and greedy, careful to make the most of his limited power by demanding bribes from the villagers at every opportunity.
Gwenda disliked Nate. It was not his greed she objected to: all bailiffs had that vice. But Nate was a man twisted by resentment as much as by his physical defect. His father had been bailiff to the earl of Shiring, but Nate had not inherited that grand position, and he blamed his hump for the fact that he had ended up in the small village of Wigleigh. He seemed to hate all young, strong, handsome people. In his leisure hours he liked to drink wine with Perkin, Annet's father - who always paid for the liquor.
The question before the court today was what to do about Wulfric's family's land.
It was a large holding. Peasants were not all equal, and they did not have equal lands. The standard was a virgate, which was thirty acres in this part of England. In theory a virgate was the area of land one man could farm, and normally yielded enough to feed one family. However, most Wigleigh peasants had a half-virgate, fifteen acres, or thereabouts. They were obliged to find additional means of support for their families: netting birds in the woods, trapping fish in the stream that ran through Brookfield, making belts or sandals from cheap leather offcuts, weaving cloth from yarn for Kingsbridge merchants, or poaching the king's deer in the forest. A few had more than a virgate. Perkin had a hundred acres, and Wulfric's father, Samuel, had had ninety. Such wealthy peasants needed help to farm their land, either from their sons and other relatives, or from hired labourers such as Gwenda's father.
When a serf died, his land might be inherited by his widow, his sons or a married daughter. In any event, the handover had to be licensed by the lord, and a stiff tax, called a heriot, was due. In normal circumstances Samuel's land would automatically have been inherited by his two sons, and there would have been no need for a court hearing. They would have clubbed together to pay the heriot, then either divided up the land or farmed it together, and made some arrangement for their mother. But one of Samuel's sons had died with him, which complicated matters.
Every adult in the village attended the court, in general. Gwenda had a particular interest today. Wulfric's future would be decided, and the fact that he planned to spend that future with another woman did not dampen Gwenda's concern. Perhaps she should have wished him a miserable life with Annet, she sometimes thought; but she could not. She wanted him to be happy.
When the service was over, a large wooden chair and two benches were brought in from the manor house. Nate took the chair and the jurymen sat on the benches. Everyone else stood.
Wulfric spoke simply. "My father held ninety acres of the lord of Wigleigh," he said. "Fifty acres were held by his father before him, and forty by his uncle who died ten years ago. As my mother is dead, and so is my brother, and I have no sisters, I am the sole heir."
"How old are you?" said Nate.
"Sixteen years."
"You can't even call yourself a man, yet."
It seemed Nate was going to make things difficult. Gwenda knew why. He wanted a bribe. But Wulfric had no money.
"Years aren't everything," Wulfric said. "I'm taller and stronger than most grown men."
Aaron Appletree, one of the jurors, said: "David Johns inherited from his father when he was eighteen."
Nate said: "Eighteen isn't sixteen. I don't recall an instance where a sixteen-year-old was allowed to inherit."
David Johns was not a juror, and he was standing next to Gwenda. "I didn't have no ninety acres, neither," he said, and there was a ripple of laughter. David had a half-virgate, like most of them.
Another juror spoke. "Ninety acres is too much for one man, let alone a boy. Why, it was farmed by three until now." The speaker was Billy Howard, a man in his middle twenties who had wooed Annet unsuccessfully - which might be why he wanted to side with Nate in putting obstacles in Wulfric's way. "I've got forty acres, and I have to hire labourers at harvest time."
Several of the men nodded agreement. Gwenda began to feel pessimistic. It was not going Wulfric's way.
"I can get help," Wulfric said.
Nate said: "Have you got money to pay labourers?"
Wulfric looked a bit desperate, and