A Prince Is Born
After Maud and Sigefrith made up, neither of them slept on the cold stone bench again. And in late November, as the first snow began to fall outside, Queen Maud whispered a bit of good news to the King.
Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « July | September » | |||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
Latest Chapters
Ethelmund and Githa each learn a lesson
Githa Ashdown was beginning to think that she was smarter than even she ever thought. She had been calling Lothere the Blessed Valley instead of the Cursed Valley, because ever since they came here, everything had been going right for them. After five childless years, Colburga was born soon after their arrival, and now they had another daughter named Kyneburga. And Ethelmund was even beginning to show a little self discipline. She didn’t know whether it was the loss of his old friends and old habits, the lack of a suitable fishing hole, or simply that he was beginning to feel the responsibility of having two children to provide for, but Ethelmund was working harder than ever before, and even repaired the stone fence after having been asked only twice.
Still, it took nearly losing him for her to realize how much he meant to her after all.
One summer night, she was preparing dinner while Ethelmund bathed Colburga.
Elfleda is too smart for Alwy
After Alwy and Gunnilda’s little daughter Wynna was born, Elfleda spent more time with her friend Gunnilda than ever. Gunnilda was happy to get some help with the baby, because Sigebert was walking by then and it was more than she could handle to keep him out of the oven, the pigpen, and the chamberpot and still do her chores and tend to Wynna.
Whenever Egelric came home to find his wife gone, he knew she would be over at Gunnilda’s playing with the baby.
An Heir for the Duke
The Duke and Duchess of Nothelm felt their life had truly changed since they came to Lothere. Only a few months after they arrived, just before the turning of the year, the Duchess bore a son whom they named Dunstan. The first baby born in Lothere in over one hundred years!
The wise woman told the Duke that the little lord was as big and as strong as a two-month-old, and although the Duke was suitably proud, he was also worried that the birth had taken too much out of his wife. Her skin was whiter than ever, and she tired more easily. Even a year later she did not quite seem to have recovered. She was eager for more children, especially a little daughter, but Alred told her she should simply enjoy her son for now.
The Secrets of Egelric Wodehead
While Alwy Hogge, the King and Queen, and other residents of the Cursed Valley were having interesting adventures, Freeman Egelric Wodehead and his wife Elfleda were living and working quietly in the shadow of Nothelm Keep.
Egelric was a hardworking and respectable farmer, and Duke Alred was happy to have him on his lands. He knew that Egelric’s dream was to learn how to read, so he loaned him a book, and sometimes he stopped by the little house to give Egelric a few lessons. Alred thought that Egelric might make a good steward some day with a little education.
But the Duke and the other residents of the valley didn’t know that the quiet, polite man was hiding a broken heart. Since they had married, his wife had had two early miscarriages, but was pregnant again when they came to their new home. This time the months passed without danger, and her belly grew, and Egelric finally dared to make a little cradle. But then Elfleda came down with a fever, and the baby was born early—dead.
The Lady Witburga
The Earl spent most of the days away helping the young king manage the affairs of his little kingdom, so Countess Colburga wasted no time making friends. She found the Duchess a little chilly, so she grew closest to the wives of the gentlemen, or as she called them, Scharfe Githa and Süße Githa. “Sweet” Githa was the ladylike wife of Theobald Selle—she never said much but somehow her smiling presence made everyone happy. “Sharp” Githa was none other than Githa Ashdown, who, in addition to her own saucy self, rarely failed in those days to bring Alwy Hogge along to provide the afternoon’s entertainment.
Of course, sometimes Githa could be pretty entertaining herself.
Sigefrith and Maud
Sigefrith sent for the Countess the first thing the next morning.
“I did it!” he told her. “I did exactly what you said. Or something like it, anyway. I told her that since she doesn’t want to be around me, I was going to send her to a convent.”
An Ultimatum
King Sigefrith did find the Queen the night that she ran away. In truth, once she had made her little scene, she was rather frightened about being out alone at night, and she could swear she had seen a light shining briefly in the old, abandoned church. The King found her wandering in the road and took her home. But still she insisted she would rather sleep on the bench than in a warm bed with him. Naturally, it was Sigefrith who ended up sleeping on the bench.
Sigefrith was desperate. He finally decided to ask the Countess for advice. Colburga seemed to be the wisest woman he had ever met, and he thought she would know what to do, especially since the Queen was her friend.
The Adventures of Alwy Hogge
Alwy Hogge had been having the best year of his life. He and his wife and his baby son Sigebert had been living in their little hut since the fall of 1067, and had another baby on the way. He thought his wife awfully clever to have arranged all of this for them. They owned sixteen pigs now, if one counted the piglets, and had pork for dinner every day instead of only on feast days. And it certainly was funny how the nobles and the peasants met each other all the time—with so few people in the valley, everyone knew everyone else. And Gunnilda certainly was smart when she talked back to people. She and Egelric Wodehead just hated each other, even though she was best friends with Egelric’s wife! He was so proud of her. How did she get so smart?
But Alwy had been having some adventures of his own. For example, sometimes he wondered why, if she was best friends with his wife, Elfleda Wodehead always seemed to be looking to talk to him. One time he woke up from his afternoon nap, and she was standing right there, just staring at him! Alwy certainly felt silly. He wondered if he had been talking in his sleep.
Chilly in the Castle
King Sigefrith’s little kingdom was flourishing, and everyone seemed happy except for himself and his queen. Maud would talk to him, politely, but whenever he tried to be tender with her she would push him away.
When Sigefrith went to bed before her, he would often wake up late at night to realize that she wasn’t there. He would find her sleeping on a cold stone bench in the hall. When he would try to cover her up with a warm deerskin, she would toss it on the floor as soon as he went back upstairs. She would rather suffer the cold than accept any kind gesture from her husband.
Chapter Archives
Subscribe
Chapters“Which Sigefrith?”
“The old, ugly one.”
“You’re not ugly!”
“But I am old, is that it?”
Latest Comment