Read The Archer's Gold: Medieval Military fiction: A Novel about Wars, Knights, Pirates, and Crusaders in The Years of the Feudal Middle Ages of William Marshall ... (The Company of English Archers Book 7) for Free Online

Even so, we need to be prepared in case they decide to attack us.  Getting ready will be a good practice even if our fears are for naught.”
           “Peter, get yourself over here.  You too Henry.   I need your counsel.”
           Everything quickly becomes a great confusion with lots of shouting and swearing sergeants as we rush to use the remaining daylight to get ready.  And the first thing we do is move our entire camp to a much more defensible position nearby and lay out our weapons and supplies.  Then we spend the rest of the night awake and waiting. 
           We don’t have to wait the entire night to know we might have a problem – an hour or so before the first early light of dawn two of Raymond’s outriders gallop into camp with news. 
           Oakhampton Castle’s courtyard is alive with activity.  Raymond's message is that the knights and their men are preparing to ride out.  He has no idea of where they are going or why.
           Long before sunup all of our Marine archers are in place and our relocated camp is feverish with the excitement of the unknown that the men have caught from their sergeants.  That’s when we hear horses’ hooves clattering in the darkness and Raymond and his outriders ride into camp.
           “They’re coming, Captain,” Raymond shouts even before he swings off his horse to dismount. 
           "Could be as many as several hundred of them from the lanterns we saw flickering in the castle courtyard and noise they were making.  Maybe more – we couldn’t really see them.  But I’m still not sure they’re coming for us.  They may just be getting an early start for Exeter or, God forbid, Cornwall." 
           "If they're headed elsewhere, they’ll pass us close, but they’ll pass us.”
           “Well, if they’re coming for us, Raymond, they’ve made a great mistake – we’re ready for them.” 
           It’s true and I said it loud enough for the men around me to hear; of course I did. 
           But being ready for a fight is not the same as winning it and winning it is not the same as surviving the victory.  I was lost in thought wondering how many of them we’ll face if they come at us and how they’ll come?  And what should Thomas and I do about George and the boys?
           “Are you and the boys ready to ride for Launceston if it becomes necessary, Thomas?”
     
                                         Chapter Five
           Our new camp is much better because now we are in position in an open space that backs up against a stand of trees.  The trees are close enough together such that mounted men can, for the most part, only come at us from the front. 
           Either there are not many people living hereabouts in Devon or the Courtenay lord is mean and watching closely, otherwise the forest would have been thinned for firewood.
           That we had to move over here from our original camp to improve our position is quite embarrassing for me, as I admit in front of the boys with a bit of self-loathing to Thomas, Peter, and Henry. 
           “This is where we should have camped in the first place both because we’re supposed to be practicing war fighting and because we are in another shire and on someone else’s land that we know very little about.  I was very foolish when I told the men to set up across the way - I assumed we could camp anywhere and be safe because of our numbers.”
           “Oh, it’s not all bad,” Thomas replied.  In the moonlight and flickering light of our one and only candle lantern I could see his big grin aimed at all three of us and the overly generous gesture he made with his hands. 
           “Look at it this way, William - you’ve given me a perfect example to teach the boys about where not to camp and what not to do on a real campaign.” 
           Even I had to