Games of Otterburn 1388 (19 page)

“I see only ten of you Scotch…
a’waitin
’… Lord James,” he sarcastically bantered. “Where are your thousands I’ve been
hearin
’ about?”

Douglas
smiled at that piece of information.

“Around
here’bouts
, Lord Henry,”
Douglas
teased. “Come out with all of
yers
and ye’ll be
a’seein
’.”

“You
a’layin
’ siege?” asked Henry in a seemingly casual way.

“
Nae
…” replied
Douglas
hardly able to contain his glee, “Come to tourney with ye!”

Henry looked at Ralph who shook his mystified head. He turned to the dumbfounded warden who shook his own head. Henry then shouted his obvious question, “Tourney?!”

“I will send ye a good leg portion of our roasted pig by way of a women and ye eat hearty ‘
cause
I want ye and yer men to be strong against us,” said
Douglas
.

Adara appeared holding the hind leg of the roasted pig in her hands. She walked out in front so she could be easily seen. She quaked a bit from her nervousness but was proud to have a part in whatever drama the nobles were playing.

“Here’s yer meat, Lord Henry,” said
Douglas
.

“My own.
I got
a’plenty
a’ready
,” shouted back Henry.

“Then come for tourney as ye will,
Hotspur
!”

It was a definite taunt and Henry waxed livid.

Knowing Henry was in torment by the subtle groans from the top of the wall,
Douglas
again smiled.

“Shall I release the bowmen, Milord?” asked the fretful warden.

The sheriff, Sir Ralph Eure and Sir Matthew Redman came to the knot of nobles.

“No! Tell the archers to stand down,” ordered Henry.

The two newly arrived men looked over the wall and wondered.

“Seems to be only ten down there and close enough to easily shoot,” observed Redman with little forethought.

Henry
grumped
his displeasure, turned to his brother and asked, “What do you puzzle?”

“I think they’re
pullin
’ some mischief to get you to come out, my brother,” advised Ralph.

“My notion as well,” replied Henry who then turned to the warden and whispered an order that no one else heard.

The warden’s eyes grew big but he hurried from the wall walk without a word.

“You
fixin
’ to go against James Douglas, Milord?” asked Eure.

“Not yet,” said Henry with forced calm. Within himself he was seething to ride out and kill the whoreson
Douglas
but he was not about to say so aloud where he would be obliged by his pride to do something foolish.

The English on the wall and the Scots on the ground waited in silence to see what more was to unfold as the light became more.

“Look yon!” shouted Henry pointing across the field. “I knew it was trickery that they were about!

Sir Ralph held his breath.

Back beyond supposed arrow range from the wall were a hundred more small fires.

“His army of thousands, gentlemen,” crowed Sir Henry. “His army of thousands we have heard about but never seen!”

“I pray not,” whispered the open mouthed sheriff.

Redman’s mouth stood agape as well as many others who were within earshot of Sir Henry’s amazing statement.

“What will we do!?” asked
brother
Ralph.

On the ground there was the same question from Sir George Dunbar, “What are we
goin
’ to do?”

“Play out our string,” said
Douglas
solemnly taking a quick look behind him. “They must have seen the other fires by now. They have a decision to make.”

Suddenly the gate-doors to the West Gate were swung wide.

“Get ready to run or fight,” warned
Douglas
quietly to George.

George simply nodded in agreement as he was concentrating on the dark rectangular maw standing before them.

They then saw a single figure of a woman dressed in a white apron carrying a large basket walking forth from the maw.

James and George seemed to be somewhat relieved.

Sir Henry was then heard from the wall walk, “Loaves of bread to go with your pig,
Douglas
!”

Douglas
could not help a hearty laugh. “And will ye accept my pig in the same vein as I accept yer loaves?”

“We will!” shouted Henry then giving a hearty laugh of his own.

Behind the woman a man emerged and skirted the moat seemingly frantic.

“Keep yer eye on that one,” said
Douglas
.

The man suddenly stopped and waded into the water, grabbed up his sword, waded out and ran quickly back into the gate all without a word.

“Who in hell was that?” asked Henry surprised.

“I don’t know,”
lied
the warden just returning to Lord Henry’s side.

“Ye want yer peasantry?” shouted
Douglas
.

“They for ransom?” asked Henry in a polite frame of voice.

“Ye can have them for
nae
ransom,” offered
Douglas
.

“Not
trickin
’ are you?” asked Henry.

“Yer not
a’trustin
’ me now?” bantered
Douglas
.

“As much as you trust me is all,” said Henry.

The two women met half way, the exchange of food was made and the tenuous mutual understanding was sealed. Neither side knew the strengths of the other but oddly both principals had high anticipation for the proposed games, giving time to both sides to figure all of that out.

Henry was anxious to interrogate the repatriated field hands who had been temporarily taken prisoner by the Scots but after questioning them he knew no more than he had before.

August 16 - Early Morning

Durham
Castle

“Three thousand, three hundred and twenty-three,” said Bishop Walter Skirlaw as he laid his quill beside his ledger book and looked up.

“I heard over ten thousand we must match,” replied Thomas de Boynton, sheriff of
Durham
town.

Sir Henry Percy has quite a number of men himself
waitin
’ in
Newcastle
, you know,” said the bishop sitting back in his strong, well structured hand carved chair with stylish cushions lining the interior.

“We have to have superior numbers,” came back Boynton. “We cannot afford to have anything but total victory.”

The bishop blinked occasionally as he stared off and reflected.

“Your Grace?” said Boynton after a length of silence.

“What?” said the bishop coming to
himself.
“Superior numbers… of course… total victory.”

“Are you
a’right
?” asked Boynton sincerely concerned.

“Keep seeing those poor souls dead in the street,” said the bishop. “Pure stone dead, they were.”

“Have you not seen the dead before?” asked Boynton.

“But not dead because of me, my son,” replied Skirlaw slowly wringing his hands. “Not on my hands was anyone else’s blood… ‘
til
now.” He trailed off toward the end thinking of a penitent act God might require of him to perform so that he would be welcomed at the gates of heaven and moreover into its holiest inner circle.

The sheriff rolled his eyes and secretly wondered if he needed to fetch a priest to perform a confession for the bishop.

The bishop took a long sighing breath and said, “We will wait to see if more come.”

“You’re right,
Your
Grace,” said Boynton. “There are still unfilled warrants out to some locations that have not reported.”

“We’ll wait to hear from them ere we sally toward
Newcastle
,” said Skirlaw. “In the meantime we’ll send a message to the Percys and tell them we’re full pressed to come to their aid with… say… six thousand troops that we are amassing now… How does that sound?”

“Hope he doesn’t count the men when we get there, Your Grace,” muttered the sheriff quietly and with a strong tinge of sarcasm.

“What say, Boynton?” asked Skirlaw.

“
Nothin
’ ,
Your Grace,” piped up Boynton not wanting his human feelings to put his immortal soul into holy jeopardy.

“Then best keep your mouth from running away with your salvation,” replied Skirlaw.

“Yes,
Your
Grace,” he replied knowing then that his errant words did not escape the ears of the bishop and in fact he may have greatly underestimated the man. He vowed to never to make that mistake again.

“Send the message, Sheriff Boynton,” demanded Walter Skirlaw forcefully. “And be assured, sir, I will carry out the duties of my station… honorably.”

“Never a question, Your Grace, never a question,”
lied
Boynton as he stood and bowed obsequiously. “I will get the message away post-haste, I swear, Your Grace.” Boynton then backed out to the antechamber and
scaddled
through the door.

Bishop Walter Skirlaw had been guilty of letting his inner thoughts escape into the air at an inopportune moment. He vowed to keep such things in the future between God and his silent praying lips. His feelings of guilt and fear were wearisome to be sure but allowing them out to another human being was truly politically dangerous.