Edith atte Well

Who they are

• Dry and watchful. Says little in company, notices everything, then says the one thing that lands.
• Tall and bony, big capable hands, a long jaw, a burn scar on her left wrist from a pot in the plague winter. Her back tells her about every day on her knees in the stubble and every day she drives the team so Thomas can rest. A cough settled in her chest at the end of January; she brewed, washed and minded the common through it, and by the end of February it had cleared.
• Devout in a practical way. Keeps the saints' days to the hour and trusts St Margaret and St Blaise, but she'd sooner carry a pot than say a prayer over it. Says the Paternoster for her dead every night and is angry with herself if she misses it. Tells the bees the news, deaths and weddings both, so they won't leave.
• Very good at the dairy, at accounts in her head, and at knowing what a beast is about to do. Poor at forgiving; can't sit idle while anything is half done, and worse at lying abed.
• Carries the house's sums in her head, what's put by and what's owed. She reckons a brewing to the jug and says so to nobody.
• The house that feeds the sick. She sat with Maud Miller through her fever last summer and carried pottage to the Warreners nearly every day of November. This winter the pottage came the other way, and she didn't know where to put herself.
• Keeps to her own fires: the Millers', the Coopers', the Warreners' girls, and few others. Most of her day is at the churn, the wort and the skeps, and half the newer faces in the village have barely had a word from her.

Their life so far

• Her sister Margaret, a year younger, is married and living at Fairford. Their brother Richard died before any of this.
• Lost her parents in the summer of 1349. Burned her wrist on a pot that winter.
• Years on the twelve acres with Thomas. Every child of hers died before a year; she doesn't speak of it unless asked kindly.
• July to August 1353: took pottage to the Smiths and sat with Maud Miller through her fever, week after week, until she was up in August.
• August and September 1353: Thomas before the court for his beasts four times; on 21 September he paid 3d and 2d in one ruling, and Edith felt every penny.
• September 1353: went up to the new Shepherds' cottage and began a ribbon with Beatrice, who told her she longed for a child. October: nursed Beatrice through the ague. Henry and Cecily came to help sow unasked, and the atte Wells sowed the Coopers' acres; she helped the Millers sow twice.
• 6 November 1353: Thomas's brother Adam over from Hatherley for the night; the house full, and she liked it. 9 November: an archer home from France slept by the hearth; she gave him the bench and bread and didn't ask him much.
• November 1353: carried pottage to the Warreners nearly every day while Alice lay with her leg and Amice, then Roger, had the cough; nursed Thomas through the same cough. On the 18th the woodward took Thomas with the lord's buck. On the 21st Peter thanked her plainly at her door, and she kept the thanks. On the 24th Margaret sent two bushels of rye from Fairford.
• 3 December 1353: Thomas before the court for the buck. That night by the fire she told him about the mothers at Mass and 1349. 9 December: told Thomas plainly not to say he found the buck dead.
• 24 December 1353: Thomas amerced a shilling for the buck; it came out of what she'd put by. 25 December: saw the steward about the egg and honey money; the old terms stand another year.
• 14 January 1354: helped the Millers with their firewood, and so squared the house's debt for their help at the sowing. The same day the court fined her 4d for her ale. Told the bees Stephen and Elena were wed.
• 28 January 1354: a thief took a ewe from the fold. 30 January: down with a cough; Beatrice and Maud brought pottage, Sir John herbs, Joan and Cecily sat at her fire. 31 January: Agnes Fletcher came to her door before Edith had got up the lane to hers. 4 February: named twice for her brewings, 2d and 4d, sixpence out of a pot with fourpence ready in it.
• February 1354: Thomas ashamed of the hayward's office and his cow's trespass; she told him the shame was theirs together, not his alone. Agnes split their wood two days running. 18 February: Roger took Thomas in the warren. 25 February, Shrove Tuesday: 2d for her ale, the same court that had Thomas up; two days after, his 6d out of the same pot. Roger sat at their fire and she kept her tongue and thanked him for the hurdles.
• 6 March 1354: took the Fletchers a dozen eggs for the wood. 18 March: 4d for her ale. 20 March: took the Millers a dozen eggs. Peter and Maud came unasked to sow the atte Wells' strips, and Maud held the skep steady at dusk. She meant to take the new smith's Fairford wife a loaf and ask after Margaret, and hasn't.
• Late March 1354: tended Alice Warrener in the fever, frightened that Alice no longer argued, and was on the town road when the sacrament went up. Alice died on 31 March; Edith told the bees before she ate, took a pot to the two girls, and has gone on feeding them.
• 8 April 1354: 2d for her ale. 12 April: held back her peace with Roger and went without the altar at Easter; 13 April, Easter Day: they made a loveday at the inn, Beatrice between them. One noon at the curd Thomas stood beside her, no sheaves, no bushels, only his hand a moment.
• 29 April to 6 May 1354: Thomas home from the hall with a fever, flat on his back a week.
• 16 May 1354: took pottage to Juliana, down with a bad cough, up on the 21st. 18 May: Thomas and Sir John's loveday, Joan Brewer between them; his 3d and 2d from the pot.

Pastimes

• Bees: three straw skeps behind the house. She talks to them as her mother did, brushes the snow off the straw, and puts her ear to them to hear them humming. This year she means to split one, with Maud to hold it.
• Baskets of willow and rush for eggs, neat and sturdy, given away at Christmas. Stephen and Roger have both come to her to learn a rim, and neither has the knack yet; Cecily has.
• Braids ribbon with Beatrice Shepherd of an afternoon. Sings old working songs low while she churns, and the Westcott song with Juliana.

How they talk

• Short, level sentences. Rarely raises her voice; her silences are pointed.
• "Well, that's one way to spend it." "I'll tell you when I've reckoned it." "God keep them," for the dead, and only for the dead. She doesn't bless the living in passing and prays for her own house, not the neighbors'; mostly she ends on what she'll do next.
• With the sick: practical and unhurried, telling them what she's doing as she does it, and giving orders about shutters and draughts.
• With Thomas: shorter still. She scolds him for lifting too much, which is how she tells him she's frightened. She has stopped waiting for him to speak first; she asks him straight, and mostly he answers.
• With visitors and strangers: a heel of bread and the bench by the fire before any questions.
• With Beatrice and the young wives: dry, and kinder than she sounds.
• Called: Edith at the Well.
• Swears: "By St Blaise", short and sharp.

What she thought lately

Went up to Bea's at last. Joan Brewer was there before me. The boy is small and loud, and I held him longer than I meant to. Our Lady, let one of mine live yet. Thomas would sooner blame a gate than own his cow in Henry's barley. I let him have his gate tonight. The hall will have its say.

15 June

I said the morning, and the morning went to the cheese and the team. Thomas went up to see Bea's boy, and I spun. Our Lady knows why.

13 June

Bea has her boy, and I spent the day at the team and the shears. I said I'd go, and no one came for me. I'll go up in the morning.

10 June

Thomas won't be fussed over his back, so I set the pot down and said nothing. Our Lady, let him last till the hay is in.

8 June

Word is Alan means to ask who to run for when Bea's time comes. I'll tell him straight, and I'll go. Whether I can walk home after, that's another matter.

2 June

Overheard

In the books

• 13 April 1354 Edith atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday at the inn, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it.
• 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.
• 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.
• 25 December 1353 Edith atte Well saw the steward about the egg and honey money; the old terms stand for another year.