Excerpt: The Histories

When finally we saw our lord laid to rest we were free of our duty to him. We spent one more night eating at the charity of holy brothers and then we bedded down in a barn, grateful for the shelter it gave. True, it smelt of fetid animals and the straw we laid upon was soiled, but it was not the ditches or trees we had been kipping under all the way through France. The bounce of the straw under my body was a heavenly cushion. Father put me against the wall of a stall and placed himself between me and anyone else. Every available space in the barn was taken, knights, squires and boys all bedded down for the last night under the young king. All the talk was of the future, some were seeking their fortune here, others were heading to England or the Germanic states.
“I’ll take my chances on the road,” I heard one knight boast, “they’ll always be a lord looking for a good knight skilled with the sword.”
“Who said you were good, or skilled come to mention it!” his companion laughed, “Me, I’m going to the first lord who’ll pay me and then nearest whore house! It’s not the same when you have to take it without paying for willing service!”
My father rolled a little closer to me.
“You old man, what are your plans?”
My father replied, “to get some sleep,” and rolled over and gave the biggest snore he could after two minutes to evade further questioning.

[Several chapters later]
At dusk it was incredibly hard to see, the red gnome led the way out of the forest, we pulled our horses behind us, they whinnied and neighed, almost as scared of the falling darkness as we were. I proceeded slowly for fear of tripping on the undergrowth, but the red gnome kept up a fast pace – there was no mercy shown for age or sex. I carried Philip and Magdalena carried Eleanor. My arms ached, the muscles felt torn apart, but we had to keep going. Even when we were out of the forest the red gnome would not let us mount the horses. He led us further and further away from the chateau until he believed the time was right. He took the boy on a horse with him, Magdalena and I took the children.
As we rode I kept looking behind me to see if anyone had spotted us, heard us, was in pursuit but the darkness was covering all. We rode through the night, until the sun began to peep over the horizon. The red gnome found us cover far from any settlement, another wooded glade, and we rested.
I asked the red gnome at one point how he knew which way to take us when it was dark, he looked up and pointed at the stars. They just looked pretty to me, I did not realise they had special positions and could be used to find direction. To pass the time I asked him if he could tell me about them, and in doing so found the one subject on which he was loquacious.
“I use the heavens to find my way, celestial navigation. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. I know when it reaches its highest point at noon, it will be true south. At night I look for he North Star which I can use to find a northerly direction. It’s not the brightest star but it’s important because unlike the rest of the stars in the night sky, it never moves so if you follow it, you know that you are heading north.”
“So if you head away from it you are going south?”
He nodded. “Of course, this is all useless unless you know the direction of where you want to go. I can also use a crescent moon to find south.”
“You have a funny accent, where are you from?”
“I’m a Cornishman, but I don’t live there anymore.”
And he would be drawn into saying no more.
One morning, as the sun was rising, the red gnome did not find us a place to hide. He led us into a town. The only people about were those with early morning jobs. We rode deeper into the town and down to the waterfront. I could see the sea and ships in port. I looked about.
“I know this place,” I said, “it is not Aquitaine.” I should have known from the temperature dropping that we were heading away from Aquitaine, not towards it. “This is Calais.”