Others worked at culling the herd in the sheepfolds. The youngest ewes were saved for springtime lambing and next year’s shearing. The older ones, however, were chased into pens where they were bled, skinned, and carved into sheepskins and meat, ground bone and fat.
At the end of several weeks, the villagers proudly loaded carts filled with the fruits of their labor. The products filling these barrels, kegs, bundles, and sacks would help pay the fines, taxes, tithes, rents, and fees still owed after shipping the abbey a full third of the grain crop just two months before.
The final days of November passed quickly, and just before Advent a cart bearing two strangers rolled slowly into Weyer from the Villmar road. The few villagers who saw them turned away, for outsiders were seldom welcomed. Heinrich, however, had just descended from the fields where he was helping plough a fallow strip and, in his exhaustion, nearly walked directly into the cart’s path. A man cried out in a foreign tongue and the startled boy jumped back. “I-I am sorry, sir, I did not see you.”
The man kept a tight rein on his ox and turned to the boy. “Reeve—?” he asked carefully.
“You needs see the reeve?” asked Heinrich.
The man nodded. The woman sitting next to him smiled.
Heinrich stared with amazement at the stranger. He was the largest man the boy had ever seen. The giant pointed to himself. “Telek,” he said, then turned and gestured toward the woman. “Varina.”
Heinrich barely heard the man. His gaze was fixed on the six fingers that hung on each of the man’s hands. He dropped his eyes to the man’s bare feet and the boy gasped. “And six toes on each foot!”
The woman chuckled. She spoke in heavily accented German. “Junge… I am Varina and this is my brother, Telek. The monks in Villmar named him ‘Goliath’… after a character in the Scriptures. They wish us to call him that, though he is not happy about it.” She smiled affectionately at the man.
Herwin caught up to Heinrich. “Greetings, friends,” he offered with a sincere smile.
“And greetings to you. I am Varina … this is my brother, Telek. We are Slavs, captured by Christian knights and bound to Lord Klothar of Runkel. We converted and have lived in Runkel for nearly two years. Now we are sent by the abbot to serve in this village. We are to find your reeve. ‘Tis all we know.”
Heinrich listened intently. His eyes fell upon the woman’s swollen belly.
“Ja. I am with child.”
Herwin stared at Varina. Though she was rather plain, he felt strangely drawn to her. She was blonde and blue-eyed with fair skin. Despite her advanced pregnancy, she was thin-framed, but had a broad, open face.
“They are looking for Lenard,” said Heinrich.
“Yes, boy, so I heard.” He motioned to Varina, “Follow me.”
As Herwin led Klothar’s slaves to Lenard’s hovel, Heinrich entered his own. It was past nones and there was only one hour of daylight left. Baldric had returned early and was furious to see the boy. “You’ve come home early while work can yet be done?” he shouted.
“Nay, Uncle. We needed return Gunter’s oxen… one’s footsore and we daresn’t keep it on the plough.” Heinrich knew Baldric had been drinking and he was frightened.
Baldric shoved the boy to the wall. “Thief! You listen to me, Scrump Worm. You’d steal a man’s dog and you’d steal a man’s time! You needs labor till dusk, any less is sloth—another sin. By God, y’damnable, wretched waif, were y’not the son of m’brother I’d throw you to the dogs. I work this manor hard both day and night. I put food enough into yer worthless belly and y’ve good wool on your miserable back. You repay me by shaming the good name of your grandpapa to the whole village! Now you come home sneaking to rest! By the saints! No more! By God in heaven, ‘tis enough. Y’d be in forfeit!”
Heinrich leaned against a far wall, trembling. He set an eye for a quick escape. Then he wondered aloud, “Forfeit…?”
Baldric grabbed Heinrich by an ear and dragged him into the rear bedchamber. He tossed the boy to the ground and fumbled for a box beneath a candlestand. He threw up the lid and grasped a folded parchment scroll that he held in front of the boy’s face. “Here, little man. Here is the birthright your grandpapa passed to you for your own lads should you ‘ave any. ‘Tis a promise for your sons to be taught in the abbey school… a vow from an abbot to a shepherd! Of course, I’ve no such gift for me! Seems m’blood was never as good as yer father’s. No matter, you’ve shamed our ways and have lost the right of blessing … you’d not be fit for it, you’ve broke the code again. Now watch, thief, sluggard. Watch it burn away!”