clear whatever is corrupting it. The healers think it is simply a piece of foul cloth, but pushed deep by the arrow. Matilda does not trust them to go that deep. They have opened the wound and have cleansed it to beneath the skin, so he is feeling much much better and his fever is gone, but they tell me that his new health will not last. The corruption will bubble up again in a month or two."
"Excellent,” said Raynar joyously. "so Matilda has killed him then."
"I doubt it,” said Cristina. "Judith and her healers will be kept here all winter. If the infection begins again as the healers predict, then Matilda will relent."
"Then we must spirit the healers away."
"You need do nothing. There are priests and physicians already pressuring to have them gone,” said Cristina, "or burned. Perhaps they will need your help when they become so frightened that they flee."
John, always practical, said, "If you are to be the Abbess of Romsey, then we only need to spirit them to your door. You could put them in habits and welcome their help in your work."
"Ah John,” smiled Cristina, "you have stumbled upon my first task. I must soon tour my nunnery at Romsey to see for myself what mettle of woman is in habit there. I need tough, useful women, not disowned ladies who don't want to get their hands dirty. I may have to send to Scotland for some of my women from the Tyne."
"Nah, love,” said John, "this kingdom is filled with the finest and most useful widows you may ever wish to know. You just have to gather them and talk them into wearing the veil."
"Just keep Johnny 'ere away from dem widows,” jested Much.
John went red in the face, but Marion came to his rescue, "John is my husband now. He no longer comforts widows. I am all the woman he needs.” She knew immediately what the other men were thinking. "Hah, you have seen the size of the baby I birthed. Now even John feels small."
"Umm, yes,” said Cristina, not quite understanding. "My second task is to take the veil myself, for though I have more or less ruled the nunneries of Scotland for a dozen odd years, I myself have never taken the vows.” She looked at Raynar and reached to touch him, "I am old now, thirty six, an old maid. Too old to start a family. This work for Matilda will take years, not months. It is time for me to devote myself to the church."
Marion looked from Cristina to Raynar and back again, "Oh Cristina, that is a forever decision. Are you sure? Why don't you and Ray go into my room and talk about it in private."
Cristina rose and pulled Raynar across the room and through a doorway. She sat on the bed and pulled him down beside her. "Marion is very wise for one so young."
"She already knows what I am going to ask you."
"So do I. The answer is no. We have been friends for a long time and respect each other as friends. If I take your virginity, we will share that one event but risk our friendship forever."
"I am not a virgin,” she looked at him, "Oh you men, you think you know everything. Since the Normans invaded England, every English woman has been raped at least once. Do you think I escaped unscathed? Me, a princess of England?” She sat still. "Unfortunately, my only experiences have been from rape. Before I take my vows, I would like to experience how soft and gentle it can be."
He sat very still thinking, but then realized that he needed to accept her gift quickly else she would feel the grief of rejection. "Then so be it, however we must protect your good name, so we must go away from here, and away from the court. You will need a disguise, perhaps dress as one of your useful widows."
"We could always go to Southampton,” she said and laughed aloud at how the suggestion shocked him. "Oh come now. You have shared Judith with Robert before. Why do you think they are at Southampton and away from Matilda's spies?” She shook him to get his attention again and suddenly felt guilty about teasing him. "It is just beyond Romsey. I could inspect the nunnery first, so that I can start making plans, and then we could continue on to Southampton and live together while I make my plans."
* * * * *
The captains wife who had rented them her house was knocking on the wall again. Cristina was moaning again, and too loudly for respectable neighbours. She put a hand across her mouth. He was being careful to use only his left hand, for the archer's calluses on his string fingers of his right hand were too rough for soft caresses.
It had taken him a few days to find Cristina's rhythm and match it to an old Welsh tune from his childhood in the Peaks. Each woman enjoyed a certain rhythm best, and yet each was slightly different. Once he discovered a woman's rhythm he remembered it by fitting it to a tune. Even when he thought back to women he had known, their tune sprang into his head more easily than their names.