Figure of Hate

Chapter Eleven

A small group of people stood on a rough quay a few yards long, set in the bank of a small inlet, where a stream came down to the vast mud banks of the Severn estuary. It was a grey, overcast day, and across the wide river the distant hills of Wales were partly hidden by rain.

'Always bloody pouring down over there,' muttered Gwyn. 'Never been in the damn country but it was pissing down.'

The patriotic Nesta gave him a playful kick on the ankle at this slur against her native land, but she was in high spirits at being able to see it only a couple of miles away, even if it was through a rain cloud.

They were waiting for a boat to pick them up and Lake them across to Chepstow. This was a Saxon name, the Welsh calling it Cas-gwent — and the Norrnans knew it as Striguil, from which the lordship took its name. The small ferry was already in sight, now that the tide was fast coming in across the huge expanse of muddy rock that was exposed for half the day.

John de Wolfe was a few yards away, with Sergeant Gabriel and the two men-at-arms that the sheriff had insisted on sending as an extra escort as far as Chepstow. They were negotiating the passage money with the owner of the ferry, a villainous-looking Fleming who John strongly suspected of having a sideline as a channel pirate.

The group had made good progress from Exeter, as Nesta was an excellent rider, having spent much of her youth on the bare back of a Welsh cob. After one night's stay at the castle in Taunton, claimed by John as an emissary of the King, and another at an inn at Wedmore near the Mendips, they had reached the tiny hamlet of Aust on the southern shore of the Severn the previous evening. From here, small craft plied the dangerous tidal streams of the river, ferrying both goods and passengers. Some went across to Beachley on the peninsula east of the mouth of the Wye, others west to the Norman strongholds at Newport or Cardiff. The destination that the coroner was bargaining for was Chepstow Castle itself, a couple of miles up the River Wye, almost directly opposite where they were now standing, shivering in the cold breeze of a murky dawn.

Gwyn, brought up on the cliffs of Cornwall, was fascinated by the speed at which the tide flowed in and covered the miles of mud and stones. Squeezed by the funnel shape of the estuary, the mass of the Western Ocean seethed in as fast as a man could walk. A Polruan fisherman in his youth, Gwyn looked with interest at the tiny boat that was coming towards them, with a ragged sail and four men at long oars keeping it straight in the turbulent water. '

They were leaving their horses in Aust, in the care of the two soldiers until they returned, as new mounts would be found for them in Chepstow. John had left Odin in the farrier's stables in Exeter, for a large and ponderous warhorse was hardly suitable for long, fast journeys. Instead, he had hired a strong mare for the ride to Aust.

Nesta, enveloped in a Welsh plaid blanket as a cloak, stood close_against Gwyn for sheIter from the wind, which was constant and penetrating along this dead flat shore, only a couple of feet above the high-water mark. Away to their right, the ground rose into a cliff of banded red rock at a bottleneck in the estuary, but here there was no place for a boat to land. The miserable village of Aust owed its existence to the ferry, though all it consisted of was a few huts and two dismal inns for travellers waiting for tide and weather.

The landlady of the Bush still only half believed that she was here, going home for more than a week to her beloved family. When John had turned up at the Bush the day after Thomas's celebration, to say that she was going with him to Gwent, she had supposed it was some ill-considered joke. Yet he was adamant, and all her feeble protests about having no one to run the inn had been overruled by him in a peremptory fashion. He explained that he was sending Matilda to France and that such a chance would never come again — so her capitulation was not difficult to achieve. After a day or two of frenzied preparation, she left the Bush in the confident hands of Edwin and her two maids and, spurning the offer of a side saddle, borrowed a pair of boy's breeches and rode off astride the horse that John had hired for her.

Now, as the small boat clawed the last few yards into the muddy creek below them, she looked again at the river and the land beyond and thought of the last time she had seen them. Then, she had been coming with her husband Meredydd to start a new life in Devon. Even that had been at least partly due to John de Wolfe, as he had extolled the opportunities of Exeter to his archer comrade and had even helped find a vacant tavern for them, when both men gave up campaigning. Now Meredydd was long dead and John had taken his place — but Nesta still loved them both.

Her reverie was ended by the arrival of the little craft, small enough to fit into the taproom of the Bush. Minutes later, they were adrift on the choppy waters, aiming diagonally upstream to take advantage of the last of the flood tide to get into the centre of the estuary. Nesta feIt that they would end up in Gloucester, but as soon as the short period of slack water arrived, the ship-master — a leather-faced man without a single tooth in his head — dropped the tattered sail and hauled the steering oar about, and the men started to row directly across the stream, until the ebb tide began carrying them back down, close to the other bank.

'We'll not be long now, cariad,' said John comfortingly. He was afraid that his mistress would be sea sick, as Gabriel was looking decidedly green in the face from the slight pitching and rolling of the flat-bottomed craft. But Nesta was enjoying every moment and hugged his. arm as they sat close together on the planks that served as seats in the stern of the boat.

John watched as they approached a little island set near the mouth of the Wye, the river that came down here to join the Severn, after its long journey from the mountains of central Wales. Now that they had the Wye to contend with, the four oarsmen began to earn their wages, and though the master hoisted the sail again to catch the southerly wind, most of their progress was due to muscle power. '

As they crawled past the flat banks towards Chepstow, a mile upriver, John had time to think over the events of the past few days. Though not a vain man, he feIt that it had been a stroke of genius for him to think of moving the characters in his life around, like pieces on a chessboard. After that night at the Bush, when he had had his first tentative thoughts oftaking Nesta with him to Wales, he had spent a day in a flurry of diplomatic manoeuvring. Although Matilda had readily jumped at the idea of visiting her family, he had to track down de Charterai and beseech him to chaperone his wife to Normandy.

After two days of hectic preparation, he accompanied Matilda to Topsham, she riding side-saddle on a palfrey and Lucille walking behind. A sumpter horse was piled with her luggage for at least a month's stay with her distant cousins near St-Lô, which was convenient for Reginald de Charterai, as it was on the route from Barfleur to Fougéres. What her relatives would say when she turned up on their doorstep, John preferred not to think about. And for the return journey, she would have to find some escort to the port herself, as Reginald was returning to England within a few weeks, to fight again at Salisbury.

With a sigh of contentment, John sat in the boat with his arm around Nesta and thanked God most sincerely that all these machinations were now behind him. The fact that Matilda might eventually find out that he had been with his mistress while she was away was a possibility — but that was well into the future, as they would be back in Exeter long before his wife returned home.

On the smoother waters of the Wye, Gabriel's nausea abated and he gazed about him with interest. After a mile or two the banks began rising steeply, and as the ferry rounded a bend the little town came into view, clinging to the slope above the river where a rocky gorge began to appear. Above the town, which had a wooden stockade around it, was the castle, one of the first stone fortresses built after the Conquest. A massive oblong tower stood on the top of the ridge, a deep ditch between it and the town. On the other side, an almost sheer cliff dropped into the river, making the stone and timber walls of a bailey necessary only on the south and west sides.

'William the Marshal fell in for a nice little place when he married,' commented Gwyn, staring up at the castle as they headed for a landing stage below the town. The elder brother of the Bishop of Exeter had been given Isabel de Clare as wife by Richard the Lionheart, soon after he came to the throne in 1189. Isabel was the heir to vast estates, so at a stroke the marshal became Lord of Striguil and Pembroke.

Sentries placed at lookout points along the river had reported their imminent arrival at the castle, and by the time they reached the quay-side several soldiers and a groom had brought horses down to meet them.

After they landed, Nesta and John had to part, as the coroner thought it unwise to arrive at the castle with his mistress in tow,

'You know what you have to do, Gwyn?' he demanded.

The blue eyes of the amiable Cornishman twinkled in amusement.

'Don't you fret, Crowner!' he said reassuringly. 'I'll look after her like she was my own baby. I'll deliver her to her mother's door inside a couple of hours and be back here with you before you know it.'

Nesta came from near Trelech, a small village a few miles north of Chepstow on the hilly ground towards Monmouth. It was well within the Marcher lordship of Striguil, but, as in other parts of South Wales, the less fertile areas were left by the Norman rulers to the Welsh, as long as they paid some taxes and caused no trouble. John had long ago learned that her father was dead, but her mother, two brothers and a sister lived there as free tenants virtually outside the Norman feudal system. They survived mainly by herding sheep, though a couple of acres of ground around their dwelling provided enough to live on in the way of vegetables, milk, pigs and pouItry.

Nesta climbed up behind Gwyn on the back of his borrowed mare and rather tearfully said goodbye to John, who promised to come to Trelech to collect her. 'Our embassy to the west should not take more than about eight days, so as soon as I am freed from my duty, I'll come with Gwyn to collect you and meet your family.'

John watched her ride off sedately with his officer, taking the road westward around the town until they struck off into the wooded countryside. He had little fear for their safety, as both spoke Welsh and Nesta was now almost on her home ground — to say nothing of Gwyn's brawny arms, his broadsword and ball-mace. When they were out of sight, he turned back to where Gabriel was patiently waiting.

'Right, Sergeant! Let's climb this damned hill to the castle and see what's in store for us.'