Egelric asks for help
Egelric found Alwy and Gunnilda seated on the bench behind their house, looking out to the south over the downs that were dimly lit by a sliver of moon. If it had been light enough for him to see them before they saw him, he would have turned back, but he only learned they were there when he saw Alwy wave.
He called a greeting when he was close enough that he wouldn’t need to shout, and he heard Gunnilda saying to Alwy, “I told you that was Egelric…”
“How did you know?” he asked her when he stood before them.
“By your walk.”
“I didn’t know it was so noteworthy. Sit down, Alwy,” he said as Alwy began to rise. “I shall sit me on the ground, and you will keep your wife warm. It’s cool up here on your hill. Quite pleasant.”
“Well, I guess it was a real good spot to build a house, after all,” Alwy said with satisfaction.
“The wind does howl in the winter,” Gunnilda said.
“But I guess you’re real snug and warm in your house, aren’t you, Gunnie?”
“I guess I am,” she agreed.
Egelric sighed and stretched out his legs on the grass before them. He had been hoping to find Gunnilda alone. He did not think there was anything shameful in that: he only wanted to talk. He didn’t mind talking with Alwy, either, but it was hard to be sitting on the dirt listening to Alwy keeping his wife warm.
“I wish you had been here for dinner today, Egelric,” Gunnilda said. “Didn’t I say so, Alwy? After Wick cleaned his plate, he sits back and says, ‘Jupitah! You could teach my cook a thing or two!’”
Egelric laughed aloud. “I wonder where he learned that?”
“Well, I guess he learned it from His Grace the Duke,” Alwy explained.
“You’re probably right, Alwy,” he chuckled.
“I don’t know but I guess His Grace comes for dinner more often than you do these days,” Gunnilda said, prodding him with her foot.
“I have a hard stomach, having grown up with my mother’s cooking and my grandfather’s stinginess. Cook’s cooking doesn’t bother me. Puts hair on your chest – that’s what I tell young Bertie.”
“I don’t know about Bertie, but I guess you can stop now,” Gunnilda laughed, “unless you want to look like a bear before long.”
“I don’t mind, as long as nobody means to make a rug out of me.”
“I don’t know but I guess you must be used to having Mistress Baby wiping her feet on you by now.”
“Ah, if I thought I could be of use to her even after my demise, I should be happy to become a rug,” he said, lying down as if to practice.
“Well, I guess that’s not a real pleasant thought after all,” she said, poking him with her foot again. “What say we talk about something else?”
“In fact, I came up here tonight to talk about Baby with you.”
“That poor girl,” she sighed. “I guess she don’t even dare to come up the hill by herself any more. At least I guess that’s why she don’t come.”
“I see you have heard about her problems with the children.”
“Bertie told us. He was that upset. Baby always does want to go out by herself, and then such things happen.”
“She doesn’t go out any longer. She hasn’t gone out since the boys threw her in the pond. She stays inside the castle all day and plays with the young children.”
“That’s not like Baby.”
“No, it isn’t. She won’t even go out with me. Every time I offer to take her for a ride, she has a bellyache, or a headache, or some other kind of ache.”
“That’s real bad,” Alwy said softly.
“I don’t know what to do,” Egelric admitted. “I was a nasty boy when I was around that age, and I used to pick on some of the children – ”
“You never picked on me,” Alwy said.
“My father told me I shouldn’t,” Egelric said quietly. After a moment’s reflection he began again: “I used to pick on some of the children, and I suppose their parents felt the same way about those children as I feel about Baby, but I can’t help thinking that there is something different in this case.”
“Because she’s an elf?” Gunnilda asked.
“Aye, I suppose. ‘Boys will be boys,’ as my grandfather used to say before knocking the stuffing out of me anyway, but I think the difference with Baby is that the boys’ parents are behind them. My grandfather didn’t dislike the boys I teased, except insofar as he didn’t like anyone very much, but I know Arnulf doesn’t like Baby. I doubt Anson got any more punishment for what he did than what Malcolm gave him.”
“What can we do, Egelric?”
“I wish I knew. She won’t even talk to me about it. Sometimes I feel as if she were growing away from me, towards I don’t know what. I wonder whether I have spent too much time away from her. And I shall be spending more time away from her soon.”
“Oh, Egelric, she still loves you best. Around that age the kids start realizing they can know things you don’t, and that’s when they start becoming their own little people. It’s hard, though, isn’t it?”
“Aye.”
“You want me to talk to her?”
“I wish someone would. I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t think she trusts me any longer.”
“Doesn’t trust you?”
“She pointed out to me that she is an elf and I a man.”
“She did?”
“I hope she only meant to say that we are different, and that there are things about her that I can’t hope to understand. If I thought the elves had been talking to her – by God, I should never let her out of my sight again.”
“What elves?”
“I don’t know. She told me she hasn’t seen any. But she is either a very poor liar, or even worse at telling the truth believably.”
“Do you think they want to hurt her?”
“I think they want to take her.”
The three sat silently for a long while before Gunnilda said, “People do tell stories about elves luring the little children away.”
“And she’s a little elf child.” Egelric sat up suddenly after another moment of silence. “I haven’t said that to anyone. I don’t think I admitted it to myself until just now, that this is what I fear. If they take her, I shall die. Or I shall kill them all.”
“Don’t say such things, Egelric,” Gunnilda said uneasily.
Egelric stood. “Excuse me, you two. I have to get back to the castle and look at her, or I shall shortly scream. I need to reassure myself that she is still there. You understand.”
“Kiss her for me, Egelric,” Gunnilda said softly.
“Me too,” Alwy said.
“I shall. Good night,” he said, turning to walk back down the hill.
