His Enemy's Daughter (22 page)

Alston Manor
northern England
December AD 1067

T
he winds blew down from the Pennines and the snows came with them. Alston was blanketed with it for weeks before the day of Christ's Mass and would be for several months after it. It mattered not, for the people of Alston Manor were well prepared for the winter.

Life went on as it always did, even as earls and kings came and went and the new year approached, giving them the opportunity to look ahead at the life that spread out before them. Sybilla had a special present to mark the day of Christ's birth for her husband. Unsure of his reaction, she waited until night had fallen and they lay in their bed, their bodies satisfied and exhausted.

It had happened quickly—it seemed that as soon as they stopped trying to avoid the possibility of a child, she
conceived. By counting back and thinking on the timing of this, Sybilla thought it might have even happened that first time when he pledged his love and future to her.

And she would tell him this night.

She would tell him now.

‘Soren?' she said, testing to see if he was awake or asleep. ‘When do you plan on visiting Brittany?'

‘When do
we
visit Brittany?' he repeated and changed the words. ‘Giles and Brice spoke of going in the summer, so that you can see the beautiful warm weather.'

‘I know.' She laughed. ‘Where it never rains and the sun shines every day.' In spite of numerous hot baths that now included massages to ease the tightness of his injuries, he still complained about the terrible weather in England.

‘Are you dreaming of that warmth now?' He rubbed his body against hers, offering all the heat she could ever need.

‘Nay.' She shook her head and prepared for his reaction. ‘I was just thinking that I would like to give birth here at Alston rather than on a ship or on a road somewhere between here and there.'

His mouth dropped open and moved, but no sound came forth. Sybilla could not tell if that was good or bad until he yelled her name and began to laugh.

It warmed her heart to see this man, who'd suffered so much in this last year, finally have something to celebrate on this special day.

 

On the twenty-third day of July, in the Year of Our Lord 1068, Lady Sybilla of Alston presented her husband
with a most beautiful baby girl. And so, the last of the bastard knights of Brittany found love and happiness far above what he had ever dreamt possible.

A
lthough the 1066 invasion of Duke William of Normandy brought about huge changes in the politics and society of England, some of those changes were already underway. Normans had become an integral part of England during Edward the Confessor's reign, many gaining lands and titles long before the Conqueror set foot there. So, the Saxons had some experience with Norman ways before this major invasion force landed in Pevensey in October 1066.

Many Saxons held their lands after William's arrival—those who pledged their loyalty to the new ruler were permitted to retain them, but many were supplanted by those who'd fought for William. Important Norman nobles gained more property and often Saxon heiresses.

Thought ruthless and not hesitant about using force to implement his rule, William did not employ it fully after the Battle of Hastings until the revolt three years later in the north of England. Then, he unleashed his anger on
those in what's still called the ‘Harrowing of the North', destroying everything in his path and effectively wiping out what was left of the Saxon way of life.

In my story, one of Harold's sons, Edmund, appears as a leader of the rebels. ‘My' Edmund is really a composite of several real people who lived in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings and continued to fight the Normans as they moved from the south-east of England northwards and westwards to take control of the whole country.

It is believed that at least two of Harold's sons did survive—or avoid—the battle that killed their father and that they and their mother joined in the efforts of some of the others opposing the Normans. The earls of Mercia and Northumbria, Harold's brothers-by-marriage, switched sides several times during this conflict, were even taken to Normandy along with the designated Saxon heir-apparent, Edgar Atheling, and were later part of this struggle that led to William's ‘Harrowing of the North'. So, any resemblance of ‘my' Edmund to the real protagonists of history is intentional!