The path circled through a small farm that supplied most of the food for the monastery. Attached to the Duke’s manor we were roughly six days ride from the nearest major city. It was said that the king placed his brother out here in the middle of no where to keep him from consorting with the other Nobles.
A man turned the corner leaving the old barn where the sheep were caged over winter with a snarky look across his face. It was still a He adjusted his belt with his off hand and looked past me towards the monastery with disgust. I moved to the side of the barn away from the path bowing low to my better. It was the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances. Despite, the aversion of my eyes, I noticed that his breathing was heavy like he had run all the way from the manor or been laboring profusely.
He continued on without noticing and made his way towards the monastery. He never looked back to recognize my existence and I continued on once he was out of sight towards the monastery. I looked up at the old barn sitting there as the midway point forgetting the noble and his strangeness. The barn was made of brick that had stood there for longer than even father Beverly had been alive.
Beverly was a stern old man, but he seemed to secretly like me since he always remembered to challenge me about everything I did. I mean, come on, why would the old man ask all of those questions about learning if he didn’t really care?
There was a large goat standing in my way as I turned the corner towards the last leg of the trip to the Duke’s home. He was nearly my own height, but I wasn’t running.I didn’t exactly name them, but I worked so often with Rolfe that I knew this one’s name was trouble. Rolfe was always fighting with him to stay or go with the rest of the herd.
“Trouble” I mumbled his name under my breath and brought myself to a standstill.The mean old Nannie looked at me and continued on towards the fields. The goat had been escaping to the fields since I could run along side him. However, I was a man now and it was time for me to act accordingly. I gingerly walked, well I guess it was more of a prance, my way up to him and he took off running.
Cursing I realized my mistake and stopped the chase. She was gone and there was no bringing her back. Huffing from the exertion I turned back to the barn. The goat in the field was going to absolutely ruin my rematch with Thomas. Stomping my feet, turned to the open gate and gave it a kick. My right foot planted soundly in the ground as I knew it should, but my left foot didn’t find resistance from the gate and it swung inward.
My foot lost ground and I fell face first into the doorframe of the barn face first. The old doorframe took the worst of the collision and I was kind enough to bounce off lightly.
Dazed and on the ground, I must have been losing my mind because I heard a whimpering from within the barn. It was a faint sound that was barely distinguishable over the ringing in my ears and my growing headache. Turning over I felt my ankle tenderly praying that my ankle wasn’t going to prevent me from thrashing Thomas tomorrow after I found the goat.
The ankle wasn’t as tender as I anticipated from the throbbing and it bore my weight, but I almost lost my purchase as I realized I was lying in manure. The goats were inspecting me with curiosity now that I had reawaken from my spill. I think I can tell when they are laughing because they seemed to nudge me a little harder than usual. As I scrambled up I realized that the whimpering had ceased.
Turning around I noticed that the Goats were congregating in the far corner of the barn. I walked over to see why they were out of the pen and I noticed that they were working to follow Trouble out into the pastures. The door to the pen wasn’t closed all the way and someone was going to be killed by Rolphe.
I pulled on the pen door and forced it back into place so that they couldn’t escape any longer. The latch couldn’t hold it because it was lying on the floor. The wood door was missing a chunk where the hinge was previously attached.
I turned around and headed to Rolphe’s office. His office was a Loft in the back of the barn. It wasn’t necessarily an office like one of the monks had, but it had hay and gave him a viewpoint of the countryside. On a shelf up in the loft was some hemp rope that I was hoping to use to fasten the door closed until I could get somebody to help.
The first thing I noticed as I climbed up to the was that the office was abandoned. This wasn’t uncommon since Rolfe frequented visiting with monks and tended to take his meals about the time the sun was highest in the sky. Looking up the sun was just past the highest point and I imagined that Rolphe should be returning soon. All I had to do was get this jimmied and find that damn goat before Rolphe appeared.
The open windows at the top of the barn gave me a perfect view of the meadow below. The manor was a strong building set at the mouth of the entire river valley. Thomas’s tutor once had us plan a defense of the Duke’s castle.I can still picture the way Thomas and I manipulated our forces into mutual destruction time and time again.