[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (40 page)

“Is London safe?” asked Alan.

“From the Danes?” asked Bjorn, his forehead creased with thought. “No. England has no navy and nothing to stop the Danes from raiding where they wish. You’re right, they
will
probably raid London once, maybe twice, during the summer and take or burn every ship in the harbour. The city itself would be safe behind its walls, but your house here… Well, maybe it’s far enough away from the river. Considering that, it may be worth having
Birgitta
home-
port at Southampton. That should be far enough away to be safe and it’s the closest port to the capital at Winchester, so the wine should sell easily enough. That spreads the risk to the ships as far as we can.”

After Bjorn had left Alan and Anne slipped quietly into the nursery to see
baby
Juliana. Alan smiled in satisfaction to see the chubby
girl
, now with auburn hair like her mother, fast asleep and sucking her thumb.

The next day, Holy Saturday, was supposedly a day of prayer, rest and reflection. However, Bjorn had told Alan and Anne that both
Zeelandt
and
Stormsvale
were in the port and intending to unload into the warehouse on Fish Street that day, so that the crews could enjoy the celebrations of Easter Week starting on Sunday. As Bjorn had put
i
t
,
“Sailors aren’t much good at praying unless there’s a storm or pirates are coming up astern.”

Alan rose early and penned a letter to
the
Chancellor
Herfast
advising of what they had heard and their conclusions, well aware that management of intelligence information comprised putting together disparate pieces of information to form a picture. Leof was dispatched to deliver the letter to
Herfast
’s office at Westminster.

Later
Alan and Anne strolled arm-in-arm through the relatively uncrowded city streets towards the docks near the bridge. The air near the docks was considerably less fetid that usual, with most of the noisome trades such as tanning and fulling being closed for the religious
holiday period, and t
o walk past those workshops without breathing the stench of urine
and faeces
made a pleasant change. At the docks the usual smells of mud, rotting vegetation and piles of discarded refuse overpower
ed the clean scent of salt air.

Both
Zeelandt
and
Stormsvale
were alongside the dock
,
and with the tide being out the decks were much lower than the wharf.
Both
ship
s
had windlasses standing on the wharf, being used to lift the barrels from the ships and onto
heavy
wagons standing nearby on the wharf, which were then trundled off to the nearby warehouse. The large tun casks, each of over 2
5
0 gallons, were winched up by the windlass, whose arm was then swung across to allow the cask to be placed onto a wagon. The wagon was then hauled away and at the warehouse it drew up alongside a ramp onto which the barrel was rolled and pushed down the ramp and into place in the storage areas. With only fifty casks per ship the unloading process would not take long, except for the few smaller casks of precious spices and olive oil carried by
Zeelandt.
Before sailing the ships would be loaded with other goods from the warehouse, mainly bales of cloth and iron-bound wooden crates containing ingots of copper and tin.

The captain of
Stormsvale
was provided with instructions to undertake a single voyage to Narvik. There he was to fill up with as much whale oil as possible, tar if it was again available, and return as quickly as he could. No
space was to be wasted on
herrings. Preserved fish of one type or another were always available from somewhere, but whale oil
for lamps and tar for caulking ships could only come from the north. Anne was sure that within a few months the price for those commodities wou
ld be sky-high due to scarcity.
Zeelandt
would also head north
for its next voyage
. Anne’s Jewish business manager Jacob was present, Easter of course not having any significance to him. Anne sat with him in the small and dingy office at the warehouse and provided instructions as to the change of trade arrangements,
and the
change of crewing so that most of the Norwegian, Flemish and Dutch sailors were on
Zeelandt
,
and for Jacob to take ship to Oostend to make arrangements there for the use of the facilities of that port instead of Haarlem.

When b
ack at the house at
Holebourn
Bridge Alan and Anne
ate
a mid-day meal that was again simple and plain
,
and unusually sat alone instead of with several members of the household with them. The reason for that soon became obvious when Anne smiled quietly at her husband and said
,
“I haven’t had the opportunity to tell you of my own news. You are to be a father again in November.”

Alan had been taking a gulp of ale and nearly choked, spraying ale
-
but managing to turn his head to avoid hitting Anne. “Praise be to God!” he said, taking her hand across the table and kissing it.

“Hopefully a son this time,” added Anne.

Alan waved his free hand in a dismissive motion
.
“It matters little,” he said, although both knew that was not true. “As long as both you and the child are healthy. You know how delighted I am with Juliana.”

Anne smiled again in appreciation of the comment but knew that her main function in life was to produce at least two, preferably more, healthy boys as heirs. Girl children were only useful to built political relationships through marriage, and cost a significant amount in dowries.

*
  *
  *
*

After the Easter Vigil, the whole household attended the Easter Mass at St Edmund’s Church just outside Newgate. When able
to do so
Anne attended Mass at the church on most days
. W
ith several donations of vestments and the funding of a stained-glass window
she
was seen by Father Edward as one of his most important parishioners, causing him to call to visit weekly when he knew that Anne was in London. The simple and moving service lifted all their hearts. Unfortunately, heavy rain had begun to fall while they were in the Church, and so it was with damp, if not wet, spirits, they returned home.

Alan spent a pleasant hour or so in the nursery with Anne and Juliana, who was now sitting up, paying attention to what was happening about her and generally smiling and gurgling happily. She held a bead rattle in one hand and a piece of sea-coral in the other, fashioned into a teething ring for her to chew to
assist
the emergence of her
milk-teeth. The coral had been a gift from Bjorn.

At mid-day a sumptuous meal was served with the whole household seated in the Hall, except for the kitchen and serving staff. Bjorn and several other of the sailors who didn’t have local family had also been invited, some
26
seated at three tables. Wilda the cook had again shown her ability to produce delicacies when required. Having attended at Mass herself together with the other servants, knowing the simple tastes of the soldiers, sailors and servants who formed most of the diners and knowing that after Lent any rich food would be most welcome, she had limited herself to two soups, roast pig,
a
mutton and herb stew, pork pies, braised spiced pork in almond milk with mushrooms, four different dishes of accompanying vegetables, followed by apple pie, strawberry tart and mixed cheeses, all accompanied by fresh white wheat bread and freshly-churned butter. Osmund recited, from memory, two long poems in English
.
Bjorn regaled the diners with his reminisces of his visit
as a young man
to the Holy Land, describing strange places, strange people and unusual customs.

In the late afternoon a slightly tipsy Alan accompanied his wife upstairs to the family’s private rooms. With her pregnancy Anne had again resumed minimal consumption of alcohol, as she had when carrying Juliana. While she didn’t insist on Alan doing the same as he rarely drank to excess she had little sympathy with his complaints when he did so.

*
*
*
*

Early on Easter Thursday Anne, Juliana, Osmund, two maids and five guards
headed
east through the crowded Cornhill, along Leadenhall Street to Aldgate. The ladies were riding in a cart and
they
were destined for Thorrington, intending to take a leisurely two days for the journey. After a brief kiss and a wave
to his wife, Alan rose west
towards Gloucester and the Welsh border.

He arrived at
Staunton-on-Wye late on the second day, Saturday 18
th
April. He looked approvingly at the state of the fortified bailey as he rode in and was greeted by Leofwin the second in command. “Robert
i
s over at Bobury with his steward
David
, talking to the miller.
He s
hould be back soon!” said Leofwin, ushering Alan and his men into the Hall and ordering ale be brought to wash away the dust of the road from the travelers’ throats.

Leofwin was correct. Robert and
David
arrived after about an hour, Robert hurrying in as the guards outside had advised him of Alan’s arrival. “My lord”, he said, with a courtly bow. Alan snorted with amusement, rose and grasped his friend by the forearm, before clapping him on the shoulder and resuming his seat. A servant brought more quarts of ale.

“How fares the ‘overlord’ of my western realm?” asked Alan.

“Well enough,” replied Robert with a smile at the description. “As you can see, we’ve completed the fortifications here and the Hall is complete.
It has q
uite basic facilities, but more than usual for a frontier manor. The repairs to the villages are complete. You’d hardly know the Welsh came through with sword and fire a little more than a year ago.
Last year t
here was a
reasonable
harvest, although sown late. While the granaries aren’t full
,
there
’
s more than adequate food in the four villages
-
which is more than can be said for most of the shire after the Welsh invasion. This year’s crop is in the ground and appears to be growing well. With God’s Grace and a year of peace all should be well.”

“Ah! A year of peace. That may be a problem,” said Alan in response. “What men and arms do you have?”

“Well, of course I have the
10
mounted men-at-arms and ten huscarles you provided. Another
10
local infantry, properly trained and equipped,
10
longbowmen full-time. Another
20
fully trained longbowmen part-
time, and
67
fyrdmen armed with spea
rs, partially trained. The full-
time men are all mounted, including the foot
-
soldiers. I have enough ponies that you took on your raid to mount
all the full-time men and
most of the part-timers. Those numbers exclude Baldwin, Warren and Leofric” said Robert, the last a reference to the Norman man-at-arms, Norman archer and English huscarle respectively, who acted as Robert’s officers. “
As to h
orses
, we have
14
rounceys and
70
Welsh mountain-ponies. The cavalry are equipped as you provided. A
few
with hauberks and the rest with byrnies, sword, shield, helmet and lance. The huscarles have their own armour, of course, mainly byrnies, but a few hauberk-style. The full-time infantry have byrnies, helmets, shields and swords. The archers have the l
ongbows you acquired from Wales-
no
mail
armour
, although all have padded armour. They all
also have their
seax
fighting-knife, of course.
The fyrdmen have spears and shields that they made themselves and their
seax
. Most have swords that you have provided. A few have axes, mainly the type for wood-chopping.”

Alan nodded his understanding of the array of force and its equipment, and that he was not displeased. “How many arrows for the longbows?”

Robert paused before replying
,
“I’m not really sure. I think about
500
.”

Alan replied
,
“Thirty bowmen, three sheaves each, is over
1,000
. Get the fletchers busy and make a war-stock of
1,500
, plus any needed for day to day use.” Alan thought for a
moment and continued
,
“Arrange short-swords for the bowmen and swords and helmets for the spearmen. I’ll provide the funds and you can buy whatever you need at Colchester
- w
ith its iron and steel industry that would be the best place to buy. Step up training. How often do you run patrols and how often do you train?”