English Knight by Griff Hosker

anywhere north of here. Possibly just over the other side of the tidal reaches.”
    “But that is Hartness and the land of Baron De Brus.”
    My father said nothing in answer to that. “Faren, see to some better clothes for the priest.  Father Peter is now my man too. Alfraed, come with me and we will find Wulfstan.”
    We headed north towards the edge of the land that belonged to my father. “We will need good stone and a mason. I will also need to visit with this De Brus and see the Bishop’s reeve at Durham. I need to sniff out the land. There is something wrong here.”
    “How will we get the stone here?”
    “There are quarries close to Persebrig.  We can sail them down and use carts to bring them the last four miles or so.  That is for the future.  We need more horses and we need our walls up.”
    Ralph and the others trudged up the bank.  I saw that their boots were covered in mud. “It is treacherous down there my lord. There are muddy holes that will suck you down.  We need not worry too much about an attack from this direction.”
    “And that is where you are wrong, old friend.  Someone used paths in that morass to launch an attack on the castle. We need to make this side of our fort impregnable.” As we walked back he told Branton and his other oathsworn what we had discovered.
    “Then, my lord, when we have built the wooden walls we will scout the paths ourselves.  I will become as familiar with them as any attacker,” Wulfstan grinned, “and I am sure master Alfraed and his new squire can discover the joys of swamps too.  It is all good training to be a knight.”
    My mouth dropped open, “How can that be good training to be a knight? We ride horses.”
    “Aye and when an axe man takes the legs from your horse and you are afoot then you will need to be nimble on your feet and know where the solid ground lies.” He always had an answer.
    After we had eaten, my father gathered us around. “We have two tasks this week.  First we make our ditch and our walls.” He pointed to the church.  “We surround the church with the walls and we make a roof. We will have to send to Persebrig for our stone.  I would have a stone floor for the church. When the walls are completed and the church roofed then I will go with Ralph, Garth, my son and Harold and we will travel to Durham.  The rest of you can build my hall.”
    Osric shook his head.  “That is too few men to protect you, my lord. Take more of us.”
    My father rarely raised his voice but he had this ability to sound his words slowly so that each one was like the blow of an axe on a shield. “I am taking three good knights and a squire for protection. I need a hall building ready for the winter.  We have much to do.” He shrugged, “If there are any guards to be hired or bought in Dunelm then I will buy them. That is all that I can promise.”
    And so we worked hard.  All of us, father included, cut the wood for the palisades and buried then in the ground.  Then we dug a ditch all the way around and piled the spoil next to the ramparts. Wulfstan explained that when we acquired the stone we would reinforce the base with it and use it to build a gate and a tower. I could see that adding a curtain for the church would add to our work but father was determined. It took us a good ten days, working every moment of daylight to complete it but when it was finished we were safe; for the first time.
    I was curious about the lack of interest in us.  None of those who owed fealty to my father and worked the land came to see us. He seemed philosophical about the whole thing.  “Their crops are still to be harvested as are their animals.  When we are secure then we will tax them.”
    The completion of the roof of the church proved to be easier than we had expected. On one of his scouting expeditions Wulfstan had found the remains of a Roman house.  It had not been a fine villa; there were neither mosaics nor a bath house but there were still