The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 4

The next day Simon helped the lord into his armour in the morning after he had read through his messages and dealt with them. It was easy for him now as he had done it quite a lot in the past two months and so he got the lord into the armour quickly and he looked very good in it and it was very shiny from him polishing it yesterday. They then proceeded to go down the hall and there was a gathering of the noble lords of the town there and Simon wondered what was going on, he soon found. A possession of other lords he had never seen came into the hall and when the local lords saw them they all smiled and waved to old friends. They walked through the hall and stood before the lord, the one in the shiniest and by the looks of it most expensive armour and he grinned and big smile at the lord.

            “Hello John been a few months since we last seen each other” this lord said.

            “Indeed it has been Oliver and its good to see you again what news do you bring me?” John asked.

            “The summer has been kinds to my lands we got a good harvest in and everyone enjoyed the mid-summer fair and had money to spend at it we also received some traders from further away bringing news to us. They had some interesting things to say about affairs further away a heat wave in the south has made a drought and that’s hit their crops and animals had been dying as well so they were paying good prices for ours. Also lord Rodger of Cunningham has married again to a 18 years old bride the daughter of Sir Rodger Whitmore I believe also there is a rebellion brewing in the north again I hear and the king is monitoring the situation but you might need to get ready to send men to war again you’ll know soon enough and that’s all my news what has happened here?” Lord Oliver said.

            “Well we too had a good harvest and got a lot of tax for our lord king we have had little news of the rest of the realm we aren’t exactly an important part of the kingdom, the forest is quiet still but we recently had some outlaws move into the area we’ll deal with them. Also I have a new squire, he’s very able had him two months though perhaps he’s older than most squires” John said.

            “Interesting I’ll have to meet him later, I hope you have prepared a feast for me as I plan to partake of your hospitality tonight old friend” Oliver said.

            “Of course old friend would never turn you out everything is ready for a nice little feast for us it’ll be good to talk again” John said.

            “Good glad I can count on you now can I get out of this riding gear it has been a long journey and I need to rest” Oliver said.

            “But of course come Gregory take our guest to their rooms” John said.

            “Yes Lord” Gregory said and he led the guests off to their rooms, lord John then dealt with petitions from his land and gave them justice. Soon it was dinner and they braked for that were Oliver and John sat on the high table and talked and joked and laughed a lot and they ate for about an hour the Oliver went out to tour the town he said and the lord went back to the petitions into the afternoon and soon dealt with them all. The hall was the prepared for the feast this evening with tables brought out and kegs of ale brought it, there was also some flagons of wine brought up from the cellar for this special occasion for the lords to drink. The cooks had been busy all day roasting a boar and preparing several other dishes to be served and the smell from them was mouth-watering.

            Soon the feasting began and there was entertainment to brought by the jester of the court and some musicians and every one was smiling and joking and drinking and eating and it was such a good time. Simon was grinning to and getting to know some knew people, he was introduced to Oliver who shook his hand with a firm hand shake and was very jokey with him and Simon liked him from the get go. He met a few others there to squires from Oliver’s court and they were all very nice with him, they joked about his age but in a good way and he just wished the squires here were as nice and friendly with him. The feast ran long into the night and soon the food was gone and people was just drinking and some moved some of the tables and started dancing to the musicians songs and singing along and Simon joined in too as he knew many of them now and then the new comers went to the musicians and borrowed their instruments, they weren’t as good but they played this new song and every stopped and listened as they always liked to hear a new jig and to judge if it was any good or not but they liked this one and asked for it to be played again and they joined in when they knew the words and started dancing to it and soon the musicians took over and it became rounder as people became drunker and the older people went to bed and left the youngsters to it. After a couple hours more dancing it was now late in the night and Simon was feeling tired and knew he would not be allowed a lie in in the morning so he started saying goodbye to his new friends they were all begging him to not go and stay for another drink and it was hard to resist but resist he did and he managed to escape them. As he left the hall he gazed round and saw one of his squires had got lucky with a serving girl and they were off in a dark corner and he smiled at this and carried on his way to his room and crawled into his bed.

            The next morning he woke early as always and felt no worse the wear though he drunk more than he usually would at a meal it didn’t have as much effect on him as he saw it had on the others and he expected they would be feeling it this morning. He hurried about his task and made the lord his breakfast and took it to him and then he went down to combat training and he got into armour and Sir Francis nodded at him and they began their sparing. The squires he met last night came out after about half an hour and they stared at the two men fighting, they could tell one was Sir Francis as he wore his sigil on his shield, but Simon’s was not known to them and they were very impressed as they knew Sir Francis as a good fighter and this unknown knight was holding him off. Simon toyed around with Sir Francis for a few more minutes before he disarmed him, he then took off his helmet and the squires were very surprised to see his face but then they clapped and came over saying that was a very impressive fight and how did he learn to fight like that, he answered their question and then they said they had to go saddle their masters horses and he nodded and let them go. It was not long before they brought these saddled horses into the courtyard and their masters came out so Simon went and wished them farewell he knew not when they would see each other again but he liked all of them and they would be friends forever. They soon rode off and Simon was sad to see them go but soon turned back to training. The rest of the week was fairly dull but he still did as the lord tasked him to do and his cooking for him was soon at an end and he moved onto other lessons.