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Gunnilda goes to fetch Alred

Gunnilda went running up the hill to the chapel.

Gunnilda went running up the hill to the chapel, sorry she hadn’t taken a cloak to wear over her head against the rain.

It certainly wasn’t much to look at, she thought as she approached the door. Boards still covered the places where the windows would go, and there were wooden stairs in place of stone, and the earth all around was all covered with bits of stone and scraps of wood. “Where it’s not covered with mud, that is,” she said to herself as she nearly slipped.

Matilda sends for Alred

He went eagerly.

Alred had planned to spend the evening with a hunk of bread, a cup of wine, and his Psalter, but Matilda had sent her maid down to fetch him to her. He went eagerly, for she had slept since before noon, and he had been out all morning.

For all she was pale and weak, her dark eyes shone out from the shadows surrounding them. “I thought you might be lonely,” she smiled.

Maud goes to see Matilda

Alred sat at his table, twirling a dagger over and over in his hands.

Alred sat at his table, twirling a dagger over and over in his hands, watching the green light flash off the blade as it turned. He had work to do, but he had shut himself up in this room to prevent himself from doing any further damage this morning. He had snapped at Dunstan, he had yelled at Egelric, and he had insulted Alwy Hogge, who, so far as he knew, had gone off afterwards to cry.

He was worthless lately when it came to getting anything done. He had finally given Egelric full authority to make decisions for him in the weeks to come, knowing that Egelric was more capable of serving his interests than he himself was at the moment.

Father Brandt comes for Bertie

'Good morning, Father Brandt!'

“Good morning, Father Brandt!” Gunnilda said, letting the priest into her small house.

“Good morning, young Gunnilda!” Brandt huffed as he came in from the cold. “Good morning, young everyone!” he said to the children gathered behind her.

Sigefrith and Darius find death in the snow

The night was dark and moonless.

Maud had been right—the night was dark and moonless, and the stars sparkled more brilliantly but less brightly due to the thin veil of icy clouds that hung before them.

Sigefrith decided he would let his horse pick his way carefully home along the road rather than trying to save a bit of distance and coming back through Theobald’s fields.

Sigefrith receives a sad message

Sigefrith swore softly as he read the short message the servant had brought into the hall.

“Damn!” Sigefrith swore softly as he read the short message the servant had brought into the hall. And then he shouted: “Damn!” and hurled the scrap of parchment into the fire.

“What is it, Sigefrith?” Maud asked tentatively, watching him from the corner where she sat playing with her three children, while young Malcolm studied his Latin close by.

Iylaine asks for Alwy's help

Alwy hummed tunelessly to himself as he worked.

Alwy hummed tunelessly to himself as he worked. He was as proud as could be of his new horse—a daughter of the King’s own bay stallion!—and he wanted her bridle to shine as brightly as those of the gentlemen’s horses.

Alwy still couldn’t understand how he had come to be so lucky. When he was a young man, he never thought—not that he ever thought much about what he couldn’t have—that he would be a free man someday, or that he would be a prosperous enough farmer to own his own horse from the King’s stables, or that he would have two houses, or that he would have as fine a wife as Gunnilda or fine children such as he had—had never thought he would have a wife or children at all!

Alwy comes in the night

Egelric lay in the dark.

Egelric lay in the dark, dimly wondering whether the barking and the knocking he heard were not part of a dream.

“Da?” Iylaine whispered, tapping his shoulder. “Someone is here.”

Egelric is startled by Iylaine's hair

'We wasn't looking for you this early!'

“We wasn’t looking for you this early!” Gunnilda called as Egelric came in. She had been preparing to pluck a chicken—she was heartily glad he had not come a short while later to find her with feathers all over her dress and in her hair, like a little fool.

“I can leave and come back later,” he laughed, pretending to turn back to the door.