Twenty-Five
Hawksburg
Summer 958 MC
They struggled to put the heavy wooden beam into place. The job was made harder by the waist-deep water and the sticky mud which sat at the bottom of the stream. When an ox had put its hoof through one of the rotting old bridge's planks, they knew it was time to replace it. Lord Robert was in Wincaster again, looking after the Royal Estates, so it had fallen to Lady Mary to organize the work, but it was Aubrey who dug up a book with the plans for rebuilding the bridge. At fourteen, Aubrey was an insatiable reader, a trait which she inherited from her mother. She now watched from the bank while Beverly and some townsfolk all pitched in. Pulling down the old bridge had been easy for it was quite literally falling apart. They had sunk the new pillars as
