Games of Otterburn 1388 (36 page)

With his sword Archibald went straight for the banner knight with vengeance in his heart. Sir Philip saw the Earl coming and knew in an instant he had picked the wrong fight but pride would not allow him to withdraw.

The wild swinging blade of Archibald was difficult to miss and Sir Philip who, anticipating the swing, nearly went off his horse ducking the fast moving blade. He hardly sat straight in his saddle again before Archibald took another slice at an angle anticipating the dodging movement.

Philip laid low on the other side at that stroke but he knew he had to extricate himself from the fray and slid all the way off the saddle, over the rump of his tightly encumbered destrier and on to the ground leaving his horse as an interfering blockage while he made his cowardly escape.

Archibald’s anger exploded and as he watched the knight flee through the impenetrable fighting horsemen. He swore the poltroon would pay a great ransom to get
his
life back.

Sir Philip took a free roaming horse and hied for the safety of his stone manor house.

The loss of their leader bore down hard on the still fighting men. The rear ranks who first saw Philip leave were the first to follow him. The mid ranks followed them while the ones closest in were damned to be beaten or given to surrender.

The minor knights who could pay ransom were taken prisoner. Archibald insisted they pay immediately. Trusted squires were dispatched to various points to the homes of the knights to fetch gold for their liege lords and once the ransom was paid to William the knights and their squires and men were released sans weapons, armor or mounts.

Archibald took a portion of his men and went north about three miles where Sir Philip’s stone manor stood. With no more than twenty men-at-arms and his domestic staff to defend the home the knight spoke to Archibald through an arrow slit in the wooden shutter saying, “I yield!”

“Come out so I can see yer hands,” ordered Archibald.

The mounted Scots waited for Philip to emerge.

Philip did not appear.

Archibald sent four men into the sally port to hack the wooden gates down.

Archibald could hear sobs between the axe blows.

Finally the men got enough of a hole in the iron bound gate to pull the bar from the door and go in where they found Philip in a sad state. They picked him from the floor where he sat surrounded by his household servants whom none would lift a finger on his behalf.

The knight, with one of Archibald’s men at each armpit, staggered from the sally port without his armor but having only his sword girding his waist over britches and boots.

“Ye got a shirt?” asked Archibald not wanting a valuable ransom to get sick and die on him.

A young woman of no more than fifteen came from the house carrying his shirt and jerkin in her arms. Her face was red and wet with tears and she kept choking back more as she came to the
drunk
lord and handed him his remaining clothes exposing her bare chest which was covered with fresh shallow slashes oozing with blood.

The servants came from the house and stood to watch.

“Ye sure got drunk and a woman fast,” judged Archibald as he swung off his destrier and stood in front of the gloomy sot.

“What business is that of yours?!” growled the knight turned belligerent.

Archibald slapped him hard across the face for what he knew he had done to the young woman.

Philip tasted blood in his mouth and nose and lost his temporary hostility.

“Don’t be
a’hurtin
’ him, dear lord,” she begged going to her knees.

The earl could not understand her loyalty. “He
do
this to ye?” he asked pointing to her bare and bleeding breasts.

“Aye, he did that… and more,” she grudgingly admitted.

Suspecting she was a Scot the same as the piggery lad he asked, “Ye want to come with us?”

“This is my home, Milord,” she said glancing back at the house.

“Ye’ll not be
livin
’ here
nae
more,” advised Archibald.

“
Nae
sir?”

“Burnt, ‘twill
be
,” he replied.

Sir Philip’s eyes were bleary but they sobered some when he heard his house was to be put to the fire. “How durst you?” he yelped but the emotion was too much for his soured belly and he vomited on the ground.

“Get the sword off him ere he soils it,” ordered Archibald to
which
a near standing knight did his lord’s bid.

His men came from the manor house and threw valuable plunder on the ground in front of the contingent.

“That all?” asked Archibald.

“Most, Milord,” answered one as he returned to the house for a last bit.

Seeing his material wealth so haphazardly spread about, Philip leaned his head on the ground weeping and puking more.

“Empty the stable and byre,” ordered the earl.

Archibald got close to the stinking errant knight and whispered in his ear.

Philip’s eyes suddenly grew large as he heard the words in his ear. He let out a blood curdling scream saying, “I thought you wanted a ransom!?”

“Not for all the gold and silver in
England
,” said Archibald as he stood towering over the sniveling man. He spit on him and gave him a hard kick in the ribs.

Philip groaned and whined and sobbed more.

The young woman who had been the victim of his sadistic torture cried more and begged for his safety. That still mystified Archibald.

The earl had two men drag the screaming knight back into the house and tie him to a post before they kicked the coals from the cook fire onto faggots and kindling scattered before it. The fire began to catch.

The young woman stood at the front of the house and poured another round of tears.

She could hear the blood curdling screams of Philip and smoke was seeping from the arrow slits in the shutters.

William then drew rein at the manor with his portion of the contingent, his dead heroes and a string of English knights being held for ransom.

Behind them came Gilly with twenty tethered pigs.
The shoats following their mother’s teats.

Someone brought a good wain from the byre with a handsome brace of horses pulling it.

Archibald liked the idea and had the strewn plunder put into the wain.

The young woman turned and saw Gilly with his pigs. She ran to him and hugged him tight. “Ye are still alive!” she cried out with joy.

“Why would I not be?” said Gilly.

“The lord said ye would be killed if I didn’t behave him!”

“Who are ye?” asked Gilly completely mystified.

“I am yer sister, James, don’t ye know me?” she asked.

“I hain’t got family,” innocently replied Gilly.

“Have now, again, James,” she said as she vehemently spit at the burning house then managed a stern smile on her lips as she realized her ordeal with a self-centered madman had come to an end.

Archibald then understood as the last gasps and screams ceased and the fire licked from the window shutters and burst from the top of the house.

Archibald released the bewildered servants to their own wanderings.

The lord’s long-legged Scottish
Deerhound
that had remained back from the events was the only living thing that did not scatter from the burning manor.
 

The ruffian and his younger brother who had been hiding in the byre loft watching the events slipped from their lair and ran fast across the fields just before the starter-fire was placed there. They had had a day that they would remember and be influenced by for the rest of their lives.

The dog eventually tagged the wain where the young Scottish lass sat thinking of her and her brother’s home in
Gallway
that was known on maps as
Galloway
.
 
She prayed they still had family there who would remember them.

August 18 - Morning

Castle Warkworth

Northumberland

 
The kitchen maid knocked gently on the door of the Earl’s bedchamber.

“Come,” was the single word order that told the guard at the door to lift the latch, push the door wide allowing the young wench to enter with her tray of food ordered by Lord Henry.

She did not lay eyes on the man but knew to set the bowls and trenchers of food onto the table in the well lighted room. She did as she knew to do and quickly left through the same door from which the view of the interior of the chamber was blocked by an antechamber.

Earl Henry Percy emerged from the smaller attached chamber with a fresh washed face and a robe loosely tied around his waist. He drew the curtains back on the large bed saying, “Sun’s up, Maude.”

She blinked a bit and looked toward the large stained glass window then to the face of her husband, Percy, as she liked to call him. She drew the silk lined fur coverlet back from her nude body and pushed up high on the well downed pillow.

“Got a breakfast for you, my dear,” he said gently.

“Kind of you,” she replied noticing her sagging breasts. She took the palms of her hands and raised them higher to where they once were. It was nothing she had not done before but she remained amazed at the differences in her sixty-four year old body and even a few years earlier.

She glanced over to her much younger husband and was tinged with a moment of jealousy then it passed as she began to admire his strong body under the thinness of his sheer robe.

She released her breasts and pushed under the cover some so that they did not show as drooping but were pushed up by the furry cover.

“Percy?” she called lightly.

Henry turned to her, “Yes?”

“Love me,” she requested.

Henry was surprised by her forwardness but he did love her and enjoyed sleeping beside her in bed. She was certainly older than his first wife Margaret with whom he had had five children including Hotspur and Ralph but with Maude came the arrangement of the expansive lands of the Lacy family.

She was, even at her age, a sensual beautiful woman to him and who was skilled in the bringing of pleasures to a man under the cover of darkness.