HistFic Draft 1

My earliest memories are of the Roman invasion.  Many men and some women took up their farming tools, their axes and whatever else the smiths had made, and marched to meet them.

‘They are going to take off all of their clothes, and paint themselves blue,’ Aesu, the blacksmith’s son, told me.

‘I know,’ I said.  My mother had told me how our people fought.

A man came to our house to ask my father to go with them.

‘We can drive out the Romans if we all come together,’ he said.

‘I will not leave my wife and daughters,’ my father said, ‘in case I should not return.’

The farmer looked at me.  I was behind my father, with my arms wrapped around his knees.  When my father mentioned us, the farmer looked down at me.  I peeped out at him and looked back.  I did not understand anything that was being talked about.  Perhaps it was my ignorance and innocence that made the farmer think for a moment.  My mother was a little way behind me, suckling my sister Cata by the light of the fire.

‘Do you want them to be ruled by these Romans?’ the farmer said at last.

‘I hear they are powerful,’ my father said, ‘but perhaps they are not unreasonable.  I intend to protect my family against all eventualities.  That is my final word.’

Our tribesmen left, meeting the Romans a very long way away, so it seemed to me.  Iceni lands stretched for many miles.  Those of us who remained went about our daily business.  My father could not have been the only man who stayed behind, but those I remember were mothers with young children.  There were not enough hands left to work the farms.  Our mothers swapped livestock, males to one farm and females to another, so they would not breed.  Older children helped their mothers to cut the wheat, and we little ones carried it, or brought scraps to the swine.  Father taught me how to milk a cow.  I was so proud when I squeezed a dribble of milk into the large iron pail, I made Mother come and watch me until I managed to do it again.

Most of our people returned.  As I later came to understand, it was the leaders in particular who had been killed.  Some of the soldiers had died as well, our nearest blacksmith among them.  I watched as they told Aesu that his father would not be coming back.  Of course Aesu cried, and as soon as their backs were turned, he ran away.  I decided to follow him.  My mother was busy with Cata, and my father was busy with the returning men.  I pursued Aesu through several wheat fields and pasture fields, ducking under cattle, weaving between ponies and swine.  He stopped when he came close to the fens, and sat down to weep in the marshy ground.

I put my arms around him, and we stayed there until some of our tribesmen found us and brought us home.  I was thrown over the shoulder of a very tall man, who held me too tightly and shouted next to my ear, ‘Your Majesty!  She is found!’

My mother came running from our house, snatched me from the man and wept into my hair.  She held me there until my father appeared, however long that may have been, and he took me into his arms.

‘Ah, Banna,’ he said.  ‘Forgive me.  How could I have taken my eyes off you?’

I wanted to explain about Aesu, and to find out whether he had been returned to his mother.  When I spoke, however, something quite different escaped my lips: ‘Why do they call for the king?’

‘They call for me, my darling,’ Father said.  ‘They have made me their king.’

There came after this a time of unrest, but I do not think that it lasted for very long.  Father told everybody to go back to their work and their lives.  He helped them in the reorganisation of livestock, the disposal of the bad crops and the rationing of the good.  He shared a great deal of our own produce, and only took money for it when people insisted.

‘You will be a penniless king at this rate,’ my mother said to him, when he came home one evening.

Father sat down on his bed, took me onto his lap and stroked my hair.

‘We don’t want their nasty old coins anyway, do we, Banna?’ he said.  ‘We must commission new ones, with our faces on them.  The last king won’t do for either of us - he has a moustache.’

‘Stop talking nonsense,’ said Mother, with her eyes on Cata, to see that she did not crawl too near to the fire in the middle of the room.  ‘What are you going to do when the Romans come?’

‘Everyone asks me that,’ said Father.  ‘I am going to befriend them, my love.  That, rather than fighting them, will be the action of a great king.’

‘Do you think they will be fair to you?’ asked Mother.

‘I think everyone fair,’ Father said, ‘until they show me otherwise.’

---

The Romans came on the day that Cata took her first steps.  Mother and Father were kneeling on the ground outside our house; Cata was tottering between them, gurgling with joy, and I was dragging Aesu away from his mother to come and see.  I was bursting with pride, so much so that my parents laughed at me.

‘Why should I care if your sister can walk?’ said Aesu, but he came with me anyway.

All around us, people were working.  Some were talking as they worked, and my parents were calling to Cata.  Then the noise began to die down, so gradually that I didn’t notice at first, until the only sounds came from the animals.  Then I saw that everyone was staring at something behind Aesu and me.  I turned round.  So did Aesu, and when he saw what was happening, he grabbed my wrist.

‘Who are they?’ he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

‘They must be Romans,’ I said.  ‘Father said that we might expect Romans.’

‘It can’t be,’ said Aesu.  ‘Romans only come in great armies of a thousand or more.’

They were Romans, of course, and there were five of them.  It was plain that they did not mean to attack, but they wore armour all the same.

‘Have they come to kill us?’ said Aesu, his grip tightening on my wrist.

‘Of course not,’ I said, though I had no idea.  Then, in that same moment, my father swept past us and approached the Romans.

‘Banna!’ Mother called.  ‘Come here.’

I turned, and saw that Cata was wriggling in her arms, grumbling at not being allowed to walk anymore.  I ran to them.  Aesu followed me, and his mother ran over to join us.  She fell to her knees, and took Aesu into her arms.

‘What is to become of us?’ she whispered.

‘Do not fear, Billica,’ said Mother.  ‘Not yet.  My husband means to make friends of them.’

‘He can’t!’ said Billica.  ‘No one can make friends of those people.’

‘We’ll see,’ said Mother, turning anxious eyes up to Father as he approached, with three of the five Romans following him.  Two of them stayed a few hundred yards away; one waited outside our house, and two went inside with Father.

‘Come, Aesu,’ said Billica, getting to her feet.  ‘Come all of you, to my house.  I don’t suppose you want to stay here,’ and she shot a reproachful look at the man outside our house.

We followed Billica to her house, and waited for some time.  I stood in the doorway, watching our own house.  Aesu stood behind me, tugging on my sleeve and begging me to come away.

‘Stop it,’ I said.  ‘They can’t hurt me here.’

‘They cannot mean us any harm,’ said Mother.  ‘There are only five of them.’

‘There will be a thousand more,’ said Billica, ‘just out of sight.  Mark my words.’

‘They have their weapons,’ said Aesu.

‘They are too cautious to enter another people’s land without them,’ said Mother.  ‘I am sure they are only to defend themselves, Aesu, if we attack them.’

‘The best outcome your husband can hope for,’ said Billica, ‘is that we will all become slaves, and that some of us women might get away with marrying them.’

‘Let us wait and see,’ said Mother.

I stayed in the doorway, watching our house, glad with every passing moment that the Romans had not yet emerged.  Young as I was, I knew that it would take longer for the Romans to talk to my father than to kill him.

Then, at last, one of the Romans appeared.  Father followed, and then the other Roman.  This one stopped and talked to the man outside the house.  Father turned to the other one, and tried to speak to him, using his face and his arms more than actual words.  The man could not have understood much, and I didn’t let Father get very far.  As soon as I saw him, I ran across the grass and into his arms.

‘Banna!’ I heard my mother call behind me.

‘Banna!’ said Father, as he hoisted me into the air.

‘You’re not dead!’ I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.  ‘Are they our friends?’

‘Yes,’ said Father.  Then, turning me to face his Roman companion, he said slowly and loudly, ‘Daughter!’

The Roman nodded as though he understood, and smiled at me.

‘Wife,’ Father added, pointing at Mother as she came striding towards us, with Cata in her arms.  As she came nearer, he pointed at Cata also.  ‘Daughter.’

The Roman nodded to them, then indicated his beard and said in our language, but not particularly well, ‘Son?’

My father shook his head, and the Roman made a face and gave a gesture as if to say, that’s a shame.  At that, I felt more irritated than I ever had in my life.

---

Everything seemed to work out the best, given the fact that the Romans were there.  We scarcely saw their leader, a man called Paulinus, although he did occasionally come to pore over some writing with Father.  Apart from the irritating Romanisation of his name, I thought nothing of it.  I could not understand writing, and didn’t want to.  Whatever it meant, they seemed to be allowing Father to govern our tribe in his own way, though they did call him ‘Prasutagus’ and Mother ‘Boadicea’.

We saw plenty of Romans, soldiers and civilians.  They came to trade, and to see that we young people were growing up as Latin-speakers.  Some of the older ones were struggling to learn, but my father spent so much time with them, he came to speak it as well as I did.  Billica refused to have anything to do with the Romans, although they seemed to be quite interested in her, and in Aesu.  One young soldier in particular was fond of visiting Aesu while he was working.  He was learning his father’s trade from another blacksmith, and seemed to have captured this soldier’s interest.

‘Let’s ask him about it,’ Cata said one day, when we had seen the soldier going into the house.

‘Let’s wait until the soldier’s gone,’ I said.

‘I meant the soldier,’ said Cata, laughing, and she grabbed my wrist and ran with me to the house.

As we arrived, Billica left, as she always did when the young soldier entered her house.

‘Hello, Billica,’ said Cata.  ‘Would you mind telling me where you’re going?  I’d love to know where I can avoid the Romans, should the need arise.’

‘The wetlands,’ said Billica.  ‘The land is no use to them, so they don’t go there.’

‘Let’s not speak to the soldier, Cata,’ I said.

‘I wouldn’t if I were you,’ said Billica.  ‘Do you know what they speak to us women about?  Marriage.  They can’t imagine how I survive without a husband, as though they have any right to speak of him.  And with Aesu, it’s joining the army.  It’ll be better for us if we become Romans, they say.’

‘Then I certainly will talk to him,’ said Cata, and she pulled me inside the house.

Aesu was hammering something into shape on his anvil, as was only to be expected.  The soldier was not watching him, but looking at a collection of wooden handles.

‘Do you make these as well?’ he asked.

‘No,’ said Aesu.  ‘The bodger does.’  He used our word for ‘bodger’, not knowing the Latin, if there was one.

‘What about weapons?’ asked the soldier.  ‘What if you were attacked?’

‘We are a peaceful people,’ said Aesu.  Then, noticing us, he went on, ‘But let us not speak of weapons in the presence of the princesses.’

‘Princesses?’  The young soldier turned and saw us, and then bowed his head.  ‘Your Highnesses.  I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.  My name is Perseus.’

‘Cata,’ said Cata, ‘and my sister is Banna.  Why do you keep pestering Aesu?’

‘I believe he would be a fine asset to our army.’

‘He’s a fine asset to our tribe,’ said Cata.  ‘Leave him alone.  My sister and I don’t want to inherit a land whose best workers have all turned Roman.’

‘You expect to inherit?’

‘Of course.’

‘You are quiet, Princess Banna,’ said Perseus, turning to me.  ‘Do you think you have it in you to rule?’

‘My father will live many more years yet,’ I said.

‘How I hope so,’ said Perseus, with a smile.  ‘Now, to my regret, I must leave you.  Farewell, Highnesses.  Aesu, until next time.’

‘He’s going to keep bothering you until the join the army,’ said Cata to Aesu.

‘Perhaps I should,’ said Aesu, putting down his hammer and stepping back from his work.

‘I thought you hated the Romans.’

‘Yes.’  He picked up his hammer, and resumed his work with renewed vigour, saying between blows, ‘It’s amazing what nagging can make people do.’

---

‘How can we get that Roman to stop worrying Aesu?’ Cata asked me that evening, when I was barely through the door with the water to drink and to put in our stew.

‘I don’t think we can,’ I said.

‘You don’t want him to join their army, do you?’  She was cutting the meat, kneeling on the ground with it between her thighs, and hacking off rough pieces with a sharp knife.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘perhaps you’d better talk to him about it.’

‘Maybe I will,’ said Cata, smiling to herself.

She was growing fond of Aesu - that was obvious.  I thought of Billica, being pestered to marry into the Roman race, and wondered what Cata would do if that happened to her.  Perhaps it would, if Aesu did join the army, and how would she feel about him then?

I had poured on the water, and was thinking of putting the cauldron onto the firedog, when Mother came into the house with bread and cheese that she had bought.

‘When will Father get home, do you think?’ I asked.  ‘Shall I put the stew on yet?’

‘We had better wait a little while,’ said Mother.  ‘Those Romans seem to keep him more and more.’

‘What do you think of them, Mother?’ asked Cata.  ‘Did you know that they’re pestering our men to join the army, and our women to marry them?’

‘I have heard something about it,’ said Mother.  ‘They want us all to become one people, I suppose.’

‘They want us all to become Roman,’ Cata said.

‘Will they want to marry us, Mother?’ I asked.

‘One day,’ said Mother, smiling at me, ‘all the men will want to marry you.  But you are yet young, my girls.’

When Father came home, I put the stew on while Cata attacked him with her questions.

‘Do you know how much they want to make us like them, Father?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ said Father.  ‘I am great friends with them, Cata.’

‘Some of them seem to think they’re going to inherit the kingdom after… well, after you.’

‘We have been in negotiations about that,’ said Father.  ‘I mean to give them half, Cata, and the other to you and Banna.’

‘Half?’ said Cata, looking up at him with a sudden sharpness in her eyes.  ‘Just half to Banna and me, that will soon be swallowed up by the Romans?’

‘You won’t let them do that,’ said Father.  ‘Now, will they, my dear?’

‘We have raised you to be strong rulers,’ said Mother.

---

As the days went by, I started to wonder whether the young soldier Perseus did not think we were too young to marry - or perhaps that I was not.  He was often in our village, and when he saw me, he would nod to me and smile.  Whenever he could, he spoke to me.  He wanted to know whether I might persuade Aesu to join the army, and why he so often saw me working even though I was a princess.

‘Why do you have no slaves?’ he asked me once.  Cata was there - we were milking in the field together - but he directed the question at me.  ‘Are you not royalty?’

‘We have our own two hands,’ I said.

‘Queens and princesses should not use their hands.  Have you some objection to using a slave?’

‘I am accustomed to life without them.’

‘We must see how we can change that.’

I had a moment in which to reply, but I said nothing.  I sensed that Cata was deliberately giving me the chance to speak.  When I did not, she said, ‘You had better not try to change either of us, sir!’

After this, Perseus generally tried to catch me on my own.  He took the best opportunity to do so one day when Mother had sent me to the fens to collect saltwater.  I did not know that he was following me.  I was kneeling in the mud, lowering my pail into the water, when I heard his voice behind me.

‘This is slave’s work indeed, madam!’

I jumped and dropped my pail into the water.  Perseus jumped forward and retrieved it for me, getting his feet and his sandals covered with mud.

‘Why come all this way for water?’

‘For the salt,’ I said, gasping a little as I tried to catch my breath.

‘I see.  You shouldn’t be here alone.  You might be attacked.’

‘Animals keep away from saltwater,’ I said.

‘I meant by a man,’ said Perseus.

‘Which man?  You?’

‘No.’  He smiled.  ‘Not me.’

‘Another Roman, then?  I thought our people were friends.’

‘So we are, but there are rotten crops in every yield, are there not?  I never would hurt you, your Highness.  I followed you here because I wanted a moment alone with you, to tell you that -’

‘Don’t,’ I said, turning back to the water.

‘You interrupt me?’  He laughed.  ‘I thought you were the quiet one.’

‘You barely know me.’

‘I should like to know you better,’ said Perseus.  ‘It would be well for you, Banna, if you were to… befriend a man.  The same thing goes for Cata.  If it’s Aesu she wants, it would be the most sensible thing for him to join us.’

‘Romans killed his father,’ I said.  ‘Did you know that?’

‘I did not… and I am sorry for it.’

I took a moment to compose myself, then stood with my pail of water and turned to face him.  The gentleness of his words made me warm to him, and he saw their sincerity reflected in his face.

‘You would have done well to bring a pail,’ I said.  ‘We could have carried home twice as much water.’