The Copper Sign (52 page)

“I’ve watched a few times as Marcondé and the others sewed up each other’s wounds, but I’ve never done it,” Jean said in a subdued voice. “Perhaps we should send for a barber-surgeon.”

“The barber-surgeon in Orford is a shaky old drunkard, dirty and unreliable. I’ll never let him touch Leofric. I’d rather do it myself, though I’ve never tried,” Ellen replied with determination.

In the meantime, Rose had already found a needle and thread. “I’ll do it,” she declared emphatically.

“You?” asked both Jean and Ellen at practically the same time, looking at her in astonishment.

“I stitched up Thibault more than once. The Young King’s barber-surgeon showed me how because he was so busy at the tournaments. After that, I always did it. Thibault said my stitches were less disfiguring, especially in the face.”

“That pompous, repulsive person!” Jean huffed.

Ellen didn’t notice how he blushed when Rose spoke about Thibault.

Rose sat down calmly alongside Leofric’s bed, laid an old woolen cloth over her skirt to protect it from bloodstains, and put the boy’s head in her lap. “Someone will have to hold him. At present he is unconscious, but when I start stitching him up the pain will surely wake him and he will thrash about.” Rose looked as calm as if she had always done this sort of thing.

“I’ll do that,” Ellen said. She sat down next to her brother, held his arms and his slender upper body tightly, and placed her body over him.

Skillfully, Rose cleansed the encrusted blood from the wound with warm water until it started to bleed again, then sewed up the wound with a dozen or more stitches.

“I don’t like it at all that he didn’t wake up,” Jean grumbled when Leofric didn’t stir.

“All we can do now is pray and wait. If the blow was not too hard, he will hopefully wake up soon. Poor Leofric!” Rose kissed him on the cheek. “Goodness, he’s hot! We’ve got to remove his clothing; it’s all wet in the back. Jean, get two woolen blankets we can wrap him in.”

When they removed his shoes, Rose saw that his toes were blue with cold and began to massage them gently.

“At least he won’t lose his toes,” she said after a while, thankfully, after they gradually regained their normal color.

The first night Ellen watched over her brother, and after that they all took turns sitting at Leofric’s bedside. For three days he had a high fever, and after that it started to come down. The wound in his head began to heal, but still Leofric had not woken up. Carefully they fed him spoonfuls of water and chicken broth, and everything went down his throat, but he didn’t seem to be swallowing it.

“Why don’t you wake up, for heaven’s sake?” In desperation, Ellen kept squeezing his hand, but her brother didn’t stir.

On the morning of the tenth day he opened his eyes, and joyfully Ellen came running to his bedside. But Leofric didn’t seem to see her. He was still breathing, but he looked almost dead.

His eyes were open and Ellen could feel his heartbeat, but he seemed to be semiconscious still. Ellen could feel despair coming over her, and hatred for the poachers who had done that to him.

They missed Leofric’s happy chatter at work in the smithy, as well. Would he ever come back to them?

Peace had returned to the land, and the garrison at the castle had shrunk to just a few men, and for that reason there were fewer orders for weapons. Increasingly, Ellen and Jean had to forge tools again in order to survive, and Ellen started to have doubts about her ambitious goals and dreams. Some days she was so depressed that she didn’t even go to the shop but sat silently at Leofric’s bedside holding his hand or walking aimlessly through the forest.

“Come now! You have to get back to work in the shop, we need you!” Jean pleaded with her when she didn’t show up for work.

“What’s the point of it all?” Ellen shook her head despondently. “Leofric is not going to make it.”

“But you must, Ellen!” Jean pleaded. He had learned much from her and would have no difficulty finding work with a smith, and Rose, too, would easily find work, but what would become of William and Ellen if she gave up like that? “Think of your son! Osmond would have wanted him to have the smithy if anything happened to Leofric!”

Ellen whistled through her teeth. “And me? Who is thinking of me? I always wanted this smithy, but it’s not mine. It never was and never will be. I was supposed to keep it for Leofric after Osmond’s death, and now shall I just go on and hand it over to my son? It’s my smithy!” she flared up, beside herself with anger, looking defiantly at Jean.

“But you’re a woman, and can’t…”

“What can’t I do? Become a master? Who says so?” Ellen’s fighting spirit had returned. “Are these the same people who say women can’t forge good swords? I’ve shown them how wrong they are, and you know that!”

“Yes, you are right,” Jean replied wearily.

The door to the shop opened, and little William came limping in hesitantly.

“What do you want?” Ellen asked crossly.

“The geese,” he said, sniffling, “they bit me.”

Ellen was still furious and took a deep breath. “Then you probably deserved it.”

Jean shook his head almost imperceptibly. “Come here, Will,” he said warmly and motioned for the child to come to him. He knelt down and took the boy in his arms. “Geese don’t like it when you get too close to them. They don’t have any weapons; they have no sharp claws to defend themselves or hoofs to kick you with or horns to spear you. And they have no poisonous stingers. All they have to defend themselves is their beaks, so to make the whole world afraid of them they snap at everything that comes close.” Jean wiped the tears from William’s cheeks. “That’s pretty smart of them, don’t you think? Just move slowly when you are around them, and when they get nasty show them you are stronger and whack them with a stick.”

William nodded bravely.

“Now go tell Aunt Rose we’ll be a little late for dinner, all right?” Jean gave the boy a friendly pat on the rear, and William did as he was told. After he had left the shop, Jean turned to Ellen angrily. “Why are you so hard on him? He didn’t deserve that!”

“Do you want me to coddle him?” she huffed.

“But he’s still so little!”

Ellen planted herself in front of him and replied, “As a girl, I always had to try harder than anyone else in order to achieve what I wanted. It will be the same for him. He’s a boy, but he’s a cripple!”

“Ellen!” Jean frowned angrily.

“You probably find that word unpleasant, but that’s the way people look at him, and that’s also the reason I won’t coddle him, so help me God! I swear I’ll teach him everything I can, and that is all I am able to do for him. It’s more than my mother ever did for me. Much more!”

Jean was shocked at how bitter Ellen was. This was the first time she had ever mentioned her mother, and the hatred and disappointment in her voice was inescapable.

“Life is hard, but have you ever seen me strike William?”

Jean shook his head. “You hardly ever see him because all you think of is smithing. You haven’t even noticed how much his feet have grown in the last year, have you? I’ve twice had to make him new wooden shoes. And have you noticed that his foot is a little less twisted? Do you know how many teeth he has? No! You don’t even know your own son. He’s a smart fellow, and he not only has your red hair but your thick skull!”

“Thank God for that, because he’ll need it to get by. You ask me if I know how many teeth William has? You’re right, I don’t know that. But I know where the money comes from for Rose to buy us food, and I know we have clothing and a roof over our heads in order to get through a hard winter. And as for William’s foot, I don’t agree with you. I think God gave it to him as a test, and I’m not doing my son any favors by coddling him. William will someday be a great smith, and that’s all that counts. Then, no one will take notice of his foot.” Ellen looked at Jean provocatively and turned away. “None of us knows what the next day will bring. The Lord alone will decide whether we live to see it or not. Just look at Leofric,” she murmured sadly.

“He’ll get better again,” Jean said, trying to console her.

“No, Jean, the Lord will soon take him away. I know it, I feel it.” She quickly wiped her forehead. “If I coddled William today, what will become of him if something happens to me? He has to learn to make it by himself.”

Leofric did not wake up. On a cold, moonless night at the beginning of March, he died.

Ellen was sitting at his bedside and had not even noticed. It wasn’t until morning when she woke up that she saw he was no longer breathing. She lay down close to him and cried. Memories of all the terrible things that had happened to her in her life now came together in an unending flood of tears.

Greybeard sniffed at her worriedly, laid his head on her arm, and licked her face with devotion until she had calmed down a bit.

Toward the end of summer, Ellen could not stand it any longer and decided to ride to St. Edmundsbury to tell Mildred that Leofric had died. Ever since his death she had the growing feeling that Orford would bring her only grief and pain.

She borrowed a horse, sat William down in the saddle in front of her, and rode off.

Jean and Rose were to take care of everything while she was away.

Mildred was delighted to see Ellen and take her in her arms again. She kissed her nephew and looked at him lovingly. “Go over to the barn and say hello to Uncle Isaac. He’ll be so happy to see you!” she urged the boy. “And then go out and play in the yard with Marie, but make sure little Agnes behaves!” After the children had left, she closed the door and turned to her sister. “I’m so happy you’re here! William has really grown!”

Ellen nodded in agreement and looked carefully at her sister. “You’re expecting another child, aren’t you?”

“Is it already noticeable?” Mildred asked with surprise, looking at her belly.

“Only from the way you smile. When I see how you look at William, I think you are hoping for a son. Is that so?” Ellen grinned.

Mildred nodded, somewhat embarrassed. “For the first time, I felt sick. With Marie and Agnes I didn’t get sick once, but this time…” She sighed. “Perhaps we’ll be lucky!” From the glint in her eyes it was clear to see how much she wished for a son.

“Your dear husband seems so intent on having a son and heir!” Ellen could not completely hide her disapproval.

“Oh, come on!” Mildred said, nudging her sister. “He’s not a bad fellow, believe me, he was a good catch for me. He works hard and is a master at his craft…”

“…which is something he never thinks a woman could do, I know,” Ellen added.

“He’s a good provider, a loving father to the girls, and a decent husband to me.” Mildred seemed a bit hurt.

“I’m sorry, you are right. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Would you like to help me make the meal?” Mildred said, changing the topic.

“I suppose, if I have to,” Ellen groaned.

Mildred laughed. “You’ll never change. You would have been a better husband. In any case, as a housewife you’re no great shakes.”

“And I wouldn’t win any prize as a mother either,” Ellen said sadly.

“Oh, what nonsense, Ellen. I’d trust my children to you anytime.”

Ellen smiled gratefully at Mildred.

When Isaac came back for lunch, William was riding on his shoulders. The smith set the boy down on the bench and looked after him as if he were his own son.

Ellen knew how much the child missed Osmond, and she could see how much William enjoyed the attention of her brother-in-law.
I’ll pray that Mildred has a boy
, she thought, when she saw how William looked up to Isaac.

“It has straightened out a bit, it seems to me,” Isaac said, massaging the little boy’s foot pensively.

“The crooked foot doesn’t bother me,” Ellen said in a sharp tone.

“But it would be good if you could straighten it a little,” Isaac said emphatically.

“I don’t see how that would help. Do you really think your wooden shoe will change anything? I don’t. I’m also not sure if it’s good for him when you raise his hopes. Even if his foot can be straightened a little, he’ll still be a cripple.”

As Isaac and Ellen continued to quarrel, William became more and more upset until tears started running down his face.

Mildred pounded on the table, demanding that the two stop fighting and be quiet, and Ellen was so offended she didn’t speak another word to Isaac until the next day. After the conversation turned from William’s foot to other things, the mood in the house slowly improved, and Mildred’s constant chatter managed to make Ellen break out laughing again and again.

One day Mildred and Ellen were sitting in the vegetable garden digging up onions for dinner. “I’d like to stay here forever, but duty calls,” Ellen said, shrugging with resignation. “I can’t leave Jean and Rose alone in the smithy forever. In two days we’ll have to leave, whether we like it or not.”

“Too bad, you’re good for me,” Mildred said, and in fact she did look more radiant than ever. “Won’t you all come to visit us at Christmas? My child will be arriving in February or March, I’m not exactly sure when.” She looked pleadingly at her sister. “Please, Ellen!”

“Very well, agreed. William will be thrilled!” Ellen took her sister in her arms. “And so will I.”

The time until her departure was peaceful. Mildred had obviously warned Isaac not to quarrel again with his sister-in-law, and he did as she said.

Parting was difficult for Ellen.

“We’ll see each other again at Christmastime!” Mildred called to her and waved cheerily as she rode away.

Ellen had chosen a grey, cold autumn day for her departure. Around noon a strong wind came up, shaking and tugging at the tree branches and tearing off limbs. Both Ellen and her son were chilled to the bone and arrived in Orford tired and frozen.