The next day was overcast and cold. Perfect for the slaughter. The pigs had been gathered in from the forest by the pig boy and were in a fenced off area, trying, as always, to break out. They were ready to be sorted out into those for killing and those for keeping.
Buffy had broken fast early with just a small bowl of porridge and honey and was out working before any of the rest of her household were awake. William heard movement but wasn’t sure what he should do or where he should go. Buffy roused the thralls quietly before she left the hall, hushing them with a finger before pointing at the fire, telling them to make the blaze up before breaking their fast and coming out to help her.
The two thralls rubbed their eyes and quickly got out of their blankets and hurried around, getting their jobs done. They helped themselves to bowls of porridge, adding extra milk to the bowls. They noticed William watching them in the gloom and hurried with their eating.
William slipped out from his blankets and drew on the rough over-tunic he had been wearing for months. Even to his nose it was getting a little ripe after five days at sea. One of the thralls handed him a bowl of porridge with honey and rich milk on it. But his more urgent need was for the midden. After some very silly mimes the thrall, Jon, got the idea and led William outside to the pit. It was surrounded by a wattle and daub fence, roofed in thatch and next to the wood pile. Jon pointed to the wood and picked up a load in his arms and headed back to the hall.
William opened the door, to find a clean lavatory with a fine wooden seat, a bucket of clean earth for filling in and a basket of fresh moss to use if necessary. The moss had been carefully sorted, there were no nettles or brambles in it at all. He returned up the path with his arms filled with wood, to find the hall slowly waking up.
Everyone was helping themselves to porridge, making sure children were fed, and sharpening knives. That bit was slightly scary to a man who had spent so many years inside a monastery and away from warriors. Connor pulled on his roughest clothes - he was lucky enough to have more than one set. He knew today was going to be gory.
Buffy reappeared in the hall, hanging up her cloak on a peg by the door. She looked around the hall and started organising everyone.
‘Anya, you take a group and set out the salting boxes, I’m sure Xander will help you move the salt bags; Willow, the hall is yours,’ she said formally. ‘Perhaps Tara could stay with you today? Olaf, you and Helga are in charge of the fire outside, burning off the hair. Jon, Andrew, you are with me sorting the cuts.’
‘Can I help in any way?’ William asked.
‘We’re always grateful for help. Connor will need extra help killing the pigs; I was going to send you with him even if you hadn’t asked. We all work round here.’ She added with a smile.
Connor moved away to where the pigs were being kept. It took two of them to manage to fence one of the monsters into a corner and Connor brought the knife up quick and sure into its throat. The animal was then hauled up by its back legs and the blood collected in a fine wooden bucket. There was plenty of it as well.
Connor had already started on the second pig before the first one had stopped swinging from where it had been pulled up into the tree. The morning continued in the same way. Ten large pigs were quickly slaughtered and bled, then butchered down, each person doing his or her own job efficiently and without discord. Buffy ran here and there, bringing drinks and food at midday: bread and cheese for all. Small beer was brought round regularly.
At the midday break William found himself sitting watching as the last pig’s head was taken away towards the Hall. They would be making brawn with that, he’d been told. Sealed properly it would last months, probably until spring. Tara was getting the cooking lessons, though. He was learning just how heavy and dangerous a maddened pig could be, alive or dead.
He watched Buffy - he was finding himself watching her more and more, her grace was amazing and her smile lit up the entire world. She bustled from one group of workers to another, free and thrall alike, ensuring that everyone had enough to eat and drink. She’d already told them that the night meal would be blood pudding, liver and sausages. The rest of the chitterlings would be eaten over the next few days: more work for the group of people inside the longhouse. The little buildings surrounding it were a hive of industry. No-one was resting, boxes and sacks were being carried here and there and everywhere. Huge boxes filled with joints of pig to be made into bacon and ham were filled with salt, and lifted into the building that had the stream running under it. It was always cold in there. A couple of the cats were wandering around, hoping for scraps, but being chased off by a dog. And still Buffy didn’t stop.
Connor tore at his bread, he was hungry after slaughtering and jointing the pigs. William had helped where he could but it was obvious he’d never done this sort of work before. Back in the monastery, his work had been to dig and hoe and weed, and the plants had never battered him in the shins as the pigs had.
‘Eat up man, we’ve a lot to do before sunset,’ Connor told him, gesturing to the bread and cheese they’d been brought. Then Connor saw where William’s eyes were focused. His step-mother.
‘She’s amazing isn’t she?’ Connor said quietly.
‘Huh?’
‘Buffy, Elizabeth, she’s amazing. You’re not supposed to praise a woman ‘til dead, but that one is worth the praises they sing about her.’
‘Your father is a lucky man.’
‘Was a lucky man. Angel Connor, that was his name: he was Irish and married her when she was fifteen years old.’
‘Was?’
‘Yes, he went the way of the warrior oh, six, no seven years ago now. I had just taken my bench on board my Uncle’s ship, she’d only been married a year, and he was killed in a raid, by your people: died with his sword in his hand.’
‘She’s a widow.’
‘Yes, and Lady of this Hall, before you get any ideas. She held home and hall together for me until I was old enough to step into my Father’s place. At 12 I was a man, so it was her right: she made us a fortune in trade, and the Hall’s praises are sung and spoken about from Bergen to Nidaros. Halfdan the Reeve has asked her to marry him, damn near every man who sees her asks, but she refuses them all.’
‘She’s a widow,’ William smiled at the thought. Though he didn’t know why, she was far above him from what he could understand if the Kings Reeve wanted her, but it meant no man shared her bed and that thought comforted him somehow.
‘She refuses them all? Why?’
She doesn’t want to leave here she says, she doesn’t want to leave me without a mistress for my hall, she’s cared for me since I was a child, and here she holds the keys; but I think it was because my father was a bastard who mistreated everyone who came near him and she doesn’t want to let herself be a victim again.’
William tried to understand what he’d been told: that someone could hurt Lady Elizabeth, but he couldn’t. He looked towards Connor who had settled back against the tree to enjoy a short break in the sun. It would take time to understand that information.
Tara had never felt so tired, she ached all over, but she’d never felt so happy either. She’d been grinding meat, watching puddings boiling, pricking the skins of the blood pudding to stop them bursting, helping to fill the sausage skins. The children had washed out the intestines to be used, helping add salt to mixes and generally not stopped all day - and it was wonderful.
Willow had managed the indoor crew, ensuring all the work was done. On top of that she’d been a patient teacher with Tara, helping her understand what they were doing. They had even managed to get a midday meal out to those working outside. The pace of work had finally slowed for them, but not for Andrew or Jon. They had cleaned every pot that had been used and re-filled them with water, setting it all on the fire to heat. The food they’d cooked during the day was set out on a table: fresh bread was added to the growing pile and freshly stewed fruit and nuts were in a bowl as well. All was set for everyone to help themselves as they came in and Willow and Tara finally sat with a cup of peppermint tea each, to enjoy the weight off their feet.
Night meal was eaten quickly and the room was stripped of its tables…
William watched as a large tub was brought in, in fact it was an enormous tub, big enough for a man. It was placed in the middle of the floor near the fire and filled with steaming water. A small bench was put by the side; soap, real soft soap was placed by it as well as a pile of soft, worn woollen blankets.
Connor and the rest of the men started undressing, slipping off trews and taking their turn at slipping into the water. The dirty clothes were piled up in a corner: Xander managed to get in first, he ducked his head under the water and picked up the soap, gave it a sniff and started complaining.
‘Anya this smells like something my mother would use, have you got anything, I don’t know, more manly?’
Anya laughed at him, and handed over a naked child. ‘That’s for your son,’ she said as she handed him a different cake of soap. ‘This is for you, it’s made with mint, for all you manly men.’
The baby was quickly washed and dunked a couple of times in the hot water, then passed quickly to his mother who wrapped him up in a blanket and got him dry.
Tara was horrified, firstly at the sight of all these naked and semi-naked men, but also at bathing! She’d always been told it was dangerous, and soap, she’d only seen scented soap once before and that had been at court. They had it for clothes of course, but for it to be used on skin meant that this had to be at least three years old. That was valuable.
When she looked across at her cousin he seemed uncomfortable too, it wasn’t just her.
When Connor had stripped off his shirt and trews she hadn’t been sure where to look or what to look at. Connor noticed her discomfort and smiled at her, making her blush even more.
‘Scrub my back?’ He held out a cloth, making Tara run for the other end of the Hall.
‘If you don’t behave Connor, I’ll do it and use the yard brush again!’ Willow shouted. Connor grinned again and held out the cloth, which Willow accepted from him and began soaping him down. It was intense to watch: William felt like running and hiding with Tara.
The men were soon clean, drying themselves off on the old blankets, and getting into fresh clothes.
Connor looked pointedly at William. ‘Your turn,’ he pointed at the water. William had only bathed like this on the day he was born, he’d never undressed completely before but from the way Connor and Xander were looking at him, he would have little choice. William slipped the robe he’d been wearing off and stood in his woollen undershirt.
Buffy laughed. ‘And the rest,’ she said, ‘we won’t look.’
‘I will,’ Anya quipped, making the poor man blush further. Xander growled at her, and Anya went back to the baby still laughing.
William took off his shirt and immersed himself in the water. It was warm and soothed his aching muscles.
Buffy was impressed with those muscles, they were chiselled, in fact he looked like a human version of Heimdal, the Guardian of the Bridge. William felt eyes on him and blushed further, his brothers had always accused him of being skinny and a weakling. Letting Buffy see him undressed and in the bath embarrassed him more than he could believe.
He washed himself with the offered soap and wondered if he could get out. ‘And the hair,’ he was instructed.
It took him only a few minutes more. He was handed a blanket and wrapped it around himself the way the other men had. He looked for his clothes but they were missing: he saw them piled with the other dirties in the corner. Andrew and Jon were filling up another cauldron and setting it by the fire.
Buffy came up to him. ‘They were my husbands,’ she said as she handed him a fine pair of trews, a linen undershirt and one of the most beautiful tunics he’d ever seen. It was edged with the finest tablet weave and coloured a deep, deep blue. It would cost more than his ransom.
William looked into her eyes. ‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.
Andrew and Jon took the tub outside, emptied it and brought it back in, refilling it for the women. They were stripping off their overdresses, and they were all laughing. The menfolk made their way to the back of the hall where Tara was hiding. ‘Your turn,’ William said quietly, watching his cousin turn white at the thought of undressing.
The men started getting out games and crafts, keeping themselves busy away from where the women were chatting and stripping.
‘Eyes front William,’ Connor said as the poor man’s eyes were drawn to the far end of the Hall. Tara was making her way slowly there; she pushed aside a blanket that had been put up between the two halves of the Hall.
The laughter and giggling got louder and louder as the women took their turns in the water. Buffy emerged first, her golden hair wet, soaking the front of her linen shift, making William glad that the trews he’d been lent were looser than his normal ones.
She drew on a thick overdress and soon all the women joined them. Andrew and Jon were made to bathe in the water before throwing it away. Then all made their way gratefully to their beds.
William slept well that night.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
thanks to my wonderful reviewers. hope you all enjoy the new chapter, if anyone wants the receipies, just let me know, I have them all:)