The Wind From Hastings Read Free Page A

and give the townsfolk a view that only he was entitled to enjoy.
    So he decreed that all citizens of Coventry should stay inside their cottages that day, with their shut-doors tightly fastened, on penalty of having their eyes put out. Grandmother made her ride, only one or two imprudent souls defied the decree and suffered the consequences, and the Earl Leofric rescinded the tax. But the Lady Godiva was still the subject of whispers in our household, and I could never decide whether to be proud of her or ashamed.
    And how should I feel about my own father? To be named in the Witan, the King’s own council, as an outlaw! Why was such a thing done? And how could a mere girl-child ever hope to learn the truth of it? If a man dishonors his family and his name, do his children still owe him allegiance?
    The questions were too difficult for me. Emma’s training was to make me a wife and mother, but at whose knee could I learn to be an outcast?
    There was no resisting the law of the Witan. They could make kings, by Saxon law, and unmake earls just as certainly. The Witan was the true power at Winchester, for saintly old King Edward was a gentle man who laid too light a hand on the reins of authority. If the Witan had outlawed my father there was no appeal, no escaping the sentence.
    Trembling, I lay on my bed and tried to see into the altered future. (How many times since has that happened to me? My whole life is turned around in the wink of an eye, and nothing is as it was before. It is a curse, though Griffith would laugh and call it a challenge.)
    At last Emma came in with my candle. Dear Emma, nurse to me when I was small, friend to me when I was tall. Childhood rhymes speak truly. She sat by me and put her hand on my tumbled hair.

    â€œHave they forgotten you, childie? Here you are in the dark, all worn out with crying and without a bite of supper in you! Saints’ blood, has the world gone awry?”
    â€œOh, Emma!” I wailed. “It has, it has!”
    â€œChildie, you must learn something important, and now is a goodly time to do it. When the world is knocked heels over head, it always rights itself in time. If it is raining on you, there are still places where the sun shines, and it will shine on you again. Never give in to despair, my lady; all you must do is go into the sunshine. Find the place where it is.”
    That sounded like a lot of empty cheer to me. “How can I, Emma? My father is outlawed, we are all disgraced forever, all that we have is forfeit to the King!”
    â€œWhatever your father has done may be a disgrace to him childie, but not to you. Only you can disgrace yourself.”
    It was all very well for her to talk, but what could a mere servant understand of disgrace or shame? Pah!
    Emma was no help at all; she could only talk about things getting better when it was obvious they would only get worse. When I could lie in my chamber no longer without knowing what was happening, I wrapped a cloak about me and went to the hall. A velvet cloak, it was. I remember wondering if it was the last velvet cloak I would ever have.
    Edwin sat alone at table, where supper had been served as I hid in my chamber. If my parents had eaten anything there was no sign of it; they were gone and the table was clean in front of their stools. My younger brother was absent as well, so Edwin sat in solitary splendor, gnawing a mutton joint. Disaster had not ruined his appetite.
    He glanced at me from beneath the tangled ledge of his brows. “Most of the supper is gone.”
    â€œSo I can see. No matter, my stomach’s as hard as a stone. Edwin, how can you eat now?”
    His gray eyes were as cold as the fens in winter, and
I do not think he was being intentionally amusing when he replied, “But I always eat now. It’s suppertime.”
    â€œDon’t toy with me! You know what I mean!”
    Edwin wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “You mean to work yourself up to a temper,