Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd [150]
Maeve never fully understood her husband’s disappointment. Surely in choosing her, he had chosen Sarum? She loved him passionately, wildly; and in her imagination, he was a new and exciting part of the world that was her home. When he spoke of Rome, it seemed to her that he was trying to get away from her, so she tried to bind him to her all the more closely, tempting him with her body to force him to put such unwelcome thoughts out of his mind. As the months went by, if he still spoke of Rome too often, she would close her mind, refuse to think about the subject at all, and tell herself that it was a temporary obsession that would pass.
“You belong to Sarum now. Make it your home,” she said as they made love together.
Sometimes however, as he lay spent afterwards, she would take a candle and hold it near his face as he dozed, anxiously looking at him to make sure that the ugly thoughts had not returned.
Eighteen months after their marriage, Maeve announced that she was pregnant. For the time being, Rome was forgotten. And Tosutigus said to his son-in-law: “Now there’s a child, it’s time we made some improvements and built a house. I have the money. Build a house we can be proud of – a Roman house.”
“I agree,” said Porteus, “a villa.”
The site he chose was half a mile up the valley to the north of the chief’s farmstead and occupied by a deserted farmhouse, then only used as a place for storage. It was well situated however, on a flat shelf of ground half way up the eastern slope and overlooking the river; the views to the south west were open and to the north it was protected by a screen of trees further up the slope. Below, the ground fell away to the rich, marshy flats along the river.
Behind the site, the ground rose in a gentle, handsome sweep to the ridges above. The slope was partly open, partly wooded; some small fields had been laid out there; on the top of the ridges, sheep usually grazed.
There were two other features that recommended the place. One was shown him by Maeve.
It was a small hill, a short distance along the ridge, little more than a hump on the edge of the high ground, and he would never have paid it any attention if Maeve had not led him solemnly to inspect it. It seemed to be quite overgrown with trees, but in the centre they found a little clearing, and as he inspected the ground carefully, he saw that it formed a concave dish, about thirty-five paces across; he had seen similar shapes on the high ground.
“It’s an old tomb,” he remarked.
She nodded. Though neither of them knew it, this round barrow had already been there many centuries.
“This is a sacred place,” she whispered. “The Druid priests used to come here and worship the forest gods.”
He grimaced at the mention of the Druids, but she went on eagerly: “It is good such a place should be near to our home. I shall make a shrine here and it will bring us luck.”
He looked around. It was true that the little circular clearing had a certain quietness about it that was pleasing.
“Do as you wish,” he told her.
The second feature lay in the valley: for under the river Afon at the point just below the site there was a broad bank which made the stream so shallow that it could be forded. It was the best crossing for a mile in either direction, useful for men and cattle alike.
“Does it have a name?” he asked Tosutigus.
“Not really,” the chief replied. “We just call it the ford.”
And so, above the Afon’s ford, Porteus began to build.
With the help of Numex, Balba and a small team of men, he converted the single rectangular shell of the old farm into a new home for his family. To the main room he added wings of two rooms each, to form a narrow house with a south west aspect. Then along the back of the house he added a broad corridor, in the centre of which he built out a little paved courtyard with small chambers leading off it. The walls of the house were made of clay and stone, the upper part being faced with wattle. Inside, the walls were plastered and painted white. The roof was tiled, the tiles being brought at some expense