'Luk at Geva, your supposed twin. She has auburn 'air and your 'air is dark.' Richard looked. Of course, he had already noticed that. 'Luk at your father and mother and Bromley,' urged John. 'They all 'ave auburn 'air.'
'Also, 'ow is it that you are already taller than your father?' Richard began to see his family differently and it was suddenly too much to take in.
'I think that you best be going,' demanded Richard and he went back to cutting the grain.
The Darby's rode away and the Easton's were left to their work again. Nothing was said more concerning the matter until they had finished for the day and were back at the cottage.
'So, you will be a glazier after all,' said Lind with a little accusation in his voice. He suspected that Richard had asked the Darby's to help him secure the apprenticeship.
'Richard, me luv, whot is wrong?' asked Gleda, noticing Richard's countenance.
'John told me todee that you are nay me parents. 'ow culd you keep that secret from me all of these years?'
'Sone, it makes no difference who you are. We luv you. Is that nay right, Lind?'
'Of course, that is right,' said Lind, but the realization that they should probably have told Richard the truth and also news of the apprenticeship had shaken his emotions. He left the cottage and went out into the night.
Richard suddenly didn't feel quite at home in the cottage and he didn't know how to feel about his family. He retreated to the quiet of the loft. He intended to sort it out in his mind, but owing to his fatigue, fell right to sleep.
There was no further discussion on either matter the next day and his relationship with his family seemed to fall right back into place, yet there were lingering doubts in his mind.
Richard didn't see John for the next two weeks and then John was off to Peterborough for school. The family successfully gathered in the crops and all seemed right. Richard though was still unsettled about his place in the family and also disappointed that his last words to John had been stern. He wasn't sure when he would see John again.
Chapter Four
April 1434
Stamford, England
Richard felt someone gently shaking him and he heard muffled voices. Somewhere between sleep and awake, he was sure that it was a beautiful maid. He had been dreaming about the girl that he had seen from the Glazier's shoppe and was quite content to keep dreaming. He felt the shaking again and rolled over trying to ignore the intruder. It wasn't a dream and it wasn't the girl. Now he recognized his mother's voice. 'Get up, me luv. You will be needed in the field.' It was well before the rising of the sun and all Richard wanted to do was roll over and sleep.
Richard sat up in his bed as his mother carefully descended the steep stairway from the loft. Richard and Bromley had shared this small loft since they were wee lads. Overhead was the thatch of the roof and the floor was constructed of bare wooden planks. Gleda had managed over several years to collect old cloth and had fashioned a round rug for the room by tying the cloth pieces together similar to making a sweater. It felt so much better on bare feet than the wooden planks. The floor of the cottage below was dirt, but it was mostly covered with a woven reed mat.
Bromley was already up and dressing quickly because of the chill. Richard was several inches taller than Bromley and usually enjoyed being so, but in this loft it meant that he had to constantly bend while standing and Bromley did not. Richard also had to be particularly careful about the wooden beams of the roof. More than once he had hit his head on one in the middle of a dark night.
It was colder in the room than would be expected for an April morning. The only light coming into the loft was the flicker of a candle and small fire from the room below. Even in that small light Richard could see his breath. Once out of bed, he would dress quickly to minimize the chill.
Richard descended the stairs carefully. The steps were almost more ladder than stairs. A sleepy young man could take a tumble with a misplaced foot.
Gleda was just pulling a pot off a small fire in the fireplace as Richard stepped off the stairs