The morning dawned with clouds blown in from the southeast. I got up, washed my face and hands with a bowl of water Joneta set out, and jerked the tangles out of my hair with my boxwood comb. I turned my back on her when I pulled on clean breeches and tunic from my pack. Of course, she was used to seeing her brothers undressed, but that did not mean she needed to see me. Not yet anyway. She made a little noise as she dipped the flowers out of the water, but I wasn’t sure if it was a giggle or a snort. Hopefully, she could not see me blush.
Gil had tied his brown garron with its hairy hocks to the gate of the sheepcote and was brushing it, which had drawn quite a crowd. A wee lass no higher than his waist stood next to Gil. Raso shouted for Filan to get to the field before the birds at all the seedlings. Several parents were scolding their young ones for not being at their chores, but Gil still had a considerable audience.
The lassie trailed after Filan part of the way but stopped to look back. “Gil is my brother, but he is mean. He will nae let me ride his horse!”
“His sister? Och, big brothers are like that.” When I asked her name, she told me it was Florie, and I heard myself say, “Gil is a friend of mine. I wager I could convince him to let you sit on its back.”
“Really?” She grinned up at me, a gap where she had lost one of her baby teeth. “He said I am wee a bairn to ride a horse. So you tell him I am nae bairn!”
The children parted to let me through, and a lad only a bit larger joined as I walked to join Gil. “Ingelram used to have two horses.” He scowled, showing even more gaps in his front teeth. “But he would nae let me even touch it.”
“I dinnae think they belong to him. So that is why.”
“I suppose.”
When Gil lifted his head from rubbing his horse’s legs with a cloth, I said, “What do you think? These young ones would like to try out seeing the village from a horse.”
He scratched his chin with his fingernails, pretending a deep frown. “You dinnae ride a horse without earning the right.” He crossed his arms and looked down that the two. “If you brush his flank for me, I might think it had earned you a ride.”
The dozen or so young ones watching gave a chorus of, “Me too!”
Gil rolled his eyes. “See what you done.”
Chuckling, I left him to it and strolled to look for something I needed. We would not be here long, although it would be the center of our patrols. Those would not keep us fighting fit. A copse of trees grew around the little kirk, but one at the edge was spindly and not much taller than a man. Stripped of its branches, it would make a peel. It was a pity I had not brought a lance because I could also use practice with it.
I found a wood axe in the stable and set to work on the tree.
A deep laugh made me turn. “What are you doing there, my son?”
A priest in a faded black cassock stood, arms crossed. He had friendly gray eyes and a red tonsure above a round face. But his broad shoulders indicated that he did considerable farm work besides his praying. After all, if the village went hungry, so would he.
“Trying to chop off the branches, father.” I rested the head of the axe on the ground. “They call it a pale. For sword practice.”
“Dinnae you need practice swords for that?”
“I brought those.”
“You brought young Gil back. His family will be glad of that. But the two of you mean to leave again?”
“Duty.” I whacked at another high branch, and it thudded to the ground. Gil had the makings of a fine man-at-arms if I could work with him. “And practice may keep both of us alive to return.”
“I will pray it is so, my son.” He picked up a broom leaning against the wall that I had not noticed and smiled. “Now to my own duty. The kirk needs sweeping.”
“Dinnae the women do that for you, father?”
“They bring me food every day and pick flowers for the altar in season. But if we are to have food, we all must stick to our last.”
I ran my finger along the hilt of my sword. Sticking to my last was a bloody business, but it was what I must do.