“Oh, show him up!” Matilda cried.
Egelric here to see her! This was a fine surprise. She’d been drooping with boredom over her embroidery, but now she could have a nice chat with a clever man. It was tedious to be a woman, sometimes!
“Hallo, young Ege-wick!” Egelric said as he swept up his godson.
“Hallo, old Ege-wick!” the toddler laughed.
Matilda moaned as the blanket was pulled down and the light hit her face. The light hurt.
“Wake up! Wake up, my beauty!” Alred cackled.
“Well, Aelfie, how was them babies?” Alwy asked as he and Gunnilda came into the kitchen.
“Just sweet as sweet, though I couldn’t get Bedwig to keep his pajamas on him. He’s covered up real warm though.”
Matilda drained her cup, and then folded her arms and smiled radiantly. It was a fine son she and Alred had made, and he was growing into a fine man. She knew she would cry for her little baby this night, but for now she was only happy and proud of her small boy and and his small sword.
Alred scowled when he reached the place he had been seeking in the Book of Isaiah. “Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities,” he read.
This seemed clear enough.
“Now, say that to me one more time—if you dare!” Wulsy growled.
It was pitch dark, it was cold, and it was the new moon, but those things were of little importance in the face of such grave matters as these. Besides, no one had been killed since the summer, and they weren’t far from the stables, where the other men were still playing their game of dice. Some things were best discussed outside—just the two of them.
“We are honored that you should pay us a visit unbidden, Squire,” Maud said with a soft smile.
Egelric had been shown up to the nursery, where Maud sat with her two youngest children.
“Egelric, this is brilliant,” Sigefrith said, looking up from the sketches spread out on his writing table. “I wish you wouldn’t feel obliged to ride all the way back here and ask me every time you have a brilliant idea.”
“I shouldn’t like to presume.”
Sigefrith went to his wife early in the morning, hoping to find her still in her bedroom—and before he had even the hint of wine on his breath. There would be not only her, but his baby daughter to offend. He knew well that Maud despised him, but he would not have Emma cringe away from him.
She stood before the north window, looking out onto her garden.
Sebastien appeared to be a feline of the sort who repaid such indignities by sneaking back later and pissing in a man’s bed.
Chapters
Latest Comment