The Bastard's Son

by H A CULLEY

  An hour later she found Wulfric in the hall at Peak’s Cavern talking to young Leofric and the bailiff.

  ‘Hallo Edith. What bring you here?’ Wulfric asked with a smile, which quickly faded when he saw her grim face. ‘There’s no problem at Edale is there?’ he asked anxiously.

  ‘Look around you, Wulfric. What do you see?’

  The steward looked around the hall, puzzled.

  ‘Nothing. It all looks clean and tidy to me. What’s your point?’

  They had been in the middle of discussing a serious dispute between two of Leofric’s freemen when Edith had arrived and he was getting impatient, especially as her interruption seemed to him to have been unnecessary.

  ‘And how would you say your own house compares to this?’

  Wulfric reddened when he realised the point she was making. He wasn’t used to looking after his own property and he tended to leave it to the cook. He knew the man was indolent but he didn’t know what to do about it. His solution was to ignore the problem. However, he was sensitive about the subject and now become defensive.

  ‘That’s no concern of yours! How I chose to live my life and run my household is up to me,’ he barked at her.

  Edith was taken aback. She was used to him deferring to her as Hugo’s chatelaine and she wasn’t prepared for his rudeness. Both Leofric and the bailiff were astounded by Wulfric’s uncharacteristic outburst and looked at the ground in embarrassment. Edith stood there for a moment, the colour draining from her face, before she abruptly turned on her heels and left the hall.

  ‘That was uncalled for, uncle,’ Leofric told him angrily.

  ‘Mind your place, boy! You’re not yet lord of this manor, you’re a lowly squire and I’m a knight and Sir Hugo’s steward; don’t you forget it.’

  With that Wulfric stormed out of the hall and, grabbing the reins of his horse from his startled squire, he started to ride back to Edale until he realised that was where Edith would be heading. He didn’t want another confrontation, with her or anyone else. He knew that he had reacted stupidly when, no doubt, she only wanted to offer him some advice, but his pride was involved. Telling his squire that he needed to be alone, he left him staring after him and he turned his horse’s head towards the steep path out of the gorge that ran between Peak’s Cavern and Hope. As he wasn’t in armour, he was riding a jennet and the nimble footed animal struggled manfully to make its way up the near vertical incline. It nearly fell at one point and Wulfric realised that he was being stupid. He turned so that it could zig zag its way up the slope. Eventually they made it to the top and the open moorland beyond.

  The horse stood there, its flanks heaving, to recover and Wulfric looked back into the gorge where he could see his squire looking up at him. Seeing that his master had made it safely to the top, the lad kicked his heels into his rouncey’s side and he continued on his way on to Hope, and from there northwards to Edale.

  Wulfric dismounted and sat on the ground looking across the gorge to the wilderness beyond and thought what a fool he’d been. He’d have to go and apologise to Edith and, he supposed, to Leofric as well. Of more concern was what he should do about his household. The cook would have to go, he supposed, but the man was cheap and he had little money to spare for servants as it was. That led him to wonder whether, as steward, he really needed a squire. Herbert didn’t have one as steward of the vastly more widespread and numerous manors in the Cheviots, but then he wasn’t a knight. Although he was, he suspected that his fighting days were over; he was a man of business now, not a soldier. Of course, he’d have to find a suitable position for the boy.

  However, although that would save him money in terms of food, the small allowance he gave the lad, his clothing and equipment, he would still need to find more for a proper household. He could sell the boy’s rouncey, of course, but that would be mean spirited. The least he could do if he was dispensing with his squire’s service would be to make a gift of the horse to him. He got up and stretched. He would speak to Leofric when he next saw him but his first priority was to go and see Edith.

  -X-

  Edith had been a bit frosty at first, but when she saw that Wulfric was sincerely contrite she forgave his rudeness and offered to help him sort out his domestic arrangements. They tackled the unpleasant business first. Wulfric went up to see the acting constable at the castle who was standing in for Robert de Cuille whilst he was in Normandy and asked about finding a position for his squire. There was no vacancy at Castle Peverel but the knight knew of a squire who was about to be knighted at Nottingham and who was seeking a suitable boy. With that problem solved, Wulfric went back and broke the news to the lad. He took it better than Wulfric had expected. With no other squires at Edale and with Hugo’s mesnie away in the North, the boy was bored and felt that he was missing out on his military training - there was no-one to practice with except an aged man-at-arms. He therefore welcomed the transfer to a castle where there were some twenty knights and a similar number of squires.

  The interview with the cook didn’t go as well. He denied that he was indolent, claiming that his only task was to feed Sir Wulfric and his servants. This he did reasonably well, he claimed.

  ‘I would dispute that; your meals are bland at best and inedible at worst. Besides I cannot afford a servant who is merely a cook. I need one or perhaps two at most who between them can keep the house clean, get the rushes on the floor changed regularly and get the laundry done. Now that I have no squire he will also have to look after the horses and muck out the stable. All this is in addition to keeping the larder properly provisioned and providing decent meals.’

  ‘You’ll never find anyone to do all that,’ the man replied contemptuously.

  Edith had sat in the background during the conversation but now she decided to intervene.

  ‘At the hall we have a cook, and two boys who look after the stables, the dogs, clean the place and help in the kitchen as well as serve. The cook is also responsible for the wine cellar, the buttery, the larder, and all provisioning. In addition he makes sure the boys do their jobs properly and sends all the dirty laundry into the village for the washerwomen to clean as required. He seems to manage and there is more to do than look after just the steward.’

  ‘Yes, maybe, but then you are there to make sure it all run smoothly, madam. The steward gives me no help and no direction.’

  ‘You are just making excuses for your own incompetence. This is a small house which you should be able to run smoothly without my help. I’ve heard enough,’ Wulfric said decisively. ‘You are to go and pack and be out of here before dark. I’ll pay you for this month but no more. Now go before I have you put in the stocks for impudence.’

  Mumbling obscenities the cook went and started stuffing his meagre possessions into a sack.

  ‘What will you do until you can find a replacement? Edith asked gently.

  ‘Oh! I hadn’t thought of that. Well the spit boy can stay and keep the place clean and look after the horses, I suppose, but I don’t know what we’ll do for food.’

  ‘Come up to the hall and eat with me until we can find you a decent servant who can also cook. Bring the boy too; he can eat with my servants.’

  ‘Edith, you are very kind. Perhaps you could also teach me what I should be doing to run my household properly, too?’

  She laughed. ‘It might be easier to find you a wife.’

  -X-

  As they became more familiar with each other Edith and Wulfric grew closer. Edith tried to involve him in household management but he just wasn’t very interested and kept changing the subject down more interesting, and increasingly flirtatious, channels. Edith was well aware where this was leading and knew that she should have put a stop to it; after all, she was effectively the common law wife of Wulfric’s lord, but she had become increasingly dissatisfied with her relationship with Hugo and she knew intuitively that he was equally tired of her.

  Replacing the cook had been easier than Wulfric had imagined.
The spit boy, who turned out to be fourteen, was able to produce a simple meal and, moreover, he was interested in learning more. Edith arranged for him to spend an hour or two each day with the cook in the hall kitchens and there were a number of orphans on Hugo’s four manors who were keen to either work as his assistant or to be a general servant, cleaning, serving meals and looking after the horses and the dogs. Together they picked two boys of ten and thirteen and Edith started to take some of her meals with Wulfric in his house or he joined her up at the hall.

  One evening, about three weeks after the change of regime at Wulfric’s small house, he and Edith stayed up talking after the servants had retired to their beds. Although they seemed to be asleep, Wulfric didn’t want to be overheard and so he beckoned Edith to follow him outside.

  ‘You do know I’ve fallen in love with you don’t you?’ he told her.

  ‘Why would you do that, as steward you could take your pick of any of the freeman’s daughters, many of whom are half my age.’

  ‘Perhaps, but they are silly, giggling creatures with no experience. In any case it’s you I love, not them.’

  ‘What about Sir Hugo? We’ve been together for some twenty years now.’

  ‘You aren’t tied to him. Has he ever once promised to marry you? No! He’s still in love with my dead sister, Rowena. He just can’t seem to forget about her. I’ve managed to, and I was her twin. He just needs you to manage his household for him.’

  When Edith hesitated, Wulfric pressed on.

  ‘When was the last time he made love to you?’

  Edith gave him an alarmed look. It had been over a year ago now. She knew that their relationship had run its course but she was frightened of ending it. Although she had lived with Hugo for such a long time, she didn’t know how he would react if she told him she was leaving him – and for his late wife’s brother at that.

  ‘I thought so. Look he’s in Northumberland now and rumour has it that William Rufus is back and about to interfere north of the border again. If that’s true, Hugo’s not likely to return to Edale any time soon. Why don’t you write to him and explain? He’ll have cooled down by the time he gets back here.’

  When she slowly nodded he took her in his arms and kissed her chastely on the lips. When he went to pull away, her grip around his body tightened and she hungrily sought his lips again. This time it wasn’t a chaste peck but a passionate mashing together of their mouths and soon their tongues were fencing with each other. As they got more and more aroused, Wulfric lifted up her skirts and started to finger her. Two minutes later they ran back into the house and fell onto his bed without bothering to close the curtains, tearing at each other’s clothing.

  The noises they were making woke the young cook and he looked over to see what was going on. When he realised that they were making love he glanced at the other two servant boys and they grinned at each other, the two elder boys getting aroused by the couple’s lovemaking. Edith didn’t need to write to Sir Hugo to explain that she wanted to marry Sir Wulfric. The excited boys couldn’t keep their mouths shut and told their friends; soon Osgar, the bailiff, heard the rumours that were rife in the village and decided that he should do what he saw as his duty.

  He chafed under Wulfric’s close supervision. When Herbert had been the steward of both the Derbyshire and the Northumberland estates he was left alone most of the time. Although he was an honest man, he had his own way of doing things and he had become accustomed to making his own decisions. Now he felt that Wulfric was always interfering, especially as he lived in the village and saw everything that was going on.

  The day before Wulfric proposed to Edith and she decided that she couldn’t put off writing to Hugo any longer, a messenger left Edale with a confidential letter from the bailiff to Sir Hugo.

  -X-

  A few months after they had wed Rowena had told Hugo that she was expecting and seven months later Robert and Tristan had been born. She had been killed before they had any more children but Edith had never conceived. Hugo therefore assumed that she was barren. The fact that she wasn’t became apparent two months after that first night of heated passion that the servant boys had so enjoyed watching. She had suspected that she might be pregnant the previous week when she had started to be sick for no reason; she became convinced when she became aware that her body was changing. She went to see the old biddy who was the nearest thing the manor had to a physician and, after prodding her around and causing her acute discomfort in the process, the old woman confirmed that Edith was ‘with child’, as she put it.

  That happened the day after the messenger arrived at Harbottle with Osgar’s message. However, Hugo wasn’t there. He was with King William’s army preparing for the invasion of Lothian.

  Chapter Fourteen – The Invasion of Scotland

  1097

  Hugo hadn’t been best pleased when King William had insisted that both he and Tristan join the army assembling at Alnwick with their respective mesnies. Rufus himself was still busy trying to capture Le Mans, the capital of Maine, so he had given the command of his army in the North to Edgar the Aetheling.

  After Edgar had been elected King of England by the Anglo-Saxon Witan following King Harold’s death at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar had submitted to William the Bastard but later fled after a failed rebellion. He had spent some time at the court of Malcolm Canmore but he fell out with Duncan shortly after he usurped the Scottish throne and Edgar became reconciled with William Rufus. Now William had given him the task of ousting Duncan’s successor, Donald Bane, and installing Edgar’s nephew, Etgair mac Mael Cholium - the son of Malcolm Canmore and the Aetheling’s sister, Margaret - as King of Scots.

  ‘What’s the king going to gain by putting Etgair on the Scottish Throne?’ Tristan asked his father as they forded the Aln and headed for the encampment on the far bank.

  ‘Donald’s in a weak position. In reality he rules the north whilst Lothian, Galloway and the Central Belt is under the control of his nephew and Etgair’s brother, Edmund – even though the latter is officially only an earl. That had suited William Rufus up to now, but rumours have reached him that Edmund is planning an invasion to recover not only Cumbria but to conquer Northumberland as well. William plans to forestall him and put Etgair on the throne as his puppet.’

  Their contingent didn’t stay together once they had arrived. The archers joined others under the command of captains commanding a hundred bowmen each and the men-at-arms and armed villagers were allocated to one of the infantry formations, each several hundred strong. Hugo and Tristan were themselves directed to join the cavalry conroys along with the knights and mounted serjeants who had accompanied them. Whilst their squires and other servants started to get their tents erected and led their mounts away to the horse lines, Hugo, Tristan together with Alain, who was now the captain of Hugo’s mesnie, and a knight called Nicholas, who was Tristan’s captain, went in search of Edgar the Aetheling to find out what their role was and who their commander would be.

  They found Edgar and Etgair together holding a council of war with their senior commanders. They recognised Ivo de Vesci, several earls and the Archbishop of York. William de St. Calais had recently died and William, as usual, had left the Bishopric of Durham vacant so he could enjoy the income from the diocese during the interim. However, everyone knew that Ranulph Flambard, the Treasurer of England and Durham’s interim bishop a few years ago, would be appointed eventually. Then Hugo saw d’Umfraville scowling at him from the other side of tent and he gave him a grin and friendly wave, which infuriated the other man.

  ‘Dunfermline is the obvious target; that’s where my uncle’s capital is,’ Etgair was saying.

  ‘But Edinburgh is where Edmund’s base is,’ Edgar the Aetheling countered, ‘Donald might be king in name but Edmund put him there this time and he holds the power in the south. We need to defeat him before dealing with Donald, and that means invading Lothian.’

  ‘I agree that Lothian must be our first target
.’

  The speaker was Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville in Normandy and originally a strong supporter of Robert Curthose until William Rufus had bribed him with a number of manors in England. Now he had made him Earl of Buckingham and Justicar of England. This meant that he was virtually the kingdom’s ruler whilst the king was in Normandy. Although the Aetheling was the appointed army commander, it would be a foolish man who ignored the justicar’s advice. With his support for Edgar the putative King of Scots found the ground whipped from under his feet.

  Hugo regarded Giffard with intense dislike. He could never forget that one of the manor that Rufus had given him had been Hugo’s manor of Burneham.

  ‘Very well,’ Etgair sighed resignedly. ‘We’ll head for Lothian first. Norham’s probably the best place to cross but we can’t leave Berwick in our rear. We’ll need to take the town.’

  ‘And how do you propose to do that, my lord?’ This time the speaker was Odinel d’Umfraville. ‘You don’t have any siege engines.’

  It was true. William Rufus had all the artillery with him on the Continent. Hugo wondered if he was the only one who had noticed that Odinel had said ‘you’ rather than ‘we’. He’d heard a rumour that the man was in the pay of Donald; he’d dismissed it at the time, but now he wasn’t so certain that it was just malicious speculation.

  ‘Its defensive wall is just a palisade,’ Giffard pointed out dismissively. ‘It shouldn’t be too difficult to breech it.’

  ‘It’s also got a castle and that won’t be so easy to capture. Besides, these are my future subjects and Berwick is Scotland’s major port. I suggest that we give them a chance to acknowledge me as their sovereign before we destroy the place.’

  Prince Etgair looked around him challenging anyone to disagree with him. Giffard shrugged his shoulders indifferently and the Aetheling reluctantly nodded.