Wolf Wood (Part Two): The Dangerous years by Mike Dixon Page A

hundred years ago, the Francs swept down and conquered them, claiming they were heretics and enemies of Christ.
    Henriette had no objection to becoming French. She enjoyed good relations with the local Normans. The problem was her family. Henriette was a Maupassant. Like the Gascoignes. they were hated for their brutality and could expect little mercy when the English were finally expelled from France.
    Harald wanted to return to England but there was a warrant out for his arrest and Alice was still being hunted as a witch. Robin wanted to return but Henriette had been denied English nationality and could be refused entry.
    That was another part of the whole awful business. The Normans were regarded as subjects of the English king but that didn't give them an automatic right to leave Normandy and settle in England. Families would be torn apart when an English husband was forced to flee and his Norman wife was denied the right to leave with him.
    A blue and white banner caught her eye. It was being carried by an outrider and the man beside him looked like Robin. He was dressed in his officer's uniform and standing high in his stirrups, looking to left and right, signalling to his men, keeping them in tight formation. They were riding on either side of a group of horsemen. Alice caught a glimpse of their standard and her heart fell. She couldn't be sure but it looked like an animal on a blood-red background.
    As they drew closer, there could be no doubt. The animal was a three-headed wolf and the three Williams were riding beneath it. Sir William was slumped in his saddle and appeared to be injured. Guy was supporting him on one side. William rode on the other and held the Gascoigne banner in his outstretched arm.
    ***
    Robin entered the guardhouse and watched as Sir William's wounds were dressed. Commander Gough had sent his top surgeon to attend to the old man's injuries. He guessed it had been done out of respect for Harald. The commander had few kind feelings towards Sir William and others like him.
    Sir William and Guy headed one of the many irregular companies that roamed the land. They were used by both sides and widely hated. Robin had few doubts about what would happen when the war ended. The companies would go on the rampage like they always did when there was no work for them as mercenaries. The new French army would probably have the power to put them down. The same could not be said for the English. If the Gascoignes and their kind ever gained a foothold in England, they would rip the realm apart.
    The old man had received a sword thrust to his lower abdomen. A lesser man would already be dead but Sir William was battling on, surviving by pure willpower. It couldn't last. There was no surgeon in all of France who could stitch the vital organs back together again. Alice said such things were done in the Muslim lands but not in Christendom. Robin's spine tingled whenever he heard her speak like that. She had still not learnt to guard her tongue.
    Alice was assisting the surgeon. She was highly regarded as a healer and greatly respected by the local people. Even the priests had a good word for her. While in Normandy, she was safe. Letters from Sherborne, sent via Flanders, warned that Abbot Bradford was still calling her the Almshouse Witch and blaming her for the riot and damage to the abbey.
    He glanced between her and Sir William. The old man had reached out a hand and was calling her his favourite daughter and mother of his dearest grandchild. On the other side of the bed, William tensed. Robin watched as the expression on his battered face turned from resentment to pure rage.
    William was now even bigger than Guy. Father and son were separated by only fifteen years and often mistaken as brothers. Guy was immensely fit for his age and looked younger than his forty-one years. William was battle scarred and looked much older than his twenty-six.
    Guy had always been a vicious character. William was not just vicious.