May 1391, Guildford Hamon de Grey, the bastard half-brother of Sir Giles re-adjusted himself and tried to act as if nothing had happened, yet inside he was on fire, his heart and mind racing. He tucked his shirt back into his breeches, re-adjusted his tunic and grabbed his hat from the ground, where it had become crinkled and crumpled. He smoothed down his silvery blond hair and put the hat back on his head. He took two d...

February 1391, Guildford ‘Have you met her? This Hobbes girl?’ Isabel asked. She and Hamon were sitting in the great hall in front of the fire breaking their fast together. Sir Giles was still abed, after the previous night’s excesses. Normally Isabel or his squire Roger would have woken him up, but this morning she let him sleep. The travelling troubadour Jace was playing a tune on his lute and filling the hall with musi...

February 1391, Guildford Isabel was sitting in front of the fire of the great hall, sewing and listening to the musician play a tune from the West Country on his lute. There was a hustle outside the hall and the servant girl Ida came dashing into the hall. ‘Sir Giles is here damoiselle,’ said Ida. Isabel smiled from ear to ear and set her sewing aside, yet she didn’t rise. She watched as he strode confidently into the hal...

November 1390, Herefordshire Isabel la Badeau sat in the window embrasure of the de Grey estate in Herefordshire. She was watching the winter wind pelting the windows angrily. It was the sort of rain that came in on a diagonal and stung when it hit you. Isabel was glad that she was inside, out of the cold and in front of the fire. It was at times like these that she missed the arid Aquitanian heat and her homeland, but th...

August 1389, Aquitaine It was a hot, arid summer’s evening as Sir Giles de Grey sat in front of the open window, the hot and stuffy southern French heat drifting in. My God, does it ever rain here ? He thought. He slicked his shoulder-length dark blond hair back off his sweaty brow and took a deep drag of sweet Malmsey wine that they had brought over from England. Campaign season was coming to an end and he and his troops...

Walden and Bayard crouched low in the grasses beyond the crumbling stone wall outside Carmarthen Abbey. The young squire's leather skull-cap kept slipping down over his eyes each time his jaw turned and stretched wide to gnaw off another bite from the mutton-shank he held in his greasy, dirt-stained hands. Bayard, Knight's Yeoman to Sir Setheryn of Tye Gwyneth, elbowed the heaving rib-cage of the young squire crouched bes...

Hanging on the walls in my home are two prints of paintings by Edmund Blair Leighton. 'The Accolade', and 'God Speed'. The Accolade depicts a man in chain mail being given ‘The Accolade’ of knighthood by a beautiful queen, with flowing red hair, in front of the throne in a medieval castle. God Speed depicts the same queen waving off another knight, perhaps her husband, to war in some far and distant land, tying her sash a...

Annie was ready to scream with frustration. All day long she had been serving drinks and food to groups of knights, travelers, and merchants. Customers at the inn often leered at her or made comments about her body, but some days were worse than others. Today at least a dozen men had slapped her ass as she walked past and a few tried to grab her breasts. One pushed her against a wall and tried to kiss her. A particularly...