The hammers swung in skilled synchrony, orange sparks shooting out sideways as the plate edge was turned. Jared snatched a glance at the burly form of Alonzo, his face creased in concentration and yet again his heart went out to the simple and honest craftsman. It had been his master stroke that had saved him, the only thing that could have succeeded – he’d gone straight to the signore.
Malatesta had not wasted a moment. At the head of an overwhelming force from the palazzo he’d marched by torchlight to the rescue, surrounding the house with his men and bursting in on a gloating Umberto. What happened next was not generally known but it was given out later that on hearing of a plot against Messer Jared, it had been first the capitano di podestà and then he himself who had rushed to the rescue.
Regrettably, in the confusion the noble Umberto di Campaldino, bravely tackling the assassins, had inadvertently fallen to his death from the roof.
But as a consequence of the threat to the life of the talented Master of Gunnes, he was now confined to a room at the palazzo, under guard at all times.
A signoria messenger arrived, standing uncertainly before the cacophonous scene of fire and metal.
The hammering ceased and Jared was informed that the signore wanted to know when this last batch of eight gunnes would be completed.
Wearily, he allowed that these would be complete before the end of the week but other matters needed settling before he could think to possess a corps of gunners.
Fifty gunnes, fifty firing wires, gunne-powder boxes, cleaning swabs, spares for all. Then the seventy men supplied to be common gunners under his twelve. Not much better than farmhands they were stolid, slow and frightened. If these were to function without flinching in the heat and terror of battle they would need better training than they were getting from Peppin’s crew, who swaggered and bullied their way about in everything they did.
In store was now enough of the gunne-powder elements to make up just three firings for each. Three volleys! When archers carried a dozen or more arrows – it was as well that no war was being talked about.
He made a reluctant farewell to Alonzo and returned to the presidio. The sheer physical satisfaction to be gained at the forge was a treat he rarely allowed himself these days; there was so much to do. And Nina had fled back to her family and he missed her.
At the presidio he was confronted with the sight of his half-trained gunners capering about in extravagantly coloured costumes. A preening Peppin told him that Malatesta wanted all his elite Gunner’s Band to be attired as he specified – over a plain mail corselet a surcoat of flaming orange and red to mark them out before all as the most fearsome warriors in the field.
Shaking his head in despair Jared saw how the flaring fabric in any kind of a breeze could wrap over the gunner and even obscure the crucial firing-passage. Now was not the time to argue, however, and he went back to his accounts.