Britamund attempts to brood

Princesses were much like common girls in that they were often born in the small hours of the morning, just before dawn. Thus Britamund was able to calculate that she was now thirteen years, one day, and a few hours old. She would never be precisely thirteen again. She would not be able to do her birthday over. It had seemed a very important birthday, her thirteenth, but it had only turned out to be as unlucky as the number would seem to require.

Her father had not been there, first of all. No matter how busy the harvest, no matter how many or how urgent his duties as king, her father always made time for her and always made her feel special on her special day. Without her father, the day had already been that much more ordinary.

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Gunnilda tells Ethelmund what happened

Gunnilda had lingered at Gytha’s bedside, listening to the girl chatter on about her day’s adventures with the neighboring children. Eight-​year-​old Gytha was a playful, popular girl such as Gunnilda had never been, and Gunnilda had high hopes for her. Gytha would grow up without all the work and worry her mother had known, and with a wealthy stepfather and a brother who would soon be a knight, Gunnilda thought she would marry very well. She meant for Gytha to have everything she had not, though she did not know enough about what other, luckier women had to formulate what that “everything” might be.

But she had not lingered long enough. If she could not get safely dressed in her nightgown and tucked into the bed before Ethelmund came up to the bedroom, then she usually tried to stay up late with the children. Often she would find him asleep when she came in, for he worked hard all day and was growing old besides.

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Egelric looks down upon a queen

Egelric had spoken his greetings and kneeled to the Queen, but she scarcely seemed to have noticed his presence.

He said, “I asked the man to inform Your Majesty that your husband is well, before anything else. I hope he did not fail.”

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Gunnilda is just something

Gunnilda had a cook now and no longer needed to do more in the hour before supper than decide what they would be having and occasionally scold the woman for being wasteful.

She also had a nurse to care for little Alred and young Theobald, and Eadgard was old enough to spend the days with his father in the workshop. Gytha was allowed to go out and play in the long summer evenings, and Bedwig worked on his father’s farms under the direction of Osric. Colburga and Wynna went out with their friends, Gunnilda knew not where.

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Malcolm declares an end to the tyranny of peas

“You’re home early, lazy boy,” Iylaine laughed, pretending to scold.

Malcolm had found her lounging on the slope of the hill behind the house, her body all dappled with golden light. It was amazing that the slanting rays of the low sun could find their way to her through the trees, but he understood their determination when he considered their goal.

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Wynna meets her master

When she could bear the silence no longer, Wynna said softly, “Anson.”

Anson grunted.

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Egelric and Malcolm have the same idea

Malcolm hesitated in the doorway, for Egelric had begun to laugh as soon as he had opened the door.

“What did I do?” he asked with a growing sense of outraged dignity.

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Dunstan meets a rival

It was not Anna that Dunstan found in the studio, but neither was it her father or her little brother. Dunstan was too stunned even to wish he could silently disappear again. He could not imagine what this person was doing here.

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Alred makes a mess of the wedding dinner

Alred was, exceptionally, content to sit quietly and let his friends carry the conversation. Certainly Lili was doing her part to keep the laughter going at the other side of the long table, and at this side there was young Cynewulf to provide the entertainment by bouncing jokes off the Earl’s grave mien. Alred was happy deep down, as he had not been in many years, and he wanted to concentrate a while on savoring that happiness.

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Wynflaed jeopardizes Alred’s wedding

Lady Wynflaed knew why she was there, but it did not prevent her from feeling distinctly out of place.

The Queen was there because she was the Queen, the Countess because she was the Countess, and Lady Eadgith because she was a great lady as well as the Queen’s mother. Lady Luitgarde was nothing more than the wife of a knight, just as Wynflaed was, but she was also the sister of the bride and so had every right to be there. Wynflaed was simply the Queen’s best friend—by decree of Her Majesty the Queen—and so her presence was accepted as a given wherever the Queen went.

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