The Romance Reviews

Thursday 22 July 2010

Peter Alan Orchard: 'Hoard' - short story

Roman soldier of the 4th. century AD, from Linz in Upper Austria (image from Wikimedia)Ahead of publication of my first book, a whodunit set in ancient Greece, I've been writing a few short stories and sticking them on my blog alongside other bits and pieces. This was the first one to appear - it's set towards the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, and Lindsay kindly suggested that I guest blog here with it during short story/novella week because there's a thread of romance entwined in it.

Hoard

His leggings caked with dust and burrs from the ploughed field, his tunic stinking of pigs from the sty behind the house, Messicus trudged into the kitchen and sat heavily at a solid oak table. A spring breeze hustled fruit trees outside in their pots, cuffing one to the ground, and banged a loose shutter on the kitchen window. A brick-red tile lifted from the roof and slid, scraping, to the gutter.

Relaxed and alone, he poured beer into a mug – his mug, a treasure from his days in the legion before the order came for the fit and able to leave the Britlets to their fog-bound island - and drained half of it in a draught. Retired out of the Twentieth with a theatrical limp now agonised by arthritic joints, Messicus was left behind, widowed, master of his veteran’s allotment, a parcel of land for a family and a small farmhouse with a courtyard, an imitation of Romanness in northwest Britain.

Through the rush of wind across the field came voices like birds: Severa, his daughter, and her young man Gavo, back from who knows where.

‘Father, look!’ Severa piped happily. ‘Look what Gavo found!’

Messicus looked across the kitchen and Gavo looked back, darker-skinned than Severa and heavy in the eyebrows, son of a north African decurion and a local woman. ‘Have you been out in the woods with my daughter, young man?’

‘No, sir.’ Gavo looked shocked at the question. ‘I was foraging for firewood, for my mother.’

And I’m a three-legged goldfish, Messicus thought. ‘Show me,’ he said.

Severa laid their prize clanking on the table: three or four gold coins, a dozen silver ones, a silver bowl with inlaid decoration. ‘There’s more,’ Severa went on, ‘by the edge of the wood, where the stone road goes past on the way to the fort. There’s a rowan tree with a rock tangled in the roots. It’s there.’

Messicus gazed at the tiny hoard, for a moment unable to look away. Then he clasped his hands behind his grizzled head and looked up at the ceiling, counted spiders, measuring cracks, remembering.

‘Is there something wrong?’ Gavo asked. ‘Have we done something we shouldn’t?’

Severa cut him short. ‘Can we have the coins, father? Please? They will help so much towards – ‘

‘I know what towards, Severa,’ Messicus said, still staring at the ceiling. ‘Towards marrying Gavo. Take them, they’re coins. But put the rest back. No, don’t look at me like that. I’ll tell you why. Come with me.’

He picked up his mug and the three of them moved into the next room. Under the dust and muddy boot-marks lay a mosaic floor, the handiwork of a local artisan: key-patterns not quite as crisp as in the better villas, a dog with legs too short, a minor deity with his rapturous expression spoilt by a slight twist in the mouth. On each side stone benches lined the walls, and from beneath one of them Messicus drew a gaming board cross-hatched with lines cut into the wood.

‘A game of robbers? Now?’ Gavo asked. Severa put her finger to her lips, but the boy feigned not to notice. ‘Why?’

‘No, Gavo, not now,’ Messicus said. ‘But I was playing then, before you were born, Severa, against a Sarmatian cavalryman, Julius Valerius. His people came from the wild, cold plains out beyond Gaul, but there had been Sarmatians serving here for generations, all horsemen, and even other Sarmatians reckoned his skill with horses was almost uncanny.

‘We were old companions, in battle and in the hunt, but we met over the gaming board and fought each other like old enemies. Each little glass piece became a living warrior, no holds were barred, no cunning was too low to indulge at the other’s expense.’ Messicus grinned. ‘We had some rare games, and drank a lot. Decent wine, not this stuff.

‘It was in this room, the last game I played with Julius Valerius. We sat on this bench, with the board between us, and went on for hours. It got dark. I had torches lit, and the brazier because it was winter. We were at stalemate, going nowhere. Then he put his wine down on the floor and stood up.

‘”Giving up?” I asked. ”You say you’d rather fall under a horse than lose to me, Sarmatian.” Then I saw his face.

‘”I’m going tomorrow, Messicus,” he said. “With the draft, to Gaul against the Visigoths. Stilicho’s orders. No peace while Alaric’s on the march against Rome. I’ve buried my stuff.”

‘”What stuff?” I said. “Have you got stuff?” I don’t know why. It must have been the wine talking, because everyone’s got stuff they need to keep safe, and better buried here than stolen on the journey south.

‘He sat down again and made one more move, one glass piece one square to the right. I was trapped. My strategy was falling apart, and my most important soldier, squeezed between two of his pieces, was about to be taken – but Julius never saw it. He swept his hand across the board, jumped up and began to pace the room. “Yes, I’ve buried it, all of it, Messicus, and I’m telling no-one! One day I’ll be back and it’ll still be there, still mine.”’

‘You can tell me,” I said. “I can keep it safe. I’m not leaving, not with my wound.” ‘

‘”We’ve fought the same enemies, Messicus, and served the same Rome, but between ourselves all we do is cheat each other. I know it’s just a game, but there it is. I’m telling no-one where my stuff is hidden, not even you. Goodbye.”’

‘He stalked out of the room and I never saw him again. He never came back. As for his “stuff”, Severa is holding some of it. The coins he won from me and men like me, at least the smaller ones. The gold – he must have cheated the camp commander for those.’

Messicus waved his arm at the door and watched Severa lead Gavo through it, out into the sun. He finished his beer, thew the dregs into the yard and busied himself about the farmhouse for the rest of the day.

As evening fell, a brisk red evening with a cutting wind, Messicus took a shovel and a leather bag and went looking for a rowan beside the road into the fort. There he found what was left of Julius Valerius’ treasure, hidden under leaves and damp, grey earth. He put back the silver bowl, laid the gaming board on top and set out the pieces as he remembered them at the moment when the Sarmatian left his house and rode away to fight Alaric’s Visigoths.

He stood up gingerly on stiff legs and started to shovel soil back into the hole. Then he stopped, knelt down again and moved a single glass warrior one square to the left.


http://www.peteralanorchard.net

12 comments:

Lindsay Townsend said...

Welcome, Peter!

Unknown said...

PETER-I wonder--do you invent your characters' names, or are they true names from that historical period you found in an ancient reference book? I enjoyed the story, but became sidelined wondering about the odd names. I know Lindsay and others who write historical romances from many centuries ago also use unfamiliar names. It just occurred to me that if I tried to write like this, I'd need a book of names. The right names for your characters are so imnportant. Thanks for this interesting tale! And welcome to the Pink blog! Celia

Peter Alan Orchard said...

Celia, Thank you for reading 'Hoard', and I'm glad you enjoyed it. As for the names: they're picked from the collection of letters and documents found at the Roman fort and civilian settlement of Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall. So, although the story is fiction and the location is kept vague, the names did belong to real people living in Britain under the Romans.

Savanna Kougar said...

Peter, memories are potent things, so beautifully demonstrated in your story. Thanks.

The names seemed perfect to me.

Peter Alan Orchard said...

Thank you, Savanna! It's a strange thing about memories. After creating characters, I have a hard time leaving them behind and writing another lot - it seems disloyal, somehow. Either that's memory making me feel guilty, or perhaps I'm nuts.

Linda Acaster said...

Hi Peter. I really enjoyed the story. You have a gift for conveying emotion with subtlety. Wish I could write that short with such content.

Vindolanda: now there's a place to conjure with. It's years since I've visited, but should return. I'm writing a contemporary with connections to Roman York, but Hadrian's Wall has so much more easily obtainable info. Corbridge shall remain in my memory forever. Look what you've started...

But to continue with names, I understand that there were family names, and names bestowed to do with heirarchy and honour, but there weren't many personal names to choose from. Can you enlarge on this?

Unknown said...

PETER--thanks for the explanation about the names. Very interesting. You seem to be the kind of writer who researches in detail for your stories. And you hate to leave your characters behind? I do understand that. I write Texas Historical romance--1880--and I love my characters so much I tend to write series novels so I can include the people from the previous book. Maybe all writers are like this. Celia

Rebecca J Vickery said...

Hi Peter,
I definitely enjoyed "The Hoard" and understand why Lindsay wanted you to include it. It is amazing how much research a short like this must require. I also thought you said a lot about a special friendship with few words...something I find terribly difficult.

Peter Alan Orchard said...

Thank you for your kind remarks, everyone. Linda, the classic three-part name thing adopted by Roman families - personal name, clan name, family name and sometimes a fourth name related to an honour, personal characteristic, family connection or whatever (e.g. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus) - tends to break down in the outer reaches of the empire, more so as the years go on, with all the intermarriage and the attempts of the locals to Romanise their names for status. Lower down the social scale things were less formal anyway. As for first names, you're right that the range was narrow, rather as the French used to pick the names of saints.

Bekki Lynn said...

Hi Peter,

I appreciated the loyalty Messicus had toward his friend and took the time to rebury his possessions. The moving of the chess piece was a nice touch as well.

Jane Richardson said...

Hi Peter! Loved this - an excellent example of what I think an exceptionally well-written short story should do, ie, to capture a moment or significant event so precisely, like an insect preserved in amber. I thought this was beautiful work, and I look forward to reading more in the future.

Jane x

Peter Alan Orchard said...

Thank you, Bekki and Jane. The story was first inspired by the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, but set back in Roman Britain. Once it involved two soldiers, the board game became the way to keep them competing, arguing and bonding at the same time.