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train Hugh to ride properly so that his own servant could behave in the same faultless manner. He threw a glance over his shoulder to where Hugh was sulkily jolting along behind, and with a sardonic grimace gave up on the thought.
    Sir Baldwin rode into the lead shortly after they began the climb up the steep hill from Bickleigh and seemed surprised at the slow pace of Hugh.
    “Hugh has only been riding for a short time,” said Simon with an ironic grin, in answer to the enquiring gaze. “He’s always nervous that the horse will canter off and leave him behind. I don’t like to worry him too much by going too fast for him.”
    The knight peered ahead contemplatively while his servant stared back at Hugh with a sneer of disgust on his face. “I can remember this lane,” Baldwin said, “I can remember riding here when I was very young. It seems so long ago, in a way…” His voice trailed off.
    Simon looked at him. He seemed to be reflecting, his forehead puckered in thought as he studied the road ahead, “ until they came over the crest of a hill and could see the view. Pausing, they waited for Hugh. From here, up on top of the rise, they could see far over to the south and west, all over the moors and forests of Devon, even as far as Dartmoor.
    In the mid-morning haze it seemed, at first, as if they were alone in the world as they sat in their saddles at the top of the hill and waited for Hugh to catch up with them. Then the signs of life became evident. Some four miles away they could see smoke from a chimney rising between trees. Just beyond was a hamlet, nestling on the side of a hill above a series of fields that sprawled down into a valley. Farther on, the scene coloured blue with the distance, were more houses and fields with, here and there, the inevitable columns of smoke to show where fires were alight for cooking. Simon smiled as he looked over the area with a feeling of proprietorial pride at the sight of this, his county. When he looked over at the knight beside him, he was surprised to see him leaning forward and resting on his horse’s neck, a small smile on his face as he contemplated the view. “It’s good country, isn’t it?” said Simon softly.
    “The finest,” Baldwin murmured, still staring at the view. Then, shaking himself out of his reverie, he swiftly turned and flashed a smile at the bailiff. “I cannot wait for your man any longer. This road needs a quick horse to let the memories flow. My friend, I will look forward to seeing you at the manor. As a friend and companion of the road I will be pleased to offer you some refreshment before you continue on your way home.”
    Before the words had sunk in, he had dug his heels into his horse’s flanks and was away and rushing down the hill, his cloak streaming out behind him and billowing in the wind, his servant still maintaining his position slightly behind and to the knight’s right. Eyebrows raised, Simon watched them race down the hill until Hugh arrived at his side.
    “He’s in a hurry to get to the manor,” he said sombrely. His master nodded.
    “Yes. It’s been many years since he last looked forward to anything so much, I think. He looks as though he feels young again.” Slowly they started off down the hill towards the manor, some two miles away.
    “Strange man, though,” said Hugh pensively after a few minutes of jolting along.
    “In what way?”
    “He looks all lost sometimes, like a lamb that’s lost his ewe, then it’s like he’s remembered who he is again and his smile comes back.”
    Simon thought about his comment for the rest of the way. It certainly agreed with his own observations from the previous night. It was almost as if the knight was coming back to forget something in his past, as if in returning to his old home he would be able to forget the years spent away. But when Simon had asked him what he had been doing since he left so many years before, he had simply said, “Fighting,” with a terse