“The duke thinks we need to strengthen our defenses against the Scots—” she said.
“Aye!” Dark Walter interrupted her. “We do. And I hope he has sent the wherewithal to do it, my lady.”
“He has,” Andrew spoke up. “He wants walls built.
The hall is not a castle, but six-foot walls about the house could help to deter an assault.”
“Aye, they surely could,” Dark Walter agreed, and Albert nodded.
“I thought this was to be my decision,” Adair said pointedly.
“The duke assumed you would see the wisdom of his plan once I explained it to you,” Andrew Lynbridge said smoothly. “He does not want to see you dead in your courtyard like your poor mother, my lady. He seeks only your safety.”
“Where is the stone to come from?” she demanded.
“The wagons should begin arriving in a day or two,”
Andrew answered her.
“He wants his man to remain to oversee our security,” Adair told Albert and Dark Walter. “Could you not do it, Dark Walter? Is it necessary for Andrew Lynbridge to stay?” she demanded of them.
Dark Walter nodded. “It is, my lady. I have not the experience in defense that he does. I was naught but a common soldier. Captain Lynbridge is a skilled man, and in the good duke’s confidence. ’Tis an honor, Captain,” he said, bowing politely from the waist. “I know you spent many years with the duke. He will have the authority that I know you want someone in his position to have, my lady. Hesitation in a siege is no benefit to those under attack. I am glad for his aid, and bid him welcome.”
“Thank you,” Andrew Lynbridge said quietly. “But’tis you who are the captain of arms here. And so you shall remain. I did not come at my lord’s request to replace you, Dark Walter. I came only to help, to direct, to teach you and your men.”
The older man bowed, and the two men’s eyes met in perfect understanding.
“If Dark Walter remains my captain,” Adair said irritably, “then what are we to call you, sir?” They were making decisions without her, and she was the lady of Stanton.
“Andrew?” he suggested, and there was a twinkle in his eye. “It is my name.”
Albert and Dark Walter chuckled, and Adair was forced to laugh.
“Very well,” she agreed, “then Andrew it will be.”
Elsbeth decreed that Andrew Lynbridge would sleep in the hall. “It is not meet he go above the stairs,” she said tartly. “You are a girl alone, and must be wary to mind your reputation if you are to wed the proper man one day,” she reminded Adair.
“I know you will make me comfortable, Mistress Elsbeth,” Andrew replied, “and I agree that the lady’s good name must not be besmirched.”
“Well, then, you have more common sense than most men,” Elsbeth said sharply.
“I think you will find that I do,” he agreed soberly, and Elsbeth looked at him, not certain that he was not mocking her, but his handsome face remainedimpassive.
Several days later the carts carrying the stones that would become a wall began arriving at Stanton, along with a stonemason who quickly trained several of the local men so they might help him with the construction.
Every few days, as the carts emptied, others carrying more stone would arrive. Adair was never certain how the workers knew when they had enough, but then one day there were no carts. And several days later the wall that stood six and a half feet in height was completed.
The old moat had been redug, and a channel from nearby Stanton Water was opened so that the moat would always be filled. The blacksmith made a portcullis for the main entry between the walls, and heavy oak double doors, reinforced with iron bands, were hung. A wooden bridge was built over the moat.
“Why not stone?” Adair wanted to know.
“It takes too much effort to destroy a stone bridge,”Andrew told her. “If the walls are breached we can burn the bridge and hold off the invader longer, because they cannot easily reach us without the bridge. And the moat prevents the hostile from laying siege ladders against the house.”
“It’s more a castle now,” she remarked.
“Not really,” he explained to her. “You have no battlements. And you would have needed royal permission to raise a castle. But you did not need royal permission to reinforce the defenses of your house.”
It had taken all spring and half of the summer to complete the new defenses. Adair now saw to the raising of new barns within the stone enclosure. She would house her cattle safely from the winter snows. They had seen small parties of riders now and again, but their apparent readiness to defend what was Stanton’s seemed to deter any attacks. The cattle Adair had purchased early in the spring had grown fat upon the lush Stanton meadow grass. Several of the young heifers were showing signs that they were with calf. Adair was very pleased. She would not buy more cattle until next year. The Stanton folk had worked hard through the summer months to grow enough grain to feed the new herd. They harvested and threshed the grain, and stored it within the walls in a new stone granary, along with two fat tomcats to patrol its perimeter and keep the mice population to a minimum. The two felines were very fierce.
