In Two Minds

by K T Findlay

  It would all take time to work of course, and the right types of turnips from the land of the Franks, but the farmers could see the sense of it. Thomas started his own land on the system, and let the other farmers decide what they wanted to do themselves. In the meantime, he’d have to order extra supplies from the palace market to be delivered, so they’d have enough food to see the animals through the first winter. Thank heavens the last year’s harvest had been excellent, and thank goodness too for the King’s money!

  He kept silent about his future plans for new ploughs, seed drills and harvesters, all to be pulled by horses instead of oxen. Then he’d really make hay, but he was aware that all of these would be perceived as taking away the villagers’ jobs, and their ability to feed themselves. With that would come rage and rebellion, so he had to make sure he created more appealing jobs for everyone before the machines were introduced. That would take some thinking through.

  Wulfstan had watched all this with growing fascination. Thomas had answered every question he’d asked, and even a few that he hadn’t asked, which was disconcerting!

  But Wulfstan had been useful too. He’d flown out and found the right kind of clay for the smith’s furnace, which saved Thomas weeks of searching. He’d managed to search out useful fields for demonstrating the ideas behind crop rotation, and of course he regularly flew reconnaissance circuits around the manor to check for bandits and other raiders.

  Rowena and Berthilda spent a lot of this time practicing their archery and their riding.

  Sherelda went along to watch them ride, helped out during archery practise by collecting the arrows, but took on a much more active role when it came to practicing with the swords. Thomas hadn’t suggested that she become one of his warriors, but something he’d said had resonated deep within her.

  “Teach her how to use a blade too. She may need it if she ever sees Cuthbert again.”

  She replayed his words again and again in her mind, and determined that the next time she saw Cuthbert, she’d be prepared. Every free moment she had, was spent practicing with a sword, slashing and stabbing into bundles of straw, building her muscles, quickening her reactions.

  The villagers tried to get on with their normal day to day chores, but novelty was not a normal part of life for these people, and there had been plenty of novelty! The whole populous was chattering and gossiping from dawn to dusk, and almost all of it was happy, cheerful, and optimistic.

  That was good news for Thomas, but he knew these were the easy times, the honeymoon. Things were bound to hit the odd rough patch, and then the resistance which for now had gone to ground, would come back into their hearts and minds. Lots of on going little benefits were the answer. That, and the promise of opportunities they had never dreamed of having.

  Which was where administration came in.

  Almost the only people who could read and write in this age were in the Church. That had come about after the fall of the Roman Empire, when most educated people reverted to simply struggling to survive, or died. Pretty soon the only places where reading and writing survived, were within the protecting walls of the monasteries. So when rulers needed administrative expertise, the only place they could turn to was the Church.

  It would become the lynch pin of the Church’s temporal power in Europe. Already hierarchical in nature and well organised, the Church was perfectly poised to influence every royal house on the continent. They had a place at every head table, and knew the financial, political, and all the other kinds of affairs going on in each kingdom.

  Thomas by now had worked out that the year was probably 781. He also knew that Offa’s relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury was already tense, and that if this history followed his own, that relationship was soon going to get very nasty indeed when Offa pushed for a third archbishopric in a few years time.

  Across the English Channel he knew that Leo the third would become Pope in 795 and that he would set out to make the Church the single greatest power across the whole of Europe. Leo’s goal would not just be spiritual dominance, but to have control over every aspect of life in Europe. Everyone from kings to slaves would be under his influence. Perhaps for Leo it really was done with the best of intentions, or perhaps it was simply a lust for power. Only Leo himself knew for certain, but either way, Thomas knew what it would lead to in the future. In the near term it would seriously get in the way of what he wanted to achieve himself.

  More immediately, Wulfstan had declined Jaenberht’s offer to join the Church, and despite the Archbishop’s grace in accepting his refusal, Thomas knew it would have irritated the cleric. He also suspected that future, less easy to decline invitations were already being worked on.

  Plus of course, he had just ejected his own priest, and not just any priest, but one the Archbishop himself had foisted upon the manor. So not only did Thomas not have anyone to do the accounts, the Church might place unpalatable conditions on any replacement.

  Oh sure, he could do the admin himself for the manor, but he had bigger dreams. He needed another way. And he needed it to be independent of the Church. He would have to create his own school. His mind went out to Oscar, Gundy, Grimhild and the rest of that family.

  ‘What do you think of Oscar and his family?’ he asked Wulfstan.

  ‘They’re nice enough,’ said Wulfstan thoughtfully. ‘clever, and very loyal. They’d do anything for you I think.’

  So Thomas invited them all to breakfast. Over three hours he questioned, probed, and tested their minds. In the end he couldn't believe his luck.

  Sighard had a natural talent for numbers, and a quick mind to find applications for what he learned. He had listened to Thomas’s dinner lesson on the uses of knotted string, and the very next day he’d used that knowledge to square up the door and doorway into their hut. It let in a lot fewer draughts now.

  Lynette had a lovely voice, and when Thomas started to talk about music, she really lit up. Music in 781 was just single notes, with sometimes another background note underlying it, like the drone on a set of bagpipes. When he showed her how different notes could be sung by different people at the same time, to create a gorgeous rich chord, she was beyond speech.

  For a nine year old, Grimhild had a simply astonishing ability to come up with verse. Even more useful, she had an excellent memory for words and phrases, and could quote back almost complete conversations when she’d been paying attention. Thomas remembered that this wasn’t as exceptional as it appeared. In the times before printing, peoples’ memories tended to be much better than they were in his own time. They had to remember, because there was no alternative.

  Gundy and Oscar not only had their father’s talent for numbers, they loved them, played with them, and were already beginning to discover things on their own.

  Sigeberht and Oswin were more like normal boys, and at first weren’t really interested in words or numbers. But they did like building things, so when Thomas showed them how being able to measure things allowed them to make better toy bridges, and then real bridges, they really perked up. Then he showed them how a measured drawing could be used to allow them to collaborate better and to share their ideas, and they became very interested indeed.

  So Thomas had his students, and once he’d curtained an area off at the west corner of the hall, a temporary place to teach them until a proper school could be built. The problem was that he was the only possible teacher, and he had to be out and about in a few days, searching for the rest of his coterie, as he had begun to call them.

  He spent three hours each morning for the next four days, closeted alone with the family. No interruption from outside was permitted. Hengist had been delegated all decision making power, and told to defer any decision he didn’t think he could make, until the afternoon, when Thomas finished his lessons.

  During day one Thomas drilled the family in counting and writing zero through to ten, then from ten to twenty, and from twenty to thirty. From there it was easy to teach them how to get to
one hundred.

  Thomas used Grimhild’s brilliant memory for words, and her mother’s love of music to teach them all the Hundred song by Flanders and Swann. The whole family sang the song, but whenever there was a dispute about the order or name of the words, Grimhild’s word was law. Even over her father, which was a bit of a shock to him until he worked out that she never, ever made a mistake. And he did…

  On day two he taught them all the eight note musical scale, and musical notation. He locked that in using the old Sound of Music classic, doe-ray-me-far-sew-la-tea, although he did have a little trouble with the tea part, tea being only available in China at that moment and completely unknown to Anglo Saxons. In the end he had changed it to we, and amended the rest of the words to cope.

  With that base established, he did the times tables on day three, right up to ten times ten. Again he made it a musical experience, with each of the ten tables having a slightly different song. And once more Lynette and Grimhild between them locked it in, so it could be repeated time and again. It was rote learning, set to music, that they could practise by themselves when he wasn’t around.

  Day four was all about engineering basics using a weighing balance. He used a simple plank of wood with evenly marked lines that cut across the top surface, resting on a strip of wood about an inch thick.

  He placed the strip of wood underneath the middle point of the plank, and showed that the two halves were roughly the same weight because both ends stayed off the floor. Boyish shrugs indicated a “So what?” response.

  The previous day he had asked each of the five children to go down to the river and bring back ten stones each, ranging from heavy to light, preferably with at least one flattish side each, so they didn’t roll around. By placing a stone at each of the furthest out mark of both ends of the plank, they were able to find a pair of rocks that were the same weight. Using that pair, they continued to search for other matching rocks, including going back to the river for more, until they had ten rocks of the same weight.

  A bit impressed, the boys were really still in “So what?” mode.

  Only when Thomas put one of the stones at the far end of the right hand end of the plank, and told them to take two stones together and see if there was a place on the left hand side that would restore the balance, did they become interested again.

  When they had found it, Thomas asked them to count the scratched lines out from the middle of the plank and tell them the number. They couldn’t. So Thomas asked Gundy and Oscar, and they correctly said “Five!” with more than a hint of smugness. They then correctly identified the line number at the right hand end as ten.

  Absolute delight all round when it became obvious that two rocks at five equalled one rock at ten, which matched one of the times table entries.

  From there they started to play with the numbers and positions themselves, proving that three stones at three equalled one stone at nine, and four stones at two equalled one stone at eight. Again the cross checking with the times table matched perfectly.

  But that was almost trial and error play, so Thomas made them do it the other way around. He got Oscar to choose a times table line where the answer was ten or less. He chose two times two equals four, and Thomas got them to put the rocks out to see if it worked. When it did, Oswin was dancing with delight.

  Thomas brought out a measuring plate he’d made the day before, and made nine evenly spaced marks between each pair of existing marks on the plank, but only half way across the plank. He taught them how to use the newly marked plank to represent up to one hundred on each side, and set them working at it again.

  It wasn’t so accurate this time because of the different sizes and shapes of the rocks, and because the gaps between the plank marks were now so much smaller. But they were convinced of the principle now, and could use it to practise the times table and have a load of fun at the same time.

  With all this in place, Thomas left them with a set of tasks to complete in three weeks time when he expected to return, secure in the knowledge that between them, Grimhild and Lynette would keep everyone correct.

  Lynette was told to write one simple tune a week using the scales and musical notation, and teach the others to sing it.

  Grimhild was told to write verse to go with her mother’s tunes, and to make sure everyone else was word perfect in their numbers. She was also the best with writing her numbers, so she was given the additional task of making hers the best she could, so the others could copy her work.

  Sighard was told he would be expected to have all the times tables learned word perfect. He blanched a bit at this, but Thomas told him he believed he could do it. He was also told to use his knotted string knowledge to help lay out the floors and walls for the bow works and the school, and make sure they were properly squared up.

  Oscar and Gundy were given the same goal, and to help their father. They just smiled happily. Being ordered to play with numbers instead of working in the fields, was paradise for these two.

  Oswin and Sigeberht were given a different task. They were encouraged to learn their times tables too, but Thomas used the plank to explain the idea of a counterweight that could be used to balance a long piece of wood stuck out into space. They talked about how that idea might be used for a crane that could rotate, and easily move a load from one place to another with little effort. Their job was to come up with the different combinations of lengths and weights that could balance a load of twenty pounds at the end of the crane, so that a little girl could easily move that load with a gentle push of her hand. Now that was the kind of maths a boy likes! You could do stuff with it!

  With Hengist and Alfred fully informed about all this, Thomas made ready to depart for the slave markets. He needed his coterie as soon as possible. Hengist wanted to come of course, but Thomas needed him to run the manor and manage the temporary priest. He respected Alfred, but he knew that Hengist wouldn’t allow any backsliding, whereas Alfred would probably ease back into the old ways, almost without noticing.

  And so, on the seventh morning after he had arrived at the manor, Thomas, Rowena, Berthilda, Sherelda, and four armed men rode off down the road to market. Thomas was a bit worried about the small numbers, and the temptation of the extra horses they were bringing with them, but he didn’t really have a choice. He just didn’t have enough people yet to run the manor and take this trip with the security he wanted.

  Wulfstan of course made things a whole lot safer than they would have been otherwise. He’d skirted out a three mile radius of the manor, and gone high so he could see a lot further than that. There were no raiders or armed bands to be seen, so the manor would be safe from disturbance for at least a day.

  On the ride itself, he ran scouting missions ahead to clear the way. He hadn’t been back in the body since they’d arrived in the village, but it didn’t bother him a jot.

  All was going well.

  10 A natural fit

  The first day of the journey retraced their steps back to Tamworth because it was a market town even when the court was not there. Thomas was disappointed that he’d missed by just over a week the best of the slaves sold there, as the traders had all been set up ready to go for when the court arrived. So before he’d left for the manor, Thomas had taken care to check when the next major sale was likely to be on, and it was this week.

  He planned on picking up at least some of his coterie at Tamworth, and if necessary, he’d travel all the way down to Bristol where there was an almost constant flow of slaves on their way out of the country. It was sobering to think that almost ten percent of the entire population was enslaved. With the never ending wars and feuds, there were more added every day.

  Corbridge had been another slave trade option, but it was deep in Northumbria, and even though the two kingdoms were currently on good terms, he thought it not worth the risk with such a small party.

  But Thomas had another avenue to explore. He was after people with some spirit and potential. Rowena and Berthilda had be
en easy to pick out. They hadn’t been slaves for long, and their deep reserves of courage and determination had been on open display when he’d met them. That wasn’t normal at all. He’d be unlikely to see that sort of thing at the market because the traders wouldn’t tolerate behaviour that would lower the value of their wares.

  Which was where Wulfstan came in. As well as scouting ahead for ambush, he was out in the fields, the hedgerows, the forests, the rivers, the marshes, and inside buildings, looking for possible candidates.

  Mostly the female slaves were near, or in buildings. They tended to be used for drudgery tasks such as grinding corn, but some had more advanced tasks like weaving which kept them around the buildings.

  It was in a manor almost exactly half way between Tamworth and Hengist’s that Wulfstan made his first discovery. Under his guidance, Thomas brought his group off the road down a track that led to an assart in the forest. A small cluster of huts and one modest hall sat near a stream that ran through the open space of farmland and pasture that was bounded by trees. The smell of wood smoke, ever present at any centre of human habitation in this world, hung lightly in the summer air, but here the sharper scent of burnt charcoal got stronger and stronger, the closer they got.

  Coming around the corner of the barn into the main yard they saw a brazier, charcoal coals glowing red hot. A man with a grimly determined expression checked the heat of a long handled glowing poker, then plunged it back into the coals. Behind him stood the rest of the village, jabbering and chattering.

  Next to the brazier was a strongly built “A” shaped wooden frame, with a young woman bound to it, face in, standing up with her hands tied to the top of the “A”. The new arrivals could see her equally determined face glaring at them through the framework.