Figure of Hate Read Free

at the many daily services in a cathedral. Often called a 'vicar-choral' from his participation in chanted services.

    VILLEIN
    The upper grade of unfree men in the feudal system.
    A villein was granted a loft and croft and his own strips in the village field system, but had to work for the lord on certain days. He might be more wealthy than some freemen.

    VIRGATE
    A measure of land, which varied in size from place to place, often being thirty acres.

    WIMPLE                            
    Linen or silk cloth framing a woman's face an covering the throat.

PROLOGUE
    Spring 1195

    The tournament was in its second day when tragedy first struck.
      It was not that such accidents were all that uncommon. The war-games that were so beloved of knights were intentionally dangerous affairs – if it had been otherwise, they would soon have lost I their appeal. The previous day, a blustery Monday in early April, a Warwickshire baron had been unhorsed and had fractured his thigh. With the broken bone protruding through the skin, everyone knew that he as sure to die once it became purulent. Another combatant was in his tent, anxiously tended by his squire as he vomited dark blood, after a blunted lance had caught him in the stomach. Otherwise the day had been fairly benign, apart from the numerous bruises and gashes that were too common to be noticed by the jousting fraternity.
    It was the next day of this three-day mêlée that claimed the first life.
      Sir William Peverel, manor-lord of Sampford Peverel in east Devon, was one of the hundred and twenty knights taking part in this escapade - and he was the first to perish. Some would say that at fifty-five, older than most of the participants, he should have been wise enough to stay at home, rather than rampaging about the countryside like someone thirty years his junior. But William had been competing in tournaments for most of his adult life and owed some of his fortune to the spoils he had won in this dangerous pastime. He saw no reason to give up now, having a wealth of experience to add to his still-brawny arms and his excellent eyesight.
      Soon after dawn that morning, the two armies had assembled on the tournament ground between Salisbury and Wilton. It was a stretch of undulating countryside two miles long and half a mile wide, mostly open common with some thickets and copses of trees scattered within it. This Wiltshire site was one of the five that had been officially sanctioned by King Richard as the only places in England where tournaments were allowed - though this rule was flouted more often than it was observed. The Lionheart, however, with his usual dedication to collecting money to finance his endless French wars, charged a stiff fee for participation, ranging from twenty marks for an earl to two for a landless knight. The common folk were strictly excluded, as tourneying was only for the aristocracy and the mounted soldier - though the peasants turned up to watch and to wager on the winners.
      On this Tuesday, William Peverel was part of the Red team — in fact, he was one of the leaders, if such a term could be applied to a disorderly mob for whom team spirit came a poor second to personal gain. His sixty combatants massed their great warhorses at the top of a gentle rise, each wearing something scarlet to distinguish them from the Blues, who were waiting on the next hillock a quarter of a mile away. Some wore a red tabard or a surcoat over their armour, others just a crimson scarf or a length of red cloth tied around their shoulders. Though these distinguishing markers were many and varied, they all wore similar armour consisting of chain-link hauberks. Some were ankle length and others only came to the knee - and a few had mailed leggings. Only a handful of the poorest knights wore cuirasses of thick boiled leather instead of mail, but everyone had a round iron helmet with a prominent nose-guard, and most protected their necks with a hood of steel