Oxford

Draft

Snowden was offered a room at the Inn but he refused because the only other accommodation left for his men was a very meagre space above the stables.  To be honest, Snowden would have loved to sleep in a proper bed, for the thought of sleeping on a hard floor with the smell of livestock below wasn’t very appealing. Nevertheless his conscience won him over and he could see that he had earned a bit of respect by refusing to take the room.  Although he was their commanding officer, he knew that for the group to function as a unit, meant that no one would be treated any differently than the others.  They took their packs to the stable and then everyone but Snowden dispersed back to the Inn to have a few drinks.  What harm could it do? A little tot of ale or wine would keep the chill at bay and help them to forget for a night the road that had been chosen for them.  A road where they would surely see things they’d never seen before, especially if the quarrel with parliament carried on much longer.  Some of them would live and some would die. It was the nature of war; it was how human beings solved conflict. But why should men die for someone else’s rights?  As far as he saw it, this conflict had nothing to do with him at all and if wasn’t for his loyalty to his Uncle he wouldn’t even be here. 

Snowden lazily starred out the open window stifling a yawn and fighting the urge to let his teeth chatter in the cold air.  Maybe he should have gone to the Inn with the other lads and had another drink or two.  Instead, the solitude was more comforting than the drink, he reasoned, for soon they all would be back, collapsing on their bed rolls, belching, snoring and farting till the sun came up.  The clouds had begun rolling in angry and grey causing the twinkling starlight to flicker in and out of existence. A hollow bell rang out from a distant clock tower and he counted the hour. It was midnight and by the look of the sky they would most certainly have a vile, dismal day to look forward to, although it was not totally unexpected considering the time of year. Just as he was about to turn away from the window, a commotion caught his attention just outside the back door to the Inn. He couldn’t see what was happening in the murk because the clouds had all but covered the moon by now, so he ran down the steps and out into the stable yard.  Just as he reached the bottom step, he heard a woman’s terrified pleadings.

Sprinting across the yard, toward the sound, he discovered three shadowed figures laughing and taunting a young woman who looked as though she was being pushed up against the back wall of the Inn.

“Give us a kiss.  We may all die in battle soon and your kiss on our lips will send us to heaven with a smile on our faces,” one of the men said.

“No, I won’t. Please let me go!” the woman’s voice trembled.

“A kiss?  No, not just a kiss.  I want to hear this little bird sing. I’ll go to my death with nothing less,” another one added his words heavily slurred.

It only took a few strides to reach them and instinctively Snowden grabbed the closest one by the collar, yanking him backward and sending him off balance.  One well-placed punch flattened the man to the ground, causing the other two to swing wobbly around in order to defend themselves, leaving the young woman cowering in the corner. Snowden had no weapon with him, only his fists but he was no stranger to a drunken brawl.  He’d been caught up in them a time or two. Snowden weighed up his opponents, deciding to take on the more sober of the two who were left, reasoning that the other one would be too unsteady to do much harm whilst his attentions were elsewhere. As he managed to drop the second man, the first one had regained his wits and unbeknownst to Snowden, he pulled out a dagger.

“Stick him!” the other man shouted.

Snowden turned and readied himself for the attack. The man’s hand wavered as he bounded toward Snowden, who’d already decided to twist away from the man at the last minute and come at him from behind.  Just before he was about to turn, Snowden heard a loud crack causing the man to flail about for a moment and land in a large loud heap on the cobbled surface.

“I thought you might need some help Captain,” said Will Garrett, smiling as he stepped out of the darkness brandishing a long plank of wood.

“I have everything under control Corporal,” Snowden replied as he pulled the third man up and kneed him in the groin leaving him to writhe about in pain, swearing and spitting.

“Ah, Yes, I suppose you do,” Will said, taking the plank of wood and whacking one of the men on the back of the head who was attempting to stand back up.

Seeing that all three men were subdued, Snowden stood rubbing his sore hand momentarily forgetting about the young woman who was still cowering in the corner and was on her knees with her hands about her head. When she looked up, Will Garret stepped forward and knelt down beside her.  He spoke to her softly and held out his hand to help her up.  She took it, her hand shaking as painfully stood.

“Did they hurt you miss?” Snowden enquired, exhaling heavily.

“No Sir.  I was my fault Sir.  I should never have come out here alone in the dark,” She replied.

“It’s not your fault. You shouldn’t have to worry about coming out after dark.  These men who are playing soldier think it gives them the right to harass innocent girls and it does not.” Snowden told her.

“I’ll take her inside,” Will said and he turned toward the back door.

“I’ll come with you.  I need to see if I can get a bandage for my hand,” Snowden said.

Will stopped and took a deep breath. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Sir.”

“And why not?” Snowden asked, following will through the open door.

“You’ll see.”

                                                                                            

It only took a few moments after he entered the Inn to find a senior officer who instantly marched out of the Inn to sort out the three reprobates in the stable yard. Snowden then turned his attentions to locating their host Tom Jenkins, the elder.  When he found him, Will was there giving an account of what happened as Tom was comforting the girl.

 

“Thank you Captain Snowden for your help,” Tom said when he looked up to see Snowden duck through the doorway.

“Is she alright?” he asked.

“She will be,” Tom answered.

“Those men will pay for what they did. Their Captain is marking sure of it. I will take my men back to the stables now.  I think they’ve been here long enough,” Snowden told him and turned to go through the door to the front room.

As he stepped through the door to the Inn’s main room and began to look for his men, he saw a gathering of drunks reduced to being so hopeless that some of them were slumped in the corner falling asleep. So this is why Will hadn’t wanted him to come inside. He exhaled heavily and examined his hand in the soft candle light.  It was red and his knuckles hurt but the skin wasn’t broken.

“What shall we do with them, Sir?” Will asked as he stepped through the doorway.

“We should take them back to the stables but I am doubtful that any of them could climb the stairs to the loft. Might be amusing to watch them try though.”

They shouldered their way through the room that stank of ale and unwashed bodies and came upon Sergeant Holmes, sat at a table, both elbows on the top of it to steady himself, attempting to pour ale into his tankard.  More sloshed onto the table than ever made it into the vessel. He looked up at Snowden and Garrett and suddenly scrambled to his feet, wobbling terribly in search of his lost balance.  Soon some sort of control finally took him over and he stood stiffly, blinking furiously, trying to dispel the alcoholic haze. It was almost farcical.

One by one Snowdon and Garrett dragged the drink filled men back to the stables.  It was no use speaking to them about their behaviour whilst their skins were still saturated with alcohol but he planned on making sure they were up early with plenty of noise and sunlight even if their heads were sore or not.

After they were all snoring in the bedrolls, Snowden stood once more at the window staring out. Will stepped over to the window as well.

“They’re all sleeping like babies, Sir,” Will commented. “I bet their heads will be hurting like fire tomorrow morning though.”

“I’m sure they will.  Now, tell me what were you doing out there in the stable yard?” Snowden asked.

“Oh, you see I was there in the Inn, sitting with the others.  They were each buying me drinks, saying that they were going to get the virgin drunk, Sir.  I’m not a virgin, by the way,” Will added.

“Not a virgin are ya?”  Snowden smiled.

“I’ve been with plenty of women, Sir!”  Will protested.

Snowden doubted it very much because the boy hadn’t yet come out of his gawkiness and his face was still a bit spotty, this alone announced his young age without any need for words. He smiled and prepared himself to listen Will’s account of what happened,  because in the short time he’d spent with the lad,  Will’s telling of his tales tended to take longer than the actual doing of them.

“Alright, so why were you in the stable yard?” Snowden asked him again.

“Oh yes, umm  the others were trying to get me drunk and …”

“Wait, if the others were buying you drinks, then why aren’t you stinking drunk like the rest of them?”  Snowden  frowned, because as always Will’s explanations tended to bring up more questions than they actually answered.

“Oh, it was easy. I had a tankard between my legs.” Will answered, casually and went to carry on with his story.

“You are hard work lad!  Why would you put a tankard between your legs?” Snowden asked.

“To spit the drink into.  I did drink one tankard and when they bought me another I’d take a big mouthful. Then when they weren’t looking of course, and let’s face it, they weren’t noticing much after all they’d had to drink, I’d grab the other one from in between my legs and spit the drink into it. They were banging the table shouting, Drink, Drink, Drink!  I’d just smile and keep doing the same.”

Whether it was the lack of sleep or Will’s drawn out story, Snowden suddenly started feeling a bit giddy even though he hadn’t had anything to drink for hours.  He shook it off and laughed.  “Clever, now can we move ahead to the part where you go out into the stable yard?”

“Yes, that part.  Sir, did you happen to notice the girl with the long golden hair, when we arrived at the Inn?” Will asked. wistfully.

“I think everyone did Lad?” Snowden chuckled.

“That’s Tom Jenkins daughter, you know. Her name’s Alice. She’s the one we saved,” Will added. “Anyway, I noticed her from the beginning and I saw how some of the men at the Inn were leering at her.  I thought it best to keep my head about me and look after her.”  Will concluded.

“That’s it, surely there’s more.  You saw her go outside and followed her so that no one would harm her, maybe?”

“Oh no, me being out there at that time was just pure accident.  Ya see I needed a piss and I walked out the front door and she must have slipped out the back.  So when I walked around the corner, I was looking for a wall to piss up. I found one. Then I heard Tom’s daughter but I wasn’t done yet and you know when it starts coming out, you can’t stop it till it’s done.” Will explained.

Snowden looked up at the heavens and rubbed his tired face.“Yes, been there a time or two."

“So, it hadn’t stopped yet, cause to be fair I had drunk quite a bit and I saw you run past. Well it turned out to be you, it was dark and it could have been anyone.  When it stopped, I fastened my trousers and started round the corner and slipped on a plank of wood. Nearly fell on my ass. I thought I’d bring it with me just in case. That’s when I saw the man coming at you with a knife.”