"What?" barked Bridget.
"Er…, paint, my lady."
"Well, what are you supposed to do with it then?" Bridget was in an awkward mood.
"Well, you, er, paint things with it."
"Why?"
"Well, er um, to make them pretty, I guess. They do some lovely colours, er, there's red, blue, yellow, green, black, white, and magnolia."
"What's magnolia then?"
"Not sure, but I'm told it looks lovely on the walls of your living room."
"Does it cover up rust?" interrupted Hugh. "Only my shield is looking a bit messy."
"I expect so. Look, I've got some samples in the back of the cart, strictly for demo's you understand. Now for cash, I could, er, see my way to, er um, accidentally leaving a couple of gross. If you want different colours, you can mix them together."
Hugh gave Jean-Paul some cash and was given quite a lot of paint in small pots, Jean-Paul even threw in a set of paint brushes to get him started. Later that day Hugh took one of his old shields and painted it blue.
"You know Hugh," said Bridget, "if you painted something on top of the blue, I bet that would look smashing hung on the dining room wall."
"Oh, very well dear, what would you like me to paint on top of the
blue?"
"Well, I don't know really. What about, er, er, that bowl of fruit?"
"Hmm, okay, it won't be easy, but I'll do my best."
As it turned out, our Hugh was quite a good artist, Bridget was right it did look smashing, they hung it in a prominent position in the living room where the magnolia walls set it off a treat.
That weekend Hugh was entertaining some guests, including the duke, who was celebrating his birthday.
That was Hugh's other great passion, throwing parties. He was quite famous for his entertainment, in particular his aerial displays; yes, aerial displays. No there were no aeroplanes and gunpowder didn't exist in Europe at that time, so no fireworks.
Hugh's aerial displays consisted of objects propelled through the air by catapult, or by giant crossbows.
For example, he had a catapult capable of launching a hundred small round lumps of clay. To each lump of clay he would fix streamers of coloured silk. The catapult would be hidden behind a wall and fired over the heads of the guests who would gasp "oooohhhh, ahhhhhh," as the projectiles flew overhead.
William the Duke of Normandy arrived for the party and immediately noticed the painted shield on the living room wall.
"My word Hugh," remarked William, "that's a fine looking shield you have there, where did you buy it? I must have one."
"Ah, well, actually Sire, it's something I got you for your birthday." Hugh responded as he realised he hadn't bought the Duke a
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