6 PROLOGUE
younger son moved steadily across the strip, turning the hay
which had been cut on the previous morning, while his brother
Richard worked on side by side with his father at the mowing.
Save for a pause when the scythes were re-sharpened they
worked without resting and with but little to say, for there was
much to do and time was short, since this was Sunday, and ere
long they would have to leave their work for Mass. Indeed, they
were fortunate to be on the field at all on such a day, but Sir
William, their vicar, had always been lenient in times of harvest;
and, although he looked with concern at such work, he did not
absolutely forbid it, so long as the Mass itself were not neglected.
So all three continued until the sun was getting well up in the
heavens, when they stopped their work and left the field together
with many others. As they passed the church J ohn glanced at the
Mass clock on its wall near the door, and saw by the shadow of
its style that they had good time before the service, us it was not
yet eight.
During their absence the house had not been untended, and
after a while the good wife Agnes and her daughter Al ice appeared
from a room which led out of the main living room. Alice ran
out in the garden close, and soon the clucking of the hens was
heard, and a little later she returned and set down on the wooden
bench inside the door a rough earthenware jar of milk which she
had just taken from the cow. Meanwhile, her mother had
brushed up the embers and had piled together the kindling and
a few logs, and already a fire was burning cleanly, and over it
hung a large metal pot of water. Then she and her daughter
went into the small inner room, which was cleaner and less
sooty than its neighbour, and pulled back the thick coverlets
and remade the only two beds that stood there. Once this was
done, the rough earthen floors of both rooms were swept out
with a brush of large twigs, and then the trestle-table was put in
its place near the side of the room. Some bread and a little ale
satisfied Agnes' hunger, while Alice took a drink of the milk she
had just brought in. All being done, they turned to prepare for