The Archer's Lady

"I will try Welch, father," I say and he nods although he smiles at my Welch in my Midlands accent and substituting words I didn't know in English. "In February last summoned I was to the court of King [Henry] when I was in [Cambridgeshire]. There I escorted was by two [Black Knights] and a [Herald]—"

"Eich bod yn farchog?" He asks with a smile. I didn't know what "farchog" was but I whispered, "[knighted] as a Black [Knight], Sir. I did the [vigil] and have served two short [missions] with the [Black Knights]. I kept it secret but the Lady has ... darganfod."

He laughs and in English says, "Ladies always find out, son! It's time you found that out, I should say, Sir!" And he slaps me on the back. "I will tell your mother tonight of your elevation, she will be as pleased as I be."

We keep up a steady pace throughout the afternoon, with a short stop on a river bank for watering the horses and stretching our legs and backs. The horses seem to love it, so we pick up the pace for the second leg. It is a bright afternoon and we feel we have made good time, when Lady Elinor announces that the palace of Falaise could be seen in the distance. It was still light. Ahead of us we could see the twenty-odd riders who had left the Chateau du Caen an hour or more afore us. We all agree that we feel fresh and should follow them straight into the chateau and surprise them.

"They are travelling into the village of Falaise first. If we ford la rivière l'Ante here," Lady Elinor says, "we can get to the south east side on la rue de chateau where there is no wall and climb up the broken rocks to the palace before the Chevalier's men even go through the main entrance."

"Really?" I ask.

"It is a family house, not a fortified castle. At this time of the evening my father will be riding around the forest rides to the south, probably alone as is his habit here."

"Let's do this," my father says, "opportunities like this, arriving before our enemies settle is too good a chance to waste. We can already see that the chateau has the advantage of overseeing the surroundings, sitting on a rock as it does."

"Aye," Father Andrew was emphatic, "take it, hold it, and we'll see the buggers off with just the handful of us. How many family guards are there, you believe, my Lady?"

"Usually about twenty servants who double up as guards and up to four Black Knights as extra muscle. All would be loyal to the King, this village has been home to Norman Dukes for five or six generations," Elinor replies, "but the Chevalier implied that my father was already overthrown. It seems Rebecca no longer controls her messages and the rebels may hold the chateau. But la rue de chateau undercuts all the windows and on the south east we will be in the dark shadows and unseen."

"We'll wrap our swords in horse blankets to prevent them clanking," Father Andrew advises, "move stealthily and take the chateau by hand over mouth and blade in back or a sandbag slug on the back of the head. I made some sandbags from the gravelly sand on the shore of the river when we stopped and watered the horses. I thought they might come in handy if we were unsure if we were incapacitating a friend or foe. A sandbag goes hand in hand with stealth and I hate to waste time and sorrow uttering an unnecessary funeral prayer." He adds a grin and a twinkle in his eye at the last comment.

I look around, we are all as fully armed as we could be, even Hugh had taken the Chevalier's sword, so he wouldn't have to rely on the luck of the horseshoes in open combat. We splash across the shallow ford, which enlivens mount and rider in turn, and we are guided by the Lady along under La Roche du Falaise in deep shadow, our night eyes and our mounts' night eyes able to see well enough to tread carefully, silently and safely into position. Lady Elinor is like a mountain goat climbing up the loose screen of limestone and we emerge on the edge of the green sward of the old training and tournament ground.

We leave Alwen with the horses. "I'm a mother not a warrior," she grins, "I am ready with a crepe bandage and a tender kiss if any of you are clumsy enough in your invasion to skin a knee or elbow."

We make our way up to a heavy and locked door, but Hugh moves quickly and beat us to the door and has it open silently before we need to even break stride. All is silent within.

"The household will be preparing supper, and any rebels here in charge may be distracted by the new arrivals," Elinor offers, we had all heard their boastful arrival at the front gates. "The main hall, used for receptions and feasting, is this way." She leads us into the building.

"Andrew, Hugh, the squires and I will go around to the entrance hall, and chase out any rebels. Then I'll send a squire to fetch Alwen to join us inside. We'll hold and defend the chateau, while you find your father and Rebecca."

"This way, Robin." The Lady instructs me and I follow like a faithful dog.

Through a door and a short corridor and we burst into the main hall, our bows charged and ready, Elinor standing to my left. There are two guards carrying spears at the inside of the door, one on either side, but they only nod at the Lady and take a step back towards the wall.

"Tomas, Charles," the Lady acknowledges them and they bow in response. Loyal guards for the King, I judge.

We are at the start of the hall, lined with two rows of columns holding up a gallery, above them a wooden vaulted roof, lit up by the reddened sunset through windows along the gallery. At the far end of the hall is an ornately carved wooden chair, like a throne, but instead of the King sitting in his throne, I recognise Gervaise De La Warre the Count of Picardy sitting there, his sword already drawn against whoever has come to disturb his peaceful occupation of the King's main hall. He is older, greyer than I remember from the last time I saw him, but the sneer on his face looks the very same.

"Ah, Elinor, you got here faster than I thought," Gervaise spits in his native French, in a distinctive North French accent, but he speaks plainly enough, so I am able to follow the gist of his rhetoric. "I had heard that a band of armed men had arrived at the main gate, but without their Chevalier Raoul the Fair, so we are holding them back while we confirm their fealty to our cause. I was half expecting trouble, but not quite in the shape of my lovely wife."

"Your 'lovely' former wife—" Elinor's French is much clearer, although her anger clouds her words.

"—Not so hasty, my dear. The bishop charged with drawing up the annulment be here," he waves his drawn sword to his right, to indicate an upright cleric and a crouching clerk, both sitting at a desk to the side lit by a single candle. The bishop nods to us grimly while the clerk ignores any interruption as he scribbles quickly in the fading light. No-one has yet lit the candles in the rest of the room.

"It is dark in here, but I see them clear enough. What are they doing? And what are you doing sitting in my father's own chair where he holds court?"

"I'm so pleased you mention your father in connection with this chair, El, because by the morning you will be sitting by my side and hailed as the new Duchess of Normandy."

"What?!"

"And I will be the new Duke. Our bishop and scribe here are copying our marriage contract, and your mother's copy of her marriage contract with your father—"

"My mother's contract?"

"From your sick mother, I missed you by only a day in Pitstone. She didn't want to come with me but you know how persuasive I can be, especially with a sharp bodkin held at her throat and a promise that if she didn't you would follow her to the grave."

"Vous scélérat!" I shout in my poor French, "What have you done with [Lady Pitstone]?"

"Ah, the boy speaks, and he has brought petite toy bows for you both to play hit-targets with, how sweet." Gervaise turns to Elinor, hissing, "you can keep your little boy toy, El, just be discrete in court and you can keep him forever, we do after all need a few heirs to pass on our titles to in time."

"You are an animal. Where is my mother?"

"She's abed, still sick from the journey. She be a poor traveller, but she will find her eternal rest here once her marriage contract with King Henry has been seen and accepted by the court. We only arrived today. The King is out there in the wilderness somewhere. Been gone all day, we're told, lost in his mind, just like his stupid older brother," Gervaise sneers. "The Queen is with your mother, El, such a sweet and gracious lady, but I prefer my queen to have balls, El, one who will rule England for me with an iron fist and watch my back while I invade Louis le Gros from the north and west in his homeland in the Ile de France."

"I thought you were allied with William Clito and King Louis?" Elinor asks.

"Clito is weak and arrogant, wants everyone else to do his bidding for him while he hides behind Fat Louis' skirts and bathes in rose water. And Louis is too fat to fight any more, he was soundly beaten last time he fought Normandy five or six years ago. I decided that I don't need them all the while I have you as my gateway to the Crown, even more so now I know that you are a Princess of Scotland and a direct link through St Margaret to the Saxon Kings of England. Yes, one bodkin pinprick and your Mother tells all. I was disappointed that you let your father try to write me out of the way with an annulment, so I was forced to show my hand early. Now between us we will lead the Normans and take the Bretons with us, once Rebecca hands over the Cornflower Jewel."

"The Bretons might accept me as their Duchess, but the Normans? They never will, no matter how much royal Scottish and Saxon blood I may have!"

"You are the legitimate daughter of the King of England, El, the youngest son of the Conqueror himself ... yes, my Lady, you will be accepted as Normandy's Duchess. The bishop will place the ducal ring on my finger as soon as my assassins pull it from your father's dead fingers!"

"I will kill you first!" Elinor draws her charged bow to her lovely chin.

"No, do not kill him, Elinor, we need him alive to testify to his sins," I say in English as I draw my bow and aim for his nearest arm. Elinor lets fly at the same time.

"Oof!" the air is expelled from Gervaise's lungs with force as the two arrows hit him at the same time. He made a fatal mistake thinking my father's little bows were toys. My arrow hits the fleshy upper part of his left arm, Elinor's punctures through his sword arm shoulder blade. Both darts pin him fast, all the way through to the wooden throne, his sword slips from his nerveless fingers to clatter on the floor.

The chairs at the table fall to the floor as both the bishop and clerk rise to their feet in shock at the sudden change of events. My father's bows that they all regarded as mere children's toys are regarded as children's toys no longer.

Almost as the arrows fly, both Elinor and I recharge our bows and point them at the guards behind us. They each drop their spears and put hands up in surrender.

"Tomas, Charles," the Lady addresses them, "pick up your spears and guard the prisoner, let no one release him or yet give medical attention until we return. We must find my father," and they smile and bow in response before picking up their weapons. "Sir William Archer, Sheriff of Bartonshire is securing the chateau," she continues.

"The King has gone to the gardens in the sud-ouest, my Lady," said one of them, "He told us he would be alone all day, deep in thought, and we were to warn the kitchens that he would not be back until late. We never told ... him, that traitorous scum there ... but we sis hear him send nine armed archers to greet the King at the very last path from the woods."

"Merci, Tomas." Elinor wheels and we leave the way we came, out through the unlocked door onto the lawn. It was lighter outside than within, as we run back towards the broken cliff.

At the foot of the cliff we meet Alwen. "Leave the horses here, Alwen, they cannot go far," Elinor says, "the cliff is easy to climb even though it is now in deep shadow. Once at the top, keep to the left of the lawn and the path will take you to an open door. Go through the door ahead of you and straight onto the main hall. One of the two guards there will direct you to my mother's bedchamber, she's gravely ill and Queen Adele is with her. We now go find the King before it is too late."

Just then came a call from above us. "Is that Lady Alwen, Robin Archer and Lady Elinor I hear? It is Rebecca. I heard Sir William force the few guards left at the entrance to surrender, so I released myself from the hidden cell in the wall where I have been hiding all day since the rebels arrived and took command."

"What happened to you?" Elinor asks.

"Rebecca was never kidnapped but in hiding" Alwen says. "In Flanders, Charles has to earn his "Good" title by evicting the Jews from the business quarter but they were all warned beforehand and got away safe with everything they needed to carry. By the time Charles' men came to arrest Rebecca, she had already flown. Her network of Black Monks are intact, they have much self-interest in protecting trade routes, markets, financing capital projects and land purchase, which Rebecca helps them with, and she pays them well for their money collecting and distribution of funds which they conduct and record. All the parties are interested in keeping every transaction fair and trustworthy."

"At least you are safe and I thought so when your messenger approached me outside the Smooth Field. But now we must rescue the King, Rebecca" I say, "will you look after my sister and guide her to safety?"

"Of course, may our shared God go with you and protect you both and the King of course. Come, Alwen, it is an easy climb if you hitch up your kirtle and free your legs."

We leave them and run towards the forest, which appears thick and dark ahead of us.

"Beyond the trees the forest is light and full of clearings. Henry knows these paths like the back of his hand, he spends many weeks here each year, ever since his childhood, and the forest is private and empty of people from the village. I am sure the assassins will be waiting for him at the last large clearing before the path leading home. At the far side of the clearing is where various paths converge. We must go slowly, so as not to warn them of our approach and try to seek them out in the twilight gloom."

We tread warily, fortunately, although some of the deciduous trees have autumn colour, the few leaves already fallen are wet from recent rain and soft underfoot, with few evergreens, whose litter of leaves and fruit tends to crunch underfoot. We have already progressed some thirty or forty feet, before we can see the trees lighten ahead from hitherto thick beech and oak, to thin birch and coppiced hornbeam, the grass and fungi underneath growing through the leaf litter as befits the autumn season.

Elinor spots the assassins before me and stretches out her right arm to place a hand on my bow arm. When she has my attention, she points to my right and to her left. Now I can see the dark shadows lurking behind the last of the larger trees, four on my side and five on hers. Across the clearing she points. I follow her pointing arm and see across to the far side of the clearing, some forty or fifty yards away and awash with a splash of orange from the setting sun low in the sky, the King can be seen sitting upon his horse, walking slowly and unhurriedly into the clearing, clearly deep in thought and in no real hurry to get home. He is the perfect target, well-lit by the sun and coming straight on, with the setting sun full in his eyes. He wouldn't even see the assassins, and certainly not the arrows coming towards him until it was too late and his life at an end.

In my peripheral vision I could see one of the assassin archers to my right move, in drawing his bow ready to fire. I fired at the back of his head, reaching for another arrow as soon as it was released and selecting and shooting my next target, I was shooting to kill.

"Get down, Father!" Elinor shouts in a near scream, "Ambush!" as she also releases her ready dart at one of her targets and reaches for another dart.

In twenty seconds it is over, nine assassins lie dead, four shot by Elinor, four by me and one by us both at the same time. They didn't even see us, the setting sun at our backs, although none even had time to turn to seek their killers. Elinor drops her bow and runs to her father. I keep hold of mine, still charged with a ready dart, but follow on more cautiously behind her. Across the clearing I can see Henry's horse is down and I can see three arrows sticking up in the sunlight, showing that they have found a fleshy target. But as we make our noisy run across the clearing, with Elinor jumping grassy clumps and stepping around broom and gorse too high to jump, Henry tentatively raises his head above his fallen mount, shielding his eyes with a hand and recognises us coming.

"Elinor, what is going on? Who hath killed my mount?"

"Gervaise!" Elinor says breathlessly as she slows down her desperate running, as she sees her father is unharmed. "He was in league with William Clito and took the chateau and has attempted to take the Duchy from you."

They embrace. I avert my eyes and kick at a grass hummock and loose leaves with my heels and toes, until I feel a strong hand grip upon my shoulder.

"Sir Robert of Oaklea, again, you and my daughter have ... saved us," the King said in his halting, heavily accented English. "It took us nigh on quatre années to reward you with your knighthood, my boy. What honour can I bestow now and how many decades will you make me await my pleasure to reward you thus?"

"Sire, for a loyal subject, to serve you is reward enough," I say.

His hand on my shoulder turns into a vigorous slapping upon my back and his conversation becomes a rolling laugh as he sees my bow still clutches and armed in my left hand.

"And you killed my would-be killer with a toy bow?"

"Assassins, Father, nine of them," Elinor points out as we walk back to where the assassins' bodies lay. "We killed four each and we both killed the last one."

"These bows and shortened arrows were made by my father, Sir William, Sire, in the fashion of those he saw used by the mounted Saracens in the Holy Lands," I say, "they are ideal for using on horseback, and your daughter has already proved these in warfare as we beat off an attack by sixteen armed brigands only two days ago in Flanders, close to Charles the Good's hunting lodge, south of Brugge."

"You have both been busy," says Henry, reverting to his native Norman French. "You forget to mention sinking three ships in the Thames by your bowmanship."

"Sire, you sent two ships to kill us, it was us or them!" I blurt out, "Besides, it was only one sunk and one disabled."

"'Twas not I who sent them, young pup, but it was more mischief from Gervaise or Clito. The Aldermen of London were tipped off as to where you were to be found, and offered a gross of gold marks as reward for your capture. More fool them thinking I would offer such a vast reward to discipline a child that I would prefer to do with open hand on bare cheeks! My two warships were in London docks awaiting their refitting. The Aldermen overreached themselves in their greed, stole them and chased you down river. One, aye, you broke up and sank, the other was so disabled that it ran down a merchantman laden with bolt-cloth from Flanders and sank them both in the deepest Channel in the Thames."

"Perhaps that reward you promised us, Father, could be forgiveness?" Elinor asks quietly.

"Ha! Ha!" King Henry laughs heartily, "No need for forgiveness or retribution, you blessed children and your toy bows. Nay, it is Rebecca who informed me of the losses, as it was her merchantman that was sunk. I used her message service to have all the Aldermen and the City Reeve of London arrested. They are held in the Tower of London and have agreed to build me two new ships of war and a new merchantman for Rebecca, although they do not know it is for her, and to fully compensate her for her losses in cargo. I am pleased, because one of my two ships was built by my brother Rufus, twenty-seven years ago, so I gets new ships for old!"