ir Harholm arrived yesterday from the village of Eftling.  Although he is a knight, the Justiciar is not spry enough to attend the Duke his lord in matters of war, so for more than ten years he has been elected to keep the rolls in Cannaghdown, Eftling, and Lower Assendale.  Sir “Harry”, a pleasant man, is well-known to my father, who sold him several strips of pasture years ago.

Every few months, he rides to the Castle on a knobby-kneed donkey to report the crimes and suits of villager against villager, and to record the fines paid to the Duke.  We saw him in the village last summer, when Ewan drowned in the eel-pond.  Ewan’s corpse lay stinking for several days before the Justiciar arrived to examine it.  (The jury agreed that Ewan was murdered by strangers or outlaws unknown, and my father the miller was fined two silver pennies for not maintaining the banks of the pond to the detriment of the Duke.  But everyone knows that Ewan and Cotter Byrne had too much to drink and were poaching the Duke’s fish.)

Elsewhere I believe the custom would be to try Ivar at the itinerant royal court.  Here in Cannaghdown, that privilege is the Duke’s, so the Justiciar will bring the case to the Lord’s Court, which by custom is held before the Boon-Feast when the harvest begins.  In other places, they say, both lord and justiciar may be vain and corrupt men, but here they are honest and wise.

Sir Harholm has spoken with the soldiers and with Ivar.  He must also have examined Fina’s body for wounds and other signs of the rape that Ivar is supposed to have committed.  I cannot believe Ivar’s guilt, so it must be that he saw nothing.  Sir Harholm’s words will weigh heavily even though the jury will be ignorant and spiteful freemen from the village.

The Justiciar agreed that Ivar could be freed if six men, all free, would stand surety for him to appear before the jury.  I will do so, of course, but I do not know who else might for most of his friends now man the coast watch against the elven raiders.  Javier has already agreed, and my father also, for I promised him I would pay the fine should Ivar not appear (though he will, for I will make certain of that).  The Lady Dalla herself had already spoken with Justiciar, so that leaves only two more.

I will speak with the Castellan, and Kalla.  I think Kean no longer speaks with Ivar, or else I would ask him as well.  I must go quickly, for the Justiciar may return to Eftling on the morrow.