Post of the Month

~ March 2006 ~

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Merries ~ Written by Siiri, Annie, Rhys, Gwyn & Angela.  Posted on the HoS Yahoo group April 2005.

Robert weaved his way through the yielding swathe of bushes that marked the perimeter of camp, finding the easy path, and broke through to the space ringing by the trees and the bushes that was the camp.

He paused for a moment to listen, scanning blindly from side to side across thespace before him. The fire was crackling more vigorously, having been poked up into life, and beside it he heard Nasir's quiet movements. John and Will were there too, and Rhiannon, talking softly to Ellie who was burbling back in her strange infantile language. Robert smiled at the sound of his baby daughter, and headed on across the clearing to the fireside. Behind him, he heard Tuck break out of the bushes and follow him across the clearing.

"Breakfast," said Tuck as he followed Robert across the clearing, and held the reed basket aloft.

"All the venison's gone," Will muttered.

"Then it's a good job we have the fish, isn't it?" replied Tuck.

John laid a hand on Robert's arm to get his attention as Robert reached the fireside and moved to stand beside him. "Much and Alan are on their way to the Lincoln Road," John said to Robert.

"Yes, they came down to the stream first," Robert replied. "I told them to go and see Walter the headman at Elsdon. He has relatives in Lincoln, so he may have heard more than most about these other outlaws."

"So," Will said, standing and stirring up the edge of the fire with the heel of his boot, "what's the plan for today then? Ain't sittin' around on my backside."

"Speak for yourself, Scarlet." Tuck settled himself comfortably on the log by the fire and dumped the reed basket of fish at his feet. "You didn't walk from Halstead yesterday." He omitted to mention the fact that he had been given a lift in a wagon part of the way, saving time and his feet.

Robert turned from facing the fire, took several steps to his right and reaching out, found Rhiannon's shoulder where she sat on the end of the log. He smiled at the feel of her hand covering his briefly where it rested on her shoulder and he stooped, finding Ellie's wispy head with his hand first before he bent his own head to plant a kiss on it, and then he spoke across to Scarlet's restless movements nearby. "Much said they would return before sundown. I said we would not move from here until they return and we have a better idea of what could be going on along the Lincoln Road."

"Another day's wait," muttered Will.

Robert gave a frown at the mutter, indistinct though it was, he heard it and knew Will had meant him to hear. "Well, we don't want to move to a camp NEARER any potential trouble, do we?"

"Well," Tuck said mildly, taking his knife from his belt and bending to gut the fish, "suits me just fine to remain here another day." He glanced up at Robert. "If you want someone to remain on watch here, Robert, I volunteer with pleasure."

"Should be doin' some diggin' around for ourselves," Will muttered, "stead of leavin' it all to Much and that minstrel..."

"Who said we were going to leave it all to them?" Robert sat on the log beside Rhiannon; a wide-awake Ellie gurgled with delight at seeing her father and reached out small hands to him, clutching at his sleeve. Feeling the touch, he turned his head in her direction and consciously smiled at her, taking one small hand in his to pacify her, liking the feel of all her tiny fingers curling around just one of his. "I sent Much and Alan out of the forest along the Lincoln Road because they are the two most likely not to be recognised; they can blend in with the villagers. I didn't say that the rest of us were just going to sit around on our backsides all day sunning ourselves." He grinned as Ellie added some intelligible burble onto the end of his last sentence as though commenting, and turning his head, he scanned over the company around the fireside once more, both alert and curious to their reactions to what he had said. "I'm going to walk over to Maybury. You said you made the kill of the deer near there yesterday, Naz and Will?"

"Not far from there," Nasir replied, picking up the fish Tuck had split and gutted, and skewering them on sticks to place over the fire.

"Did you go into the village at all?" Robert questioned, keeping his head turned in the direction of the Saracen's voice whilst he let Ellie play with his fingers.

"Nah - just came across a couple of lads from the village gathering firewood an' told 'em where they could find our kill, after we'd taken what we needed," Will said.

"Didn't think to ask them about these outlaws?" John said.

"Well we didn't KNOW about 'em then, did we!" Will was aggrieved.

"So I'm going to Maybury and do a little digging of my own," Robert said. "John?" It was an invitation for company, not for aid, and John replied it as such.

"Aye, lad, I'm with you," he answered. "To Maybury it is."

"If we have a day to kill, then I'm going to Sedgeley to see how Meg fares," Rhiannon said, shifting a restive Ellie to her other arm.

Robert did not quibble at his wife's decision. "Yes, do it now, before we move camp and most likely further away from Sedgeley. I don't want us to be found near any village if trouble should strike - for their sakes." Ellie had released his hand; he moved it up to her face to thoughtfully stroke her cheek, and then he grinned as an idea occurred to him. "You can take Scarlet with you, Rhiannon. It will give him something to do, since he's complaining he doesn't want to sit on his backside all day."

"ROBERT-" began Will aggrievedly, disliking the idea of accompanying a woman with a baby to see another woman who was expecting a baby.

"Listen," said Robert, "we have this to dole out as well, remember?" Where he sat on the root end of the log he leant and felt in the hollow niche amongst the roots for the small wooden casket that he had stored there the previous day. They had robbed it off a rich merchant they had encountered two days ago. Robert found the wooden casket and drew it out of its hiding place, opened the lid and ran his fingers over the contents - three small leather bags containing coins. Gold.

He took the bags out of the casket and weighed them lumped together in the palm of his left hand, enjoying the slight clinking sound of the coins. "I counted this out and divided it up yesterday whilst I kept watch at camp, and it's ready to distribute. Last year's harvest was poor and Maybury, Sedgeley and Benfield are running out of grain. Let's kill two birds with one stone today; visit these villages and take them these gifts....and at the same time cast around for any news about these other 'outlaws'."

"John and I will go to Maybury. Rhiannon, you and Will take Sedgeley's portion to them." Robert turned his head in the direction of the quiet Saracen whose movements could be heard by the fireside. "Nasir-"

"-I will go to Benfield," Nasir answered quietly.

Robert grinned, feeling over the three leather bags of coins, his head uplifted to listen around him to his friends. "So it's settled, then. Each of us have something to do today. No sitting around on backsides." He gave a slight laugh. "Apart from Tuck of course, we will give him special dispensation."

"Bless you, my son," Tuck said humorously.

Will looked mutely at John, silently pleading with him to swap. "You sure you don't wanna go an' see Meg again?"

John shook his head and stared pensively into the fire, chin resting on hand. "Let the lass go - and you take care of her."

Will was effectively silenced and made no more protest. Rhiannon looked a little humorously askance at John at the "taking care" but knew that the big man had meant no offence; John knew well that she could look after herself. It was simply in the ex-shepherd's nature to look to people, to keep an eye on them. As he was still keeping an eye on the recently widowed Meg....

"So it's settled then. Here, Scarlet." Robert tossed one of the small leather bags in Will's direction, aiming for the sound of Will's voice. His aim was good; Will caught the bag. "Naz-" Robert tossed the second bag to the Saracen.

His aim was perfect, but Nasir's hands were fully occuppied holding several skewered fish. The bag of coins hit Nasir on the hip and dropped to the ground with a heavy clink at Nasir's booted feet. The Saracen looked down at the bag of coins at his feet, then looked up and across at Robert. Robert had heard the bag of coins fall to the ground, and he tilted his head to listen for further clues, curious.

"Why didn't you catch?" Robert queried, puzzled.

There was an amused twinkle in Nasir's dark eyes as he looked at the blind young man. "Because my hands were already full."

Will saw the opportunity to tease in affection - he had long got past the stage of not liking to rib Robert whenever he got the chance in case Robert proved sensitive about the subject of his blindness. They all had, as soon as they had realised Robert wasn't sensitive in the slightest about the subject. "An' if you weren't as blind as a bleedin' bat, you'd have known that!"

John chuckled, and as he moved past Robert around the fireside, he affectionately clapped a brief large hand on Robert's shoulder. "Say what you like about the sighted, Robert - sometimes it pays to be so!"

The fire was hot, and the fish were quickly cooked. Nasir removed them from their makeshift spits, roughly flaked the fish into bowls, Tuck added a small hunk of bread to each bowl and passed them around the fireside company. They all sat and ate. Rhiannon took some small flakes into a seperate bowl, probed them very carefully for the smallest bones, then fed Ellie a flake of fish. She chewed at first, then pulled a face and spat the fish out. Will, picking at his own bowl of fish, sympathised.

Robert ate in silence, his sensitive fingertips exploring the fish in his own bowl for the bones and setting them aside. His mind was busy with the day ahead. Alan and Much had been sent on their way - maybe Walter at Elsdon would have some information which could prove useful. Maybe SOMEONE would have some information which could prove useful. He hoped so. There was an uneasy feeling niggling away at him, and he had learnt by now not to ignore such feelings.

"We need some more bread," Rhiannon said out of the silence as they all ate. "I'll see what the villagers of Sedgeley can give us before we move away from this area."

"With that money they'll be able to buy grain on the sly from old Eli who has the mill over at Rufford," said Tuck, "he can be bought, and gold can keep his mouth closed. He's got sacks of the stuff stored in his grain-barns - all belonging to the Abbot Hugo. I think the good Abbot can spare some of his grain."

Robert chuckled. "He wouldn't think so, Tuck."

"Surprised he wasn't called to London like the Sheriff was, to answer King John about Mordred," Will said. "Would've been fun to see that fat slug squirm."

"I hear he hastily took himself off to Walsingham on a pilgrimage," Tuck said.

Robert laughed. "That figures. Hugo always develops an excessive dose of piety and rushes off to pilgrimage whenever he thinks there's a chance of his head rolling."

"Swivel-eyed hypocrite," Will said.

"Have some pity, Scarlet, something must have made him into the swivel-eyed hypocrite he now is," Rhiannon said amusedly. "You don't know what he might have been like when he was young."

"Yeah I do, Rhiannon," said Will, "he was a fat slug then, too. 'Cos once a swivel-eyed hypocrite, always a swivel-eyed hypocrite."

Tuck stared down at his bowl of fish, feeling uneased, his mind going back to the far distant past, and made no comment.

Rhiannon placed her empty bowl aside and glanced up at the sky through the treetops above. Shafts of sunshine slanted down into the clearing. "We should make a start to Sedgeley before the morning wears on too much," she said, and glanced across at Will, who had already risen and was standing before the fire, arms folded, waiting. He merely nodded in response to her glance.

Rhiannon glanced across at John, who had also finished the meal and was sitting staring into the flames. "I'll tell Meg you'll visit her when you can, shall I?" Rhiannon ventured at last of the shepherd.

John merely nodded. "in a few days," he said at last, and Rhiannon knew he would keep his word. In the past month since Adam's death, John had often been absent from the band, and they knew he had gone to Sedgeley to see Meg, to take her meat, and to offer help with any tasks she might find hard in her advanced state of pregnancy.

"So I'll tell her a few days, then," Rhiannon said. She felt for Meg - widowed and with child; Heaven forbid- and Rhiannon glanced at Robert who sat beside her on the log, fair head bent over his bowl of food, still eating, oblivious to her glance, and Rhiannon shuddered, and drew the sleepy Ellie closer to her.

It had not happened to her - to them. But it could, it might - that thought was always at the back of her mind. It was a fact that had to be accepted, and accept it she did, and she would deal with it if it ever happened....but still it was a fear that lurked at the back of her mind, a chill that lay deep in the core of her heart....

"See if you can get Meg to eat something, Rhiannon," added John, "she didn't when I was there, and though she took the pigeons I brought her, I'll wager she hasn't put them in the cook-pot."

Rhiannon nodded and rose, pinning the shawl around her which served as a carry sling for Ellie, so she had her arms free. Ellie nestled down against her mother, sensing they were about to move, and her thumb found her mouth, whilst her blue eyes sleepily regarded the fireside company.

Will crossed the fireside, yanked his sword out of the ground where he had embedded it, swiftly cleaned the tip on his sleeve, and sheathed it. "C'mon, let's get going then." He tied the purse of money to his belt, hiding it under his jerkin, and crossing the fireside, laid a rough hand on Robert's shoulder where he sat. "Be back before sundown." He darted a look beyond Robert to where the friar sat on the log, finishing his breakfast. "Tuck, you'd better have a good meal on the go. NO FISH."

"See you later," Robert said amusedly.

Will gave a short laugh. "Hah, I'll bleedin' see YOU first!" But as he spoke, he looked at Robert, and his face softened for just an instant before he gave a light and comradely punch to Robert's upper arm, and then headed on across the clearing, shoulders hunched in resolve, scowling to himself at the prospect of going to Sedgeley and being in the company of women and a baby.

Robert rose to face Rhiannon as she turned to him and laid a hand on his arm in farewell.

"Go easy on Scarlet, I think he's got a hangover," Robert said wickedly.

Rhiannon squared her small shoulders. "I'll look after him," she replied in the same vein of humour. She smiled, and Robert, putting his fingers up to touch her face, strayed them over her smile, and smiled also.

He bent his head and planted a brief kiss on her forehead, moved his hand down to briefly trace his fingertips across the sleepy face of his baby daughter secured in the sling and nestled against Rhiannon, then stepped back and let them go.

Turning his head, he listened to Rhiannon as she moved away across the clearing and quietly swished through the swathe of bushes, to follow Will, and then he turned his head back to the remaining company by the fireside. "We should get going too, John." He reached out to his side and felt on the top of the log beside him for the bag of coins he hadn't tossed at anyone, and secured it to his belt by its ties.

John came across, picking up his bow and slinging it over his shoulder, quarterstaff in hand. "I'm with you, lad."

"Good hunting," Nasir said quietly in farewell, picked up his swords, slid them into their scabbards, and left camp through the trees in the opposite direction Rhiannon and Will had taken, heading West towards Benfield.

Tuck rose to stand by the fire and looked at John and Robert. "God go with you."

Robert gave a smile, and moving past him around the fireside, laid a hand briefly on the friar's broad shoulder in farewell before pausing to ascertain his bearings, and then smartly heading away across the clearing to the East, towards the sound of the nearby stream, tapping his stick from left to right before him, finding the clear path onwards. John caught up with him and fell into step beside him, and they too wended their way through the swathe of bushes and melted from view.

And all was silent in the camp save the crackle of the fire, the song of the birds and the rustle of the treetops.

Where he stood alone by the fire, Tuck gazed around him at the deserted camp he was set to keep watch on for the day, and then stared down into the flames of the fire and fell to preoccupied thought.