Emma

the Tuesday after Whitsun, at Prime

Up all night helping deliver a foal, Lord knows. My arms are rubbed raw from hauling water and shivering in the damp. I just want an hour's sleep by the grain bins, but the beasts need their oats.

• 
  Cook Dorothy

  Come to the kitchen door later, I saved you some warm broth.

the third day of Easter week, at Sext

Soldiers on the road again, and Matthew says they want more horses. More work for me scrubbing coats. I spent my last pennies on bitter ale and roots so the shivering sickness does not take me like it took my mother.

• 
  Myshka

  The armies bring nothing but grief. Drink your ale and keep your head down.

Nota scribaeShe rubbed her arms the entire time she spoke.

the Monday after St Gregory, at None

Matthew flatly refused me three poles and a cartload of reed. He sits in his locked, warm manor house and says the King's war took all the timber. He told me to sleep in the hayloft if I was cold. I know what grooms do in the dark. I will stay in my shed.

• 
  Matthew

  The estate has no timber to spare for you. Sleep in the hayloft or freeze, but stop troubling my accounts.

• 
  Emma

  I will freeze first, Lord knows.

St Matthias's day, at Vespers

The wind comes right through the gap where the thatch fell. I hold my mother's wool blanket close, but it is not enough. Lord knows I am frightened of falling sick and being turned out onto the roads with the refugees.

Candlemas, at Terce

The heavy snow in the night broke the main crossbeam of my shed, Lord knows. Half the thatch caved in. I am shivering to the bone. I told the steward we must mend it before the next frost.

• 
  Cook Dorothy

  Christ almighty, Emma. You cannot sleep under the open sky in this weather.

Nota scribaeDictated near the water trough. She was shivering violently.