match.”
“You can at least be sure that I won’t physically and mentally abuse her in the way that Aelfric did. I’ve never beaten a woman yet. She’ll do well enough and be happy, as will I. She even made me pay off my leman and send her away- even before she arrived in my Hall! You’ve a remarkable daughter, not least after what she has gone through with her spirit unbroken. Now if you’ll excuse me, we’ve been in the saddle since daybreak this morning and I think that it’s time my affianced and myself retired. We’ll see you in the morning. Not too early!”
Rescuing Anne from the chattering women they walked arm in arm up the stairs to the small bed.
Next morning they rose late and, other than the servants, the house was empty. Orvin and Lora had attended the Prime service at St. Stephens Church and had still not returned home, probably visiting the house of a fellow parishioner. Being Sunday the servants expected Orvin to spend the day at home as the warehouse would be closed for the day.
“You know, being in a city with proper churches, we really also should be more observant,” suggested Anne. “It’s one thing to go to church a couple of times a week in a small village when that’s all the services there are, but here most of the churches hold four services a day.”
Alan agreed readily enough, but specified he wanted to attend the Holy Trinity Priory, just north of the city walls, and not necessarily every day as he didn’t expect to sin often enough to need absolution that frequently. He ignored Anne’s muttered comments about fornication being a sin. Dressing appropriately, well but not ostentatiously, and with Anne having her hair covered and wearing a simple dress with a high neckline, they took the short walk along Brook Street to the priory.
The paved streets were littered with refuse and they had to pick their way between piles of excrement, animal and human, and garbage thrown in the street. It had been some time since heavy rains had flushed the waste down the gutter in the centre of the road and into the river.
The town was busy with people bustling along the streets. Women were on their way to the marketplace. The poor, middling and well-to-do all went about their business. Hawkers were crying their wares from stalls and barrows in the streets, seeking to sell items as diverse as haberdashery and meat pies. Every few paces they were accosted by somebody trying to sell something. Taylors’ and dressmakers’ touts stood outside their shops trying to inveigle customers to enter. Beggars cried for alms. Children and street-urchins shouted as they ran and played. One street was nearly blocked by a crowd watching a cock-fight and noisily urging the birds on.
After passing out of the North Gate the priory bells began to ring for Sext, marking mid-day, and they quickly ascended the stairs to the chapel.
The chapel was surprisingly spacious and reasonably well attended with a congregation of about 100 present. Alan mused that they had perhaps been attracted by the benches installed for the use of the congregation, instead of the usual situation where the congregation either stood or knelt for the duration of the service.
The choir of twenty monks were already present and singing a quiet plainchant when Alan and Anne took their places on a partly empty bench near the middle of the church. The prebend was standing to one side of the nave dressed in lavish vestments while the altar-boys lit the many candles on the well-appointed altar, and afterwards lit the incense in the censer. A light cloud of sweet-smelling smoke rose into the air. The service included High Mass in Latin and was simple and moving, Alan feeling both fervour and peace as he received the sacrament, looking up at the large carved gilded wooden figure of Christ Crucified positioned above the altar as he received the Host.
As they walked back into the town Alan nodded to the guards at the gate and received a similar acknowledgement. “We should go to confession while we’re here,” he said. “I find it hard to confess anything to Brother Godwine, who is a hypocrite who probably sins more than I do. If you can find out from your mother when Confession is heard at St. Stephens I can make an appointment. After the last few months I have quite a lot to confess and it’ll take a while. It’s hardly fair to the priest to do it during the normal confessional time.”
A pot full of night-soil thrown from an upper storey window narrowly missed them and as Alan looked up in anger he stepped in a pile of rotting vegetables, afterwards trying to clean his boot on the stone of the street gutter.
On the way back to Carr Street Alan called in at the ‘Fox’s Head’ inn to ensure that his men had found accommodation and were, within reasonable limits, behaving themselves. The ‘Fox’s Head’ was a lower class inn and catered for cheorls and soldiers, with adequate but plain food and with the guests sleeping on the floor of the Commons or in the dormitory upstairs.
Arriving back at Carr Street Alan left his shoes at the door with an instruction to Rinan to arrange for their cleaning. Inside Orvin and Lora were sitting down to a relatively simple meal of soup, beef stew with herbs and fresh fruit, washed down with ale, as Sunday was the cook’s day off. After the meal Lora, as a result of her early start of attending church services, retired upstairs to her bedroom for a nap and Alan learned that she and Orvin no longer shared a bedchamber.
Orvin took them to the room he used as an office. There was a large heavy wooden chest in the corner, a large table covered in pieces of parchment, with quills and an ink-pot and a jug of wine. Four chairs were placed around the table.
“Now, I believe in keeping accounts current,” said Orvin in a businesslike manner. “?327 less ten percent is? 294 and eighty pennies. Will you want it in cash? One of the problems of trade in England is the only currency is pennies, and 70,640 pennies are a real nuisance to transport- you’ll need a wagon. I can arrange French gold marks if you prefer, but I get charged a half-percent discount by my money-man. Or I can arrange payment through the Jews.”
“Payment through the Jews? You mean you would borrow the money?” asked Alan in confusion.
“No, no! Most of my wealth is tied up in goods going from one place to another or sitting in warehouses. Cash causes problems because it’s hard to store, earns nothing while it is sitting there and is more easily stolen than say a ton of wool or cloth. I deal with several of the Jews here in Ipswich, and also in London and York, and lend them my spare cash. Where do you think they get the money to lend to gentiles? It’s from people like me. They pay me a modest rate of interest, fifteen percent a year, and charge a higher rate when they lend it out. They bear all the risks of non-payment by the borrower and the difficulty and cost of recovery if necessary. Of course you only do this with relatively small amounts such as your current amount, and usually spread it amongst several moneylenders. One of my moneylenders, Solomon, also has businesses in Colchester and London. He’s as honest as any of them- which means to say very honest. If you want some money in cash and the rest available for you to draw on whenever you need it, I can arrange that with him. That way you would only need to ride up to Colchester to pick up what money you need, or you can access your money here or in London. He also has contacts on the continent, but making money available overseas costs a five percent discount.”
“We probably only need say?50 in cash at Thorrington. If Solomon has say?50 at London,?100 at Colchester and the rest here at Ipswich, that should be adequate,” said Anne thoughtfully. “I can’t see us needing more than 1,000 shillings in cash.”
“Fine,” said Orvin. “I’ll take you to see Solomon tomorrow. He’s working today of course, but I keep the Sabbath, our Sabbath, whenever possible. Otherwise Lora gives me three kinds of hell. I’ll give Anne the names of several other Jews, so you don’t have ‘all your eggs in one basket’ if something goes wrong. Any investment, even putting the cash under the bed, carries some risk.
“Now what is this about the trading ships?” he asked as he poured each a cup of wine. Alan sipped in anticipation and was disappointed. Orvin smiled at his expression and commented, “You can’t have Bordeaux every day or you get spoiled. This is a cheap light red from Anjou.”
Anne replied, “Alan captured the longships after they had raided Colchester and had emptied the best of the items from the warehouses there. There’s no doubt that they, the trading ships and the cargo belongs to him by right of salvage- it was more than one day after they were stolen by the Danes. However, I thought it made sense to avoid potential claims by the former owners by disposing of both the ships and cargoes overseas as quickly as possible, before anybody except a few of Alan’s household knew about it.”
“That was sensible,” commented Orvin. He picked up several pieces of parchment and, not sure who to give them to, put them between Anne and Alan. “This is the inventory. May I congratulate you on your very significant wealth, assuming that the ships make harbour. This will make you one of the wealthiest merchants on the east coast. As instructed, my factors will sell the cargoes and ships, buy new ships and cargoes and choose the best crews they can, both from your existing crews and whoever else is available. There will be a substantial surplus in
