[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (58 page)

Anne arrived shortly afterwards, wearing a thick robe and leather-soled slippers against the ten-pace journey along the
paved path of the
covered walkway between the Hall and the building that combined the kitchen, the bathing room and the furnace used to heat the air that passed through the hypocaust heating system used to warm the Hall. Anne had her gown and slippers removed by two of her maids,
Synne and Esme, and stepped naked onto the large unbleached rug made of sheepskins that covered the floor near the
bath
steps. She was assisted up the outside steps by her maids and Alan rose to assist her down the steps on the inside, his nakedness emphasised by a giant erection that drew admiring glances from the two maids and a small smile from Anne, who reached to give
the rampant member
a squeeze as she turned and sat down on a ledge in the tub ab
out six inches from the bottom.

Synne and Esme retired to the adjoining kitchen to await a call for their assistance a
nd
Alan settled back into the hot-
tub, sitting on the carefully sanded
floor
next to Anne, so that his face was nearly level with Anne’s breasts, the nipples of which were bobbing on the surface as the breasts were supported by the water. Anne gave a sigh and rubbed her back, before returning one hand to stroke the underside of Alan’s member. “I
t
appears you’ve been a long time without feminine company, which is just as well!” she commented.

“The mermaids are all well and good,” he replied, “but being fish from the waist down…” After several minutes of ministrations he gave a sigh of relief.

“And how was the
n
orth?” asked Anne, now that one job was out of the way.

“It was a strange existence, really. We found a cave that’s nice and dry and cosy and set up quarters there. The cave keeps the weather off and hides us
. W
e’ve set it up with pots and pans for the cooking fire, straw mattresses and the like. The previous occupants had carved sleeping places and chairs out of the soft chalk. It’s a pirate’s cave. There’s fresh water from where a nearby spring runs down the cliff face. The food’s good. We catch some fish and have lobster pots in the sea outside
the cave
, and bring in fresh and preserved meat,
vegetables, fruit and bread every time we voyage to Hartlepool or York. And ale by the barrel- everybody knows that
drinking water is bad for you.

“
Each ship takes it in turn to venture out, which usually means one day of sailing
or
two days of rowing either going or coming. There
’
s
two
days a week fairly intensive work manning the ship
, and a
n
anxious
day
ashore meeting the spies. The
remainder of the week
are pretty boring sitting in the cave in semi-darkness. I get the men to work on the boats, mainly to have something to do. We do some weapons training for the swordsmen
- t
he bowmen can’t practice.
The men
sit around playing dice, knucklebones, eating and sleeping. Sometimes they go fishing in the sea or the sky- they use nets to catch birds in flight. It’s probably not that much different to acting as garrison of some remote village, but all the work is compressed into two or three days a week. The main problem is boredom
, but i
t’s a lot less dangerous and a lot more comfortable than being on campaign.”

Anne gave a sigh as she s
ank
a little lower in the warm water. “I’ve nearly lived in here
in the hot-tub for
the past month. The hot water is good for my back and floating in the water makes me feel less heavy and fat.
H
ow progresses the campaign? You haven’t mentioned anything about seeing the king or what he’s doing about the situation in Northumbria.”

With a start Alan realised that word of the current political and military situation hadn’t reached this remote part of East Anglia. “That’s because the king and his army aren’t there. York remains in the hands of the Aetheling’s men. There’s been a series of revolts in the south. Exeter was attacked and the last I heard Montacute was under siege with Count Robert of Mortain’s family trapped inside. More importantly the Mercians and Welsh have joined forces again and sacked Shrewsbury, although Roger de Montgomerie and his family were safe in the castle. The king and William fitzOsbern are busy in the west trying to catch the Welsh and drive them back over the border, which will be no easy task. Once that’s all attended to he can shift his attention north. At the moment Count Robert of Mortain and Count Robert of Eu are at Lincoln and holding the Danes and Northumbrians in place. When the king has overcome those problems he’ll march north. Other than the Welsh and the Danes, what
’
s been happening is mainly local squabbles that have been going on for years, shire against shire, and the fact that the English hate castles and want to tear them down. It’s not by chance that what I’ve built here is a fort, not a castle.
It’s
very similar
to the traditional Saxon fortified
burg
. There is no motte to draw attention and nearly all the garrison is English.”

After an hour’s soak Alan called for Synne and Esme to assist their mistress out of the tub and then stepped out himself, drying himself with a rough towel before dressing in clean clothing. On entering the
Hall
he beckoned Leof over and said
,
“The hot-tub is all yours. Soak the pain out of your legs. I’ll arrange with Faran for your things to be put in a private room upstairs in the barracks, along with a mattress and some blankets.” Seeing Inga standing close by and listening closely Alan continued
,
“You! I h
ave a pot of goose-grease with o
il of
w
intergreen, which will need to be rubbed into the lad’s sore muscles after he’s soaked. You attend to it,” he instructed, with a wink to Leof.

Two days later Alan was surprised to receive a visit from Bishop William’s men
Geoffrey of Rouen and the Frenchman Bernard of Nantes
,
the latter having
replaced the
Fleming Albyn of Bruges after
h
is
death fighting the Danish raiders
. They were seeking news of the outside world and Alan repeated the information he’d given to Anne, although omitting any reference to spying or his own travels and actions. The two men had arrived together in the late morning, soaked and cold from the wet ride from their own halls. Alan had their cloaks drying in the kitchen as they sat at table near the roaring fire in the Hall.

“It always seems so warm and pleasant here, not like my own cold
Hall
,” commented Bernard, eying the fresh rushes on the floor strewn with sprays of rosemary. The rare glass windows were closed against the bitter wind, but still allowed sufficient light not to require
torches or lamps to be lit, unless one wished to read. Céne, the wolfhound who had been a gift from Anne to Alan, lifted his large head from its position on Alan’s boot and scratched himself behind the ear.

“I had the advantage of building from new and with the substantial funds that the king’s favour had given me,” replied Alan, with apparent modesty but less than complete honesty, deliberately failing to mention that most of the large cost had been funded by the financial empire that Anne had built, as mercantile activity was not popular with the ‘noble classes’ and their financial success was hidden behind a series of ‘front-men’.

“So the kingdom is in jeopardy?” asked Geoffrey.

“Not really. There’ve been a
series of small revolts in the s
outh and
s
outh-
w
est. The main problems are the Welsh and the Danes. If Edgar had planned it properly, if indeed it’s been planned at all, there would have been a general uprising in the
south-w
est with a large army being raised, properly led and marching on London. The Welsh would have attacked Gloucester while the Mercians attacked Shrewsbury and Stafford, which they have done, and the Danes and Northumbrian marched south on Lincoln and then London. If they’d done their work properly they could have cut the kingdom and King William’s forces into pieces, gathered a hu
ge army and crushed us Normans.

“
Instead, their disorganised approach and the inactiv
ity in the n
orth is letting King William put out the fires one by one. I’m sure that he’ll have things under control and have retaken York before Christmas, depending on what the Danes do. If they leave their ships and march south in force, along with
7,000
Englishmen, then the king has a real fight on his hands. So far
the situation has
been controllable
- barely
. Indeed the activities by the rebels haven’t met with favour by most people south of York. The people of Exeter joined with the Norman garrison to fight off the rebels attacking the town.”

“We haven’t seen much dissent locally,” commented Geoffrey.

“
There are p
robably several reasons,” replied Anne, to the surprise of the guests, who weren’t used to erudite political comments by women. “
Locally, t
he controlling hand has been
of
iron, but covered by a velvet glove. In Tendring Hundred at least, relatively few thegns were able to travel to Hastings in time to die, so there hasn’t been a large change in local politics. Yes, there are Normans,
French
and Flemings
present
, but the changes haven’t been great. The local landholding system remains unchanged and the Hundred
Court
still dispenses justice based on traditional West Saxon law. The Heriot charged by the king for the local thegns to retain their land was largely able to be paid.” Anne didn’t mention that this had in some part been due to the loans made by her and Alan to help pay this significant financial impost. “
M
ost of all, based on their recent experiences, the locals see the Danes as being their enemies, not the Normans- or at least more of a direct threat as the Normans don’t kill, torture and rape indiscriminately.”

“No, we are discriminate in our killing, torture and rape,” commented Alan, as food and wine was placed on the table.

Bernard took a sip of the wine and said
,
“Wonderful.”

“Life’s too short to drink bad wine if you don’t have to,” replied Alan as he cut up a roasted chicken on the bread trencher he shared with Anne.

“You’ve done well for yourself, my lord,” commented Geoffrey.

“God helps those who help themselves,” said Alan, with a pause before he continued. “I was fortunate enough to assist the king on the battlefield at Hastings, which drew me to his attention and provided significant reward. I’ve
since
provided
him with
further assistance, which the king has also seen fit to reward. Not all of the assistance has been entirely conventional, but it has worked.”

“Tell us how you saved the king’s life,” urged Geoffrey.

Alan waved a hand, holding a chicken drumstick, in negation. “No. Somebody else can do that. I don’t blow my own horn. I just happened to be standing in the right place at the right time and hit a few people with a sword. I’d have done the same for anybody, as would you. In fact it wasn’t until he extracted himself from under the horse
, with some assistance from others standing near, that
I even knew it was the duke.”

After the
visitors
had
departed
Alan commented to Anne
,
“That was surprisingly… genial, considering past problems.”

“They’re coming to realise who
i
s important and that pursuing Bishop William’s political campaign against you may not be in their own best long-term interests,” replied Anne.

*
 
*
 
*
 
*

In the early hours of Tuesday 2
nd
of November, All Souls’ Day, Anne nudged a snoring Alan in the ribs. “It’s time,” she announced calmly.

Alan grunted and came awake with a start
.
“
W
hy is it always in the middle of the night? Is it because the baby’s bored because you’re lying there doing nothing? Synne! Rouse the household! My lady’s time is come! Send somebody to fetch that incompetent old bat of a midwife from the village!
”

Because of the problems associated with Anne’s first labour, on this occasion there was no question of his b
eing excluded from the birthing-
room. What was apparently a well-practiced procedure was followed by the midwife, encouraging Anne to stand and walk about slowly
for several hours
until she was fully dilated, when she was instructed to lie down with legs apart and to push and breathe deeply with each contraction. The baby’s head crowned and over the next hour was satisfactorily delivered with no complications and no unusual blood loss. The midwife tied off the umbilical cord, turned the child upside down and gave it a slap on the bottom to make it cry, sucking air into the lungs. As she gave the child a quick wipe with a clean wet cloth she commented
,
“Congratulations on the birth of your son,
m
y
l
ord and
m
y
l
ady. A fine strapping lad of about seven pounds,” before handing the now swaddled bundle to his mother.