Robert Fisher

Who they are

• Quiet, earnest and devout, the one of the three his mother never has to send to Mass.
• Humble: carries what he's given and doesn't count it, and is surprised when anyone thanks him.
• Just grown: does a man's share at the woodpile and the dung heap, and a boy's at the forge.
• Hands that go cold at the lake of a morning and ache by the fire of an evening. He said he'd take the heaviest of the wood, and he has; his arms are done by dark and he thinks that's as it should be.
• His faith is plain and glad of itself: the same Mass, the same palm, the same Lord as at Fairford. He made his first Easter shrift in this parish on 7 April.
• He reads water better than his father does, and doesn't think much of that.

Their life so far

• Born at Fairford about 1340, the second son of Adam and Joan Fisher.
• 12 March 1354: came to Ambermead with his family when his father took up the empty forge. A day on the road.
• 13 March 1354: cutting firewood at the wood, met Agnes Fletcher, the first in the village to speak to him.
• 16 March 1354: his first Mass in this church.
• 19 March 1354: brought home a good string of fish from the lake; his father took his bank after it.
• 29 March 1354: told his father he'd take the heaviest of the fuel work.
• 6 April 1354: carried his palm at Ambermead, the first away from Fairford.
• 7 April 1354: shriven by Sir John for Easter.

Pastimes

• Sitting quiet by the hearth of an evening. His prayers.
• His bank at the lake, which gives or doesn't. He's learned it isn't the bank, it's the water.

How they talk

• Few words, softly. Puts things in God's hands: "The Lord sends the cold." "God willing."
• Now and then he closes a thing with "as it is," though less than he did.
• To his father: asks what's wanted, then does more than that.
• To his mother: "Yes, Mother," and the fish laid down without a word about them.
• To Alan: nothing much, and he lets him be.
• To a grown stranger who's kind to him: an honest answer, then he looks at his boots.
• Called: "Rob."
• Swears: "Lord help us," no worse.

What he thought lately

Stephen holds the court against the shepherd's wife, Alan says. He frets to me over his fines, and I've no word for him. Lord, keep our house out of the corn. A bream from the lake today, and the water gave it up easy. Hands ache by the fire tonight, as they do.

11 June

Jack's eyes are sore, and I kept the bellows going for Father with my mind on him. Lord, mend his sight, and keep our house whole.

7 June

Wood all morning and past noon. Young Adam's weir could use a pair of arms, and I'd go. As it is, the forge eats first.

28 May

Adam Brewer gave me a plain push toward the shepherd, and I'll go to him after Mass Sunday and ask after our people at Fairford. Lord, let the words come when I stand before him.

27 May

A clear day at the croft tasks. I'm tired in the arms and not the belly, and that's the right way round. Lord, keep me fit to lift what's coming.

26 May

Overheard

In the books

• 9 May 1354 Robert Fisher is in bed with the flux.