Read A Friar's Bloodfeud: (Knights Templar 20) for Free Online Page A

carrying of boxes and chests, and the coming and going of the peasants bringing food for men and beasts;
     after a few days there would be more uproar as the men set off to hunt morning and afternoon, with raches and harriers snuffling
     and slobbering about the place, and horses stamping and chomping at their bits … and when all was done and the stores
     were gone, there was the trouble of packing everything up and preparing to leave for the next manor.
    When he had heard that this little manor needed a newbailiff he had seen a chance to escape, and Lord de Courtenay’s steward had been kind enough to let him. Better that he should
     be at a quiet manor where he could annoy only a small number of people with his whining and moaning, rather than at Tiverton
     or Okehampton, where he could upset many more, the older man had said, and then grinned and wished him all good fortune.
    This land was good, Robert told himself now. Up here at his house there was plenty of wood, while down at the vill the fields
     were bursting with health. In many parts of the country people were starving because of the terrible harvests, but here in
     Devon the populace was a little better provided for. Their diet was geared towards hardier crops, which could bear the dreadful
     weather. He sometimes thought that the peasants here were like the oats they grew. Both seemed stoical in the face of the
     elements.
    His home was a small building, cob-built under a thatched roof, but it was comfortable and snug even during the worst of the
     winter’s storms. From the door, he could look over a large garden where he hoped his beans and peas would thrive, while beyond
     the beds was a small area of pasture which rolled down the hill south-west towards the river. The ford was in front of the
     house, and the lane from it led past his door and on up the hill towards the lands north and east: Iddesleigh and Monk Oakhampton.
     The way was cut through thick woodland, and few travellers ever passed this way.
    Robert was making his way home, a man of middle height, slightly built, with a slender waist and narrow shoulders. He had
     fine features: his nose was straight, his lips were sensuous, and his brown eyes were intelligent and kindly; and he was as
     hungry as the peasants on the estate. Food had been plentiful enough through the cold, barrenmonths, but now that winter was drawing to a close and the stocks were low his teeth were aching badly, as usual, and one
     or two were loose in his jaw as the scurvy started to take hold again. It was the same every year, ever since he’d been a
     little lad. When the food grew scarce, he began to suffer. If fortune favoured, he would soon recover. He always did when
     the weather improved.
    He was almost at his house when he heard the drumming of hooves in the distance. The sound was loud enough for him to stop
     and turn, frowning. Horses were making their way down the rough road that led towards the Okement river and the ford that
     led to the big house over west. Robert had no cause to be anxious, so far as he knew. He was far from the main manor here,
     but who would dare to attack him on Lord de Courtenay’s lands? No one would be so foolish. Still, there was something about
     the relentless approach that made him turn back and move more quickly towards his door and the promise of safety within.
    There was a sudden silence behind him, and he wondered at that. If the riders were heading for Fishleigh they must pass him,
     surely, and that would mean the noise of hoofbeats would grow … unless they had turned off and were even now haring off
     towards another homestead.
    The thought was curiously unreassuring. If there were riders in force around the manor, he wanted to know about them. On a
     whim, he went to the edge of his garden, peering up the road through the trees. Sounds could play a man false up here. Sometimes
     he had heard voices which sounded as though they were from only a few yards away, and yet