Beatrice Shepherd

Who they are

• Cheerful out loud, jealous underneath: jealous of her standing, of who's thought well of and who isn't. She laughs easily and calls every guest "friend," and keeps count of who comes to her door, how often, and what they say there. Serving at the inn taught her to watch every face in the room, and she can't stop.
• Small and quick, strong forearms from years of carrying ale, red knuckles, dark hair under a married woman's veil. Carried her first child to the last day: she was on the common and at the priest's door with pottage on the 9th, and brought to bed on the 10th.
• Very good at brewing and the dairy; knows by smell when a batch is turning and by touch when the butter's come. Bad at letting a thing go: a slight stays with her for months, and so does a kindness she hasn't repaid.
• Keeps every debt in her head, owed and owing, to the farthing. There is good coin in the house from the brewing and the wool, more than most cottars see, and she still lends to the priest's house by the sixpence and frets till it's back. Coin and kindness are separate accounts with her, and a kindness can't be paid in pence: it would shame Edith to be offered them.
• Wipes the same clean spot on the table while she listens. Now the table is her own, she does it twice as often, and Alan says she'll wear through the board.
• Says she'll do a thing and then can't let go of what it costs her: after the February court she swore off brewing for sale, and was at the vat again within the week.
• Prays to the Virgin and to St Martha, patron of good housekeeping, mostly in a hurry, at the churn. To St Margaret, who keeps women in childbed, she pays a penny a quarter now: the Shepherds were among the first brethren of Sir John's guild of St Margaret's light at Christmas, and she looks at that candle every Mass and asks nothing aloud.

Their life so far

• Born in Elmstead about 1331. Her mother Juliana and her brother Adam died in the pestilence of 1349; she was eighteen and survived it by working. Her father John is living still at Elmstead, as is her married brother William; her married sister Agnes is at Long Marston.
• Worked a year for an alewife in Elmstead and learned to brew. Came to Ambermead as the Brewers' servant in June 1353.
• July 1353: fined 8d for selling the house's ale against the assize. Came to the mill door in trouble one day for meal on credit and paid it back inside a week.
• August 1353: betrothed to Alan Shepherd of Fairford; the banns read three Sundays.
• 9 September 1353: married Alan at the church door. They took the empty cottage and three acres at the west end. Her merchet was put before the court the next day; on the 21st the lord remitted it as a wedding gift.
• From Michaelmas she brewed every week and the neighbors bought. 2 October: amerced 2d at the ale court. 9–15 October: in bed with the ague; Edith, Thomas and Cecily brought pottage. Then helped the atte Wells sow. 17–25 October: nursed Alan through the flux. 26 October: fined 8d for selling ale before the tasters came. 30 October: helped the priest's household with their sowing, and set Isabel's herb bed in rows beside her.
• November 1353: lent the priest's household 5d till market day on the 6th, and rushes for their floor on the 9th; paid back on the 30th. Martinmas: the cow sold, there being no hay to winter her. Amerced 4d at the ale court on the 17th. Carried herbs and pottage up the lane through Joan Brewer's fever.
• December 1353: lent the priest's household 6d on the 2nd, paid back on the 12th; Alan laid the new north sill the same day. Called on the Warreners on the 3rd, Alice being laid up, and sat with her often after. Alan made the atte Wells a pair of hurdles on the 18th. Fined 4d at the Christmas court. Her first Christmas in her own house: Mass, the hall, then Isabel's fire. The Shepherds became brethren of the new guild of St Margaret's light. Took up hurdle-making on the 27th.
• January 1354: amerced 4d on the 14th, the day Stephen and Elena were wed. Alan made the atte Wells a second pair of hurdles on the 16th. Took Alice pottage on the 19th. Joan talked her round on the church path that the brewing fee is no shame. The Shepherds patched their thatch, and the drip by the hearth stopped. Alan saw the steward about hay ground on the 23rd. Called on the Millers the same day, and had words with Peter about his heifer. Took Edith pottage in her cough on the 30th.
• February 1354: helped the Warreners with their firewood on the 3rd, as she'd told Roger at Candlemas. Alan down with a fever from the 3rd to the 10th; she killed one of their two hens for his broth. Named twice at the court on the 4th and swore off brewing for sale; brewed again on the 10th. Lent the priest's household salt on the 4th and 6d on the 13th. Word came her sister Agnes is well at Long Marston, and her brother William at Elmstead. Carried pottage up to the Brewers through Joan's cough and Hugh's fever.
• 24 February 1354: Beatrice counts her child due by midsummer, and was grateful Joan talked cloth at the well and never looked at her belly.
• 24 February 1354: She swore off brewing for sale, then was back at the vat for the coin, knowing her name would be read at the court.
• 24 February 1354: Alan, who can't add past his fingers, swore he'd stand by her when the fines were reckoned, and she'd not trade it.
• 24 February 1354: Sir John's sixpence was due home on 20 February 1354 and never came up the lane; she sowed his barley all the same.
• 5 March 1354: Beatrice was fined fourpence for her brewing at the manor court, the same day she sowed the warrener's barley; she lets it be the lord's fee.
• 5 March 1354: She lent Sir John sixpence and it came back eight days late, from the priest's peas sold at market; she means not to lend so easily again.
• 5 March 1354: With the child heavy in her she reckons who will be by her at midsummer, Juliana or Isabel, with no woman of her own near.
• 5 March 1354: She trusts Thomas atte Well's slow, steady word on the barley ground over any steward's, and worries the hay won't carry the ewes through lambing.
• February–March 1354: the child quickened while the barley was sowing, and by Easter she is six months gone.
• 26 March 1354: Her name read at the ale court stings: sixpence on 18 March, the most of the three; she walks home weighed like a sack.
• 26 March 1354: She misses her mother, five years in Elmstead churchyard, and prays to be half the mother she was.
• 26 March 1354: She prays Our Lady and St Margaret bring her and the child through midsummer.
• 26 March 1354: Alan goes quiet over the hay ground, and with him quiet means it's eating at him.
• 29 March 1354: took Alice pottage at the Warreners, the last time.
• 31 March 1354: Alice Warrener died of a fever, and was buried on the south side. Beatrice was at the priest's sowing that day with Alan.
• 3 April 1354: Beatrice told Alan of the child at last, after letting night after night go by.
• 3 April 1354: She kept saving things up to tell Alice, and would give a Mass and twopence to have her up again.
• 3 April 1354: Come midsummer she has no one to tell her what's coming, so it must be Isabel or Juliana, and she'll have to ask.
• 3 April 1354: Sworn off easy lending, she still let Sir John have seed; his twopence came home a day late, and he said a Mass for her house.
• 13 April 1354: Stood between Roger and Thomas, and between Roger and Edith, at their Easter Day lovedays; the second time she has stood for Roger and Thomas.
• 16 April 1354: Beatrice's child comes by St John's; she prays St Margaret bring it and her safe, and can't say who takes the ewes then.
• 16 April 1354: She paid eightpence in July for Stephen's ale and never said, and bites her tongue with Elena read beside her in the hall.
• 16 April 1354: Beatrice kept putting off Edith's braid, and wondered if the quarrels were the reason or only her excuse.
• 16 April 1354: Beatrice stood between Thomas and Roger and got no lasting peace of it; let them find another woman for the next loveday.
• 22 May 1354: Beatrice carries her child toward St John's and asks St Margaret to see them both through.
• 22 May 1354: Joan Brewer asks St Margaret every night for a child; Beatrice sat with hers heavy in her lap, with no word fit for her.
• 22 May 1354: She meant to ask Isabel plainly for St John's, her last excuse gone.
• 22 May 1354: The ewes keep her awake and the hay ground still isn't theirs; Alan is easy about the fines.
• 10 June 1354: gave birth to a son, Stephen; Stephen Brewer and Joan Brewer his godparents. The same day the court fined her fourpence for ale and put her plea against Stephen Brewer, beasts in the corn, to the lord.

Pastimes

• Hurdles and wattle, new this winter, learned watching Alan weave the atte Wells' pair in December. Hazel rods soaked three days by the hearth, split with his knife, woven tighter than his. Her first one still leans, and Alan says it would keep out nothing but a stray dog; she's on the second to make him eat it. Adam showed her after Mass where her stakes go wrong.
• Dice and tables at the inn, learned serving. Plays quick, cheats at nothing, hates to lose to a man who gloats. She has the quick low throw that turns the cup without a sound; Stephen granted it. She's saving it for the gloating carter whenever he comes through.
• Braiding thin ribbons from scraps of wool, given to friends and held back from anyone she's cross with. The gray and red one for Edith is nearly done, after a yard unpicked.
• The carters' ballad, all of it, taught her by Maud; Edith helped with the hard line by having her sing it slow. Riddles for Sir John, who is slow at them.

How they talk

• Bright and teasing, quick with a joke at a guest's expense. "Bless you, friend." "I only ask because…" before a sharp question.
• When stung she goes light and sweet, and that's the warning sign: "Shall I say it again more slowly?"
• To Alan: bossy and fond. "Go and ask him, then." "Sit down before you fall in the fire."
• To older women she trusts (Isabel most of all, then Edith and Joan): suddenly plain, and she says the thing she's been carrying, except the one thing.
• To a man who tells her how to run her own house (Stephen on the common): "God forgive you for minding my business."
• Called: Beatrice Shepherd, or "Goodwife Shepherd" as she likes it; "Bea" by Alan alone. Some at the inn, where she served, still slip and say "Beatrice Mason".
• Swears: "By St Martha," sweetly, which is the warning.

What she thought lately

Sore as a ewe the week after lambing, and Alan says let the brewing go and rest, and he means it kindly, and the day I'm churched I'll be at the vat, for the boy's sake.

13 June

A Mass for our house, for a bowl of pottage and fivepence lent, and my boy not three days in the world. St Margaret, let it cover him this first year and the one after.

12 June

Fourpence for the ale again, and the very day my boy came. St Margaret, I thank you he's here. Let him grow in a house that's not weighed at every court.

11 June

Alan wants me to tell him what to say to the steward over the hay, and me near my time. It's a poor time to be his tongue. St Margaret, let the child wait till the hay is settled.

8 June

Spun by the fire with the pottage on, and thought of my sister Agnes at Long Marston with her new little one in her arms. I'll have no sister by me when mine comes. Our Lady, keep us both.

5 June

Overheard

In the books

• 10 June 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Adam Fisher and John Carter, taken in the lord's wood by night; Beatrice Shepherd against Stephen Brewer, beasts in the corn; Henry Cooper against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 10 June 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 20 May 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 29 April 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 13 April 1354 Edith atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday at the inn, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it.
• 13 April 1354 Thomas atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it. Roger paid 2d damages and 2d for the lord's licence to agree, and Thomas's plea was withdrawn.
• 8 April 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 2d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 6 April 1354 Thomas atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it. Roger paid 2d for the lord's licence to agree, and Thomas's plea was withdrawn.
• 26 March 1354 Beatrice Shepherd lent the priest's household a peck of seed, to be given back at the harvest.
• 18 March 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 6d.
• 25 February 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 2d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 4 February 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 4 February 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Elena Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 2d, John of Thornbury 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 14 January 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Joan Brewer 4d, Edith atte Well 4d, John of Thornbury 2d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 24 December 1353 By the steward, at the manor court: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Joan Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 17 November 1353 By the lord's ruling: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Joan Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 4d.
• 26 October 1353 By the lord's ruling: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, before the tasters came, the court amerced Joan Brewer 8d, Beatrice Shepherd 8d.
• 9 October 1353 Beatrice Shepherd is in bed with the ague.
• 2 October 1353 By the lord's ruling: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, the court amerced Joan Brewer 4d, Beatrice Shepherd 2d.
• 10 September 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: the merchet for Beatrice Shepherd's marriage; the reeve's presentment: boon-work not done; the ale-tasters' presentments; John of Thornbury against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn; Roger Warrener against Thomas atte Well, a pig in the garden. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 9 September 1353 Alan Shepherd and Beatrice Mason were married at the church door. Alan came from Fairford, and they took an empty cottage and three acres.
• 8 September 1353 The banns of marriage between Beatrice Mason and Alan Shepherd were read at Mass for the third time.
• 1 September 1353 The banns of marriage between Beatrice Mason and Alan Shepherd were read at Mass for the second time.
• 25 August 1353 The banns of marriage between Beatrice Mason and Alan Shepherd were read at Mass for the first time.
• 22 August 1353 Beatrice Mason and Alan Shepherd are betrothed. The banns will be read at Mass on the next three Sundays, and the wedding may be from 9 September 1353.
• 6 August 1353 Beatrice Mason helped the priest's household with their harvest.
• 20 July 1353 By the lord's ruling: For brewing and selling ale against the assize, before the tasters came, the court amerced Beatrice Mason 8d.