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Chapter 3
“Stop your chatter for a minute Simon,” said Richard. “You will scare all the game away.”
Richard could see Simon opening his mouth to speak, but a tap on his arm was enough to shut him up. This had to be the most boring hunting expedition he had ever been on.
The woods along the banks of the river Sar were not full of game for hunting. Not compared to the large royal forest of Waltham, where Richard’s Master, Sir John Auldbridge was Keeper of the King’s Forest. As well as the annual payment of £20 for keeping the forest free of poachers and well stocked with deer and other game, Sir John was also allowed to hunt the forest on his own behalf, a pursuit that he was happy to share with his new squire, Richard Stone. Richard knew that he and Simon would be lucky to spot a few rabbits or hares as they wondered through these woods. They were simply not big enough now to house many animals. His father had once told him that back when the d’Aubray’s still farmed the lands around Sarbrook as their own demesne much of the land was still enclosed as parkland and the population of deer was kept high by the hard work of gamekeepers. In those days the d’Aubray’s had been wealthy enough to breed animals purely to satisfy their own leisure. But the parkland had been sold and broken up into plots of land for farming many years ago, before the great pestilence and, so his father told him, before even the wars between Edward III and the French.
“I’m being quiet now and still no game,” hissed Simon.
Richard shook his head in despair. “Have you ever heard of the virtue of patience?”
“Is that what they teach you at Sir John’s college of chivalry?” sneered Simon. “All the virtues? Patience, justice, mercy, good faith, and so on!
Richard restrained himself and merely sighed deeply again. He was finding being with his brother very tiring. He thought coming home would be a welcome break from the work he had to do at Sir John’s – certainly the place was no college – there was no free time to loll about as the students of Cambridge did. There was plenty of hard work to be done: serving food in Sir John’s hall, grooming the horses, polishing the armour, learning how to repair weapons in case he ever needed to do such a thing on campaign. The work was tiring and rarely as enjoyable as the practice with sword and lance that he had looked forward to so much when his father had put forward the idea.
He had only been home two days and already he had, according to his brother, insulted the d’Aubray girl, and now this bored little mite was starting to drive him crazy. Perhaps the report of the girl’s wrath was just another way that Simon had come up with to annoy him. Going back to Sir John’s would be a welcome change.
The woods were quite open hereabouts and you could see for a hundred yards of more easily with gaps of several yards between each tree. And the ground between each had been cleared of shrubs and ferns. Their father allowed the villeins to come in to take brushwood and ferns—as long as his reeve supervised them and made sure they didn’t make off with any rabbits. Thereby he received their labour to clear the woods for hunting and provided them something in return. William Stone had made his fortune out of a keen sense of such exchanges, and by always making sure he came out with the best exchange of all. How he did so was a mystery to Richard. His father had never had the patience, or, it seemed, the time, to let him in on the secret.
“So if you don’t marry Eolande d’Aubray, who do you think you will marry?” said Simon. “Or do you plan to become a knight of the church.” Richard didn’t answer and just shook his head at Simon’s wittering. “Remember what happened to the knights of the Temple. You know what they said about them? They enjoyed the company of their brother knights too much. Is that why you don’t like Eolande …
“Quiet,” hissed Richard.
“If you can’t take a jape …” This time Richard closed a leather-gauntleted hand of Simon’s mouth.
“There’s movement up ahead,” he whispered. “Do you want to shoot something or not?”
As Simon nodded his head Richard released his hand. “Where?” asked Simon quietly. He looked sheepish, for once showing respect for his brother.
End of Chapter 3
I will post one chapter each week, there are 14 chapters. If you just can’t wait, you can buy the complete book at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords.
You can sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook page. For more information, see my website marklord.info. Your support is appreciated. Thanks for reading!
