Becoming Aethelu (The fourteenth century diary of Mary Hyde)
If you’ve ever read the Guardians of The Light books, you’ll
know how my life ended up but do you know how it started? I wasn’t always
Aethelu. I began life as plain old Mary Hyde, the fifth child of Winnifred and
Thomas Hyde. I was born in 1322 in a small Yorkshire village. My father already
had the beginnings of a reputation as a great healer and because of this, we
lived in a better house than most of our neighbours. A couple of years before I
was born, A local lords wife had given birth and almost died along with the
baby but my father had managed to save both of their lives. The Lord had been
so grateful that he’d given my father some land and built a house which was
given to us.
Compared to today’s standards it was nothing more than a hut
but it had three bedrooms, a main room with a kitchen area and a small parcel
of land around it. Apart from the Lord, we were the first people in the village
to have glass windows. You could say we lived privileged lives. We didn’t have
to farm the Lords land and anything we did manage to grow on our land belonged
to us. Most of the land was taken up with Daddy’s medicinal herbs and flowers
which he used to concoct his potions.
As a child, I was in charge of bringing my father whichever
herb he may need. I knew that garden like the back of my hand and could tell
you the name of every plant in there. I used to love running through the
fragrant bushes and picking the leaves for my Dads medicines. My mother also
had a small part of the land which she used to grow vegetables. No matter how
much my Mama tried, she could not garner the same interest in me for vegetables
as I had for the herbs. Who wanted to pull up carrots when there was the smell
of lavender and rosemary and a hundred other plants which, when put together in
the right quantities, could almost perform magic? We also kept livestock. We had a small field
with perhaps a dozen sheep, a couple of cows and a pig called Matilda. She was
given to us so we could feed her up and slaughter her for meat but she kept
escaping into our front yard which made our Father laugh so she became our pet.
From a very young age, I was expected to go to the Lords
manor once a week to learn to read and write. I hated having to go there, not
because of the reading which I adored but because of the Lords son who also had
lessons with me. He considered me beneath him and would not pass up any
opportunity to remind me that he was a Lord and I was nothing more than a
villein or pauper. I reminded him on more than a dozen occasions that if it
hadn’t been for my pauper father, both he and his mother would have died but he
just laughed so eventually I gave up and tried to ignore him as much as
possible. I wouldn’t have gone at all if it were not for my father insisting
upon it. He said that education was a real privilege and I was lucky to have
any at all. I knew it was true, no one else in my village could read or write
except for the local priest who taught myself and William, the Lords son and my
father. When William was old enough to learn to read and write, the Lord
offered my father the chance for his children to attend the same lessons. My
eldest brother Robert (Who you will know as August) and my sister Emma (Who
would become Arcadia) were considered too old and my youngest sister Anna was
too young. That left my older twin brothers, Robin and Seth (Alex and Rafe) and
myself. Every Saturday we would head to the Lords house but more often than
not, the twins would run off, preferring to spend the day climbing trees or
getting into some other bother. My father was very angry at their
non-attendance but with his hands full healing the sick, he had no time to
follow the twins and any punishment he doled out fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t
long until it was just myself and William attending the lessons. We were taught
to read and write in Latin first and then eventually in English. William hated
Latin and spent most of every lesson complaining about it. I, on the other hand
loved the sound of the words. Daddy used Latin a lot in his potions and it wasn’t
long before I knew the Latin name for all the plants in the garden.
Here is my diary for the year 1336...
To read the Guardians of The Light series first start here
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HOIHR2K
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