Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd [381]
It was a good time for those with initiative: and no men had more than Walter Wilson and his son. Walter got the better of every deal he made; and he continued to drive his little labour force unmercifully.
Only one person ever defeated him.
Agnes Mason and her little family had remained at Avonsford; but certain things had changed.
For although the family still held together, their life could never be the same after the experience on the high ground.
John had taken over his brother’s work at the cathedral, and though Nicholas’s death was seldom mentioned, Agnes was aware that her stepson treated her with a reserve, a distance, that was new. She was not surprised, nor was she dismayed when, six months later, he married and moved to another house in the village.
He still came, each day, to make sure that the family was not in need, but Agnes found that even without his help now, she was able to manage. Godefroi had not raised the rent on their cottage, and while she and the knight came to a new agreement that she would give the Avonsford estate three days work each week, he paid her well for these days and she had her older children to help her besides. Indeed, she soon found that she was better off than ever, since labour was scarce and she was able to sell the rest of her days either to Godefroi or to local farmers for handsome wages. Each week the square-jawed widow would visit the local landholders with her children, selling their free days to the highest bidder and though they could never achieve the rates that Elias Wilson got, they did well all the same, for they were known to be steady and reliable.
It was not surprising therefore that when Walter Wilson concluded his deal with Godefroi, that shrewd opportunist insisted as part of it that the Mason’s three days paid labour should be given to him. To her annoyance, Godefroi had weakly given way.
“You work under my orders now,” he curtly informed Agnes at once, and to Edward he remarked: “We’ll work those cursed people till they drop.”
For although Agnes was scarcely aware of the fact, Walter had not forgotten that it was old Osmund the mason who had spoken against his father to King Edward on the day of John Wilson’s accusation at Clarendon, and when Edward had looked surprised at his father’s vehemence he was reminded sharply: “We’ve a score to settle with those Masons too.”
But he had reckoned without Agnes.
Their relationship had been calm for a month; Agnes had worked her usual three days and, although he had grumbled, Walter had paid her the same wages she had received before. But then he started to apply pressure. First he demanded an extra hour a day; she quietly refused. Then he demanded that not only she, but two of her children as well, should work all three days; this she simply ignored. When he tried in his usual way to terrorise her, she did not even complain, but her jaw set in the firm line her family knew so well and all his threats were useless.
Edward watched his father’s mounting fury, but decided to stay out of the quarrel himself.
“There’s no profit in that family,” Walter would storm. “I’ll get rid of them.” But for the time being, as Agnes knew very well, there were no cheaper workers to be found, and so he had to put up with the infuriating situation.
It was not until a year later, in 1351, that he thought he saw his chance to get the better of her.
His weapon was given to him by Parliament.
For the free market in labour that had allowed Walter Wilson to make some of his most rapid gains had also, very naturally, produced a sharp reaction. It was not that the problem was new: wages in