Origins

Hugh did not know what had happened on the night of his wedding and why Isabelle, his bride, had gone to the barn. Maybe the quiet woman who he’d thought he’d brought out of her shell was not quite the innocent girl she’d appeared to be, and maybe she had a secret history.

Perhaps, he thought, she’d visited the barn to meet up with a lover. Maybe he’d been consumed by jealousy, and in a fit of passion had killed her. Perhaps he’d taken the necklace to cover his tracks and make it look like a robbery.

Hugh had no other way to explain why she’d left their bed early that morning.

Despite his enquiries, he failed to identify who, out of his friends, family, and their guests, had given them the emerald necklace. It was a mystery.

After the devastating loss of Constance, and now of Isabelle, and despite being heir to the de Vitot estates, Hugh felt there was nothing left to keep him in Normandy.

A plan that he had been formulating but had put on hold because he had been waiting to be knighted and married, crystallised.

For the last time, he visited John, held him, and explained what he was going to do. When the baby boy smiled at him, he took that as a good omen. He arranged with Guy that he would act as his agent and put him in charge of his affairs, including helping with managing his estates as required, and ensuring the continuation of John’s care. His instructions were that his son should receive the best possible education. He gave Guy money and told him to access whatever he needed from the estate to look after his son.

Monsieur de Vitot wasn’t happy that when he died, his lands were to be used to provide for his son-in-law’s bastard, but as Hugh pointed out to him. “There’s bugger all you can do about it!”

On the morning of the 1st of September, Sir Hugh Malet, recently dubbed knight, together with his squire, page and entourage, bid goodbye to his family and left the Keep and town where he’d grown up. He headed off to join William, Duke of Normandy, at the mouth of the river Dives. He had volunteered to join William as part of his expedition to stake his rightful claim to the throne of England.

On September 27th, 1066, just before sunset, he set sail with William and left Normandy and France forever.

They made landfall in England at Pevensey and marched towards Hastings. On 14 October 1066, they fought a bloody battle against an Anglo-Saxon army under King Harold Godwinson.

Hugh threw himself into the middle of the action. He’d lost everything that he’d ever loved, and the only person he now cared about, his son, had a secure future. He felt as if he had nothing left to live for, and that he would welcome death and his chance to meet his beloved Constance again in paradise. This lack of fear drove him to be ruthless and engage in some foolhardy attacks.

The battle ended in defeat for the English, but it also marked Hugh Malet out as an invaluable and courageous knight in William’s army.

When they moved onto Ely and defeated the last of the English resistance, Hugh again fought valiantly. Because of his contributions, William the Conqueror rewarded Hugh with land and the title Lord of Middlemass, in the county of Lincolnshire. It was then that the Middlemass family name entered the ranks of the English peerage.

Sixteen years would pass until father and son were reunited, and the cursed emerald necklace, which came to be known as the Middlemass Amulet, returned to Hugh. But how that happened is another story…

The End