The Red Wolf's Prize (25 page)

Christmastide 1068

Serena stood at the top of the motte, surveying the bailey
that had seen so much rain in the weeks leading up to Christmastide. At least
it had not snowed last night, though frost had covered the ground that morning.
The pale sun that had risen this day did not bring much warmth.

She drew her woolen cloak tightly around her against the
chill and rubbed her growing belly feeling the child move again. Her thoughts
drifted idly toward spring when the flowers would return.

It would be her time to give birth.

In the bailey below, the harsh sound of wood clashing
against wood disturbed the winter quiet as Mathieu and Jamie sparred with
practice swords. A short distance away Steinar sat on a cask watching the
lesson. His leg had healed but he limped and often used a walking stick,
especially when treading rough ground. Her brow wrinkled in worry for him. He
was bitter and discouraged. Who could blame him?

Rhodri sauntered through the gate with his bow and arrows
slung over his shoulder and joined Steinar to watch the swordplay. “When you
finish training him to the blade, Mathieu,” he yelled over the sounds of mock
battle, “I will train him to the bow.”

Jamie’s face lit up as he blocked a blow from Mathieu’s
wooden sword. “Aye, the bow next!”

Serena heard her husband approach behind her. Wrapping his
arms around her middle between her breasts and swollen belly, he said, “In a
year’s time, Mathieu will be ready to be a knight and Jamie can become my
squire.”

“He would like that,” she said, laying her hands over his.
The feeling of warmth between them had not dimmed in the months since York.
Their love had only grown stronger. Renaud had been most gracious to Steinar
and the two men had found a semblance of rapport between them, avoiding the
difficult subjects that would have brought on an argument. For that Serena was
grateful.

Seeing Cassie stride through the yard to the stable where
Sir Maurin had gone a short while ago, Serena smiled at the memory of the
weddings that had taken place. As she now reflected upon them, she should not
have been surprised. Maugris had grinned in reply to her wondering at so many,
telling her he had seen them in his visions.

First there was Sir Alain and Aethel, to the surprise of
many. In the weeks following York, the herb woman had tended the knight’s
wounded face, and they had become inseparable. When they wed, Serena allowed
them to make their home in the manor Renaud had given her. After weeks abed,
Sir Maurin had recovered, and Cassie and he had claimed the priest’s blessing.
They now lived in the main manor. Both women had recently declared they were
carrying their husbands’ babes. With the coming of summer, Talisand would be
full of new life. Mayhap in time, even Sir Geoffroi and Eawyn would wed.

It was her brother who gave her sleepless nights.

“I worry about Steinar,” she said aloud. “Now that he is
healed in body, he still appears troubled in soul. He grows restless. I know he
wonders what future he has in England. I fear he will seek Edgar again in
Scotland.”

“I see the bard sits by his side,” said Renaud. “Why does
the Welshman linger?”

“He stays, I think, for my brother. He worries, as do I. We
both fear Steinar will leave. Rhodri but waits to see what direction he will
take so that he may follow. The two are like brothers.”

Drawing her closer into his chest, he whispered in her ear.
“Steinar must make his own life, Serena.”

She let out a sigh. “I know you are right and that he will
go. But I will miss him.”

“You will be busy with our child. By the bye, what shall we
name him? Shall it be an English name or Norman?” Renaud teased.

“I have been considering our choices, husband. What say you
if we name the babe after our fathers?”

“I like it, and it would please my father.”

“I just realized I do not know your father’s name. What is
it?”

“Alexander.”

“So our son would be Alexander Sigmund of Talisand.” Serena
thought on the name. “Aye, ’tis a good choice. But what if the child is a
girl?”

He tightened his embrace as he spoke. “Maugris is certain
the babe will be a son, the first of several he tells me. But if the wise one
is wrong, let us name the girl child after a saint and pray she is not like her
mother.”

Serena laughed and batted his hand. “You jest!”

“Mayhap I do,” he chuckled. “In truth, my lady wife, I would
love a violet-eyed girl child to hold on my knee. For I love her mother more
than life.” He nuzzled her neck.

Serena twisted her wedding band, remembering again the words
inscribed inside and turned in his arms to look into his face. The face of the
knight she loved. “Your lands do not hold your heart, my lord? The prize your
Norman king gave you?”

“Nay, my lady. The lands would be only a place to dwell were
you not here to share them with me. Maugris was right when he said it was here
I would find my prize.
You
are that prize, Serena, not the lands. You
are my peace, my love.”

Sliding her hands to his nape, Serena pulled him toward her
and kissed the Norman she loved, content to be the Red Wolf’s prize.

I hope you enjoyed my foray into the medieval world of 11
^th
century England. (If you did, please write a review!) I set my story in the
north west of England, in the area known today as Lancashire where the River
Lune winds its way through the countryside. It was a place of quiet in the
storm that we refer to today as the Conquest.

In 1066, William did not reach as far north as Northumbria,
but eventually the north drew his attention because the English there refused
to accept his claim to the throne and because York was too important to ignore.

I wanted to explore how a spirited daughter of an English
thegn would feel about being one of the conquered, given against her will to a
Norman knight who had fought the English at Hastings and might have slain her
father. How would she handle her hatred for a man to whom she was also
attracted? When I thought of Serena I thought of a courageous young woman who
tried to hold back a tidal wave, but found herself swept away by the passion
for a bold Norman knight whose sons would one day be a part of the country he
now claimed as his.

Why a map? You may ask. When one of my writing friends, who
had read the early manuscript, asked me to show her where Talisand was on a map
of England (not realizing it was fictional), I knew a map was in order. So, I
included one that shows the locations mentioned in the story. I do love maps.
Now you know just where to find the lands of Lady Serena that William the
Conqueror gave to the Red Wolf.

A plaque in the church at Dives-sur-Mer in Normandy lists the
knights who accompanied William, Duke of Normandy in September of 1066 when he
set sail for England. Among the knights whose names are recorded there are
Renaud de Pierrepont and Geoffroi de Tournai, Normans who held land in England
in 1086 when the
Doomsday Book
was written. Whether those two real life
Normans bore any resemblance to the knights in my story is the subject of
conjecture. I like to think they might have. We do know that many younger sons
of noble Norman families became knights and risked all to fight with William
and, as a result, gained lands in England. We also know that many English women
fled from their path, some taking the veil. My fictional heroine, Serena of
Talisand, would likewise flee, but not to take the veil.

You might ask what language they spoke in England,
particularly in the north. While the Saxons in the south would have spoken a
form of English, and William did make an attempt to learn it, in the north, the
area known as the Danelaw, the language would have been Danish and the dialect
would be Scandinavian. The commoners probably did not speak English. However,
for the sake of my story, I kept to English, though it is possible Renaud could
have spoken Danish as William did.

The manor houses of the thegns, such as the one built by
Sigmund, Serena’s father, varied in size depending on the wealth of the thegn.
Most were only one story and, if they had a second story, stairs to the second
floor might have been on the outside or more rudimentary than you might picture
from my novel. It is also unlikely the bedchambers, save for the thegn’s, were
enclosed. (They might have alcoves off the main hall used as sleeping chambers.)
But there would have been no upstairs corridor. Those came later. As I needed
bedchambers for some of my scenes, they are included. I hope you allow me the
deviation from the English manor houses of that time. Perhaps some smart thegn
even thought of inside stairs and bedchambers. We will never know.

Having learned their lessons from the Viking raids where
wooden churches were burned, the English did build stone churches before the
Conquest, and some survive to this day. I have based the church Serena’s father
built at Talisand on the ones I have researched, so I believe it is true to the
period. They did not have pews as the faithful stood, but the English painted
their churches with vivid pictures and stories from the Bible as in my story.
You can see one such church on my Pinterest board for The Red Wolf’s Prize.

You might wonder what kind of a bow the Welshman Rhodri
brought to Talisand. There is evidence that the Welsh made use of the longbow
against the English prior to William’s invasion in 1066. There is also evidence
to suggest the longbow was introduced into England during the Danish invasions
prior to the Conquest.
However, the Bayeux Tapestry shows only one
Saxon bowman and he has a short bow. (The rest of King Harold's forces used the
shield and battle-axe.) The Norman archers, who, according to tradition, won
William's victory for him, also used the short wooden bow. In my story, Rhodri
made shorter bows for the women as the longbows, if he used them, would require
too much arm strength for a woman to use.

Why, you might ask, didn’t Renaud and Geoffroi ride their
destriers around the countryside? The simple reason is that destriers, like
coursers, were warhorses trained for the battlefield and not easily handled.
Destriers (a type of horse, not a breed) were reserved for battle. The knights
would have other horses, such as palfreys and rounceys, which they rode off the
battlefield. In Renaud’s case, he rides a Spanish stallion gifted to him by
Duke William. William shipped hundreds of horses across the English Channel
when he invaded England in 1066, and he also had a Spanish stallion that was
given to him. While the Saxons rode horses to war, they fought on foot, which
proved to be a mistake.

Did you wonder about the timber castle Renaud built? For the
most part, the early castles were not the stone edifices we think of today, the
monuments that remain. The castles the Normans first constructed, the ones
built in mere days, weeks or months, were timbered structures erected upon a
“motte”, or a mound of earth with a flat top, and surrounded by a deep ditch
sometimes filled with water (a moat). These would be enclosed with a timbered
palisade, wooden poles sharpened to a point at the top. The land around the
castle would be the “bailey”. We call them “motte and bailey” castles today. By
1100, it is believed 400 such castles had been erected in England. You can see
one on my Pinterest storyboard.

Initially, William allowed some Saxons to keep their holdings
and made an effort to learn English and work with the nobles, but as I have
said, not all in England accepted the Conqueror as their king, particularly in
the north. They had more ties to the Vikings than they did to the south of
England. They were not Saxons, but Mercians or Northumbrians. In 1068, William
changed his strategy and took back all the land in order to give it to his own
loyal men. Most of the English noble and military class was slain, exiled or
mutilated. William conquered not only by might, dealing brutally with his enemies,
but also by ensconcing his Norman barons and knights in various places and
ordering them to construct castles, then leaving them to keep the peace.

Just as I have portrayed them, Earls Edwin and Morcar were
handsome young men, well loved by the people of Mercia and Northumbria. When
King Edward reigned, he used them as a counterpoint to the power of the house
of Godwin, and that may be the reason the brothers did not fight with Harold at
Hastings. Instead, they aligned themselves with William, perhaps thinking he
would leave them to run their own lands, but alas, the Norman king was
untrustworthy.

Through William’s actions, Englishmen who once had status
were reduced to no more than slaves, and their property confiscated. It must
have been humiliating for the English to be conscripted by the Normans into
building the castles that symbolized their dominance. Most Norman barons were
not like the Red Wolf in his mercy shown to the people of Talisand. (If I were
writing a 1980s bodice ripper, this would have been a very different tale, but
likely more accurate for the time.)

I like to think the English have had their revenge upon the
Normans, for today English is the language spoken in England, not French
(though many English words have their origin in French), and English as well as
Norman blood, flows through the people. That is what I had in mind when I
thought of Renaud and Serena, the Lord and Lady of Talisand and their
children—the Red Wolf’s cubs who, according to Maugris, would advise kings for
generations—all because one fair English maiden gave her heart to a bold Norman
knight.

If you’d like to see the pictures that go with
The Red
Wolf’s Prize
, take a look at my Pinterest story board:
http://www.pinterest.com/reganwalker123/the-red-wolfs-prize-by-regan-walker

I expect I’ll be writing more stories following the further
loves and adventures of those at Talisand: Sir Geoffroi’s story (
Rogue
Knight
), Steinar’s story (
Rebel Warrior
), and perhaps Alexander’s (
The
Red Wolf’s Cub
). I’ve titled the series
Medieval Warriors
, as each
hero is a warrior in his own right. But those books will have to wait until
2015, as my next novel will see me in the 18
^th
century with the
prequel for the
Agents of the Crown
.

To Tame the Wind
is my next project. It will be a tale
of adventure and love set in France and England in 1783—with Captain Simon
Powell, an English privateer, and the wild Claire Donet, a French pirate’s
daughter! If you read
Wind Raven
, you will have a hint as to where the
story begins.

For more of my historical novels, and to sign up for my
newsletter so you can get word of my new releases, visit my website,
www.reganwalkerauthor.com
. I’d love
to hear from you. You can also write me at
[email protected]
. I love
to hear from readers! Let me know whose story you want to see next!