The Broken Cross by Jordan Neary

Author:Jordan Neary
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical fiction
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2023-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

In a moment of solitude, I decided to write a letter to my cousin. He had responded to my previous epistle with word that he had recovered his lands the year before my departure and had held his own against the forces of King William II, but had received reports that the same king would return imminently.

His letter was in Saxon, though it appeared he had not written it himself for he warned me that he did not speak the Saxon language, but would be able to converse in the language of our ancestors if we desired (during childhood, my family had spoken Saxon while his family had preserved the ancestral tongue. I had picked up little of this language then and did not wish to humiliate myself). I thought about my letter for a while; above all, I was addressing an elder and I should give him due respect.

I wished to be polite but formal as we were not closely related and I had never, until now, corresponded with him. Indeed, I had only heard of him from my father who had mentioned how far our ancestors had spread across Britain and how powerful we had been. I ended the letter by saying I would pray for his success and would remember him if I should ever set foot in the Holy Sepulchre.

I always found repeating myself an annoying and superfluous endeavour and hence I see no reason to discuss any more of what happened before we reached Antioch, for it was a daily grind of patrolling the camp, the occasional sortie with a scavenging party and defending against Mahometan attacks. These would continue to happen so long as we were travelling and hostile forces were nearby.

There were not attacks every day, but it was always a possibility and there was no time to rest. I suspect the Turks were waiting for us to let our guard down and then would attempt to wipe us out. We had to be forever vigilant.

Marching was already an arduous task on my uncomfortable cow and I often ached when I dismounted (I eventually named her Boeða). I was thus often tired from simply moving forward and this compounded my fatigue from having to always be on my guard and ready at a moment’s notice. I didn’t mind having to fight, as the role of a knight is to be a man of war, defending the men who work and the men who pray.

However I wasn’t prepared for such tiring work and it was difficult to adjust to the hours. It was tempting not to attend mass every day and to sleep instead. I sometimes considered doing so, but I had vowed to attend and it was part of the obligations of a knight. If I was going to be a knight, I felt I might as well be an honourable and obedient one.

Eventually, when we reached Antioch, we were able to encamp outside the city and no longer needed to travel, so I was thus much less fatigued.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.