Edris meets the Queen

“Maud,” Sigefrith said softly – far more softly than he ever spoke to his children. “Here are some friends to visit you. Here’s Cenwulf, and he has brought his cousin Edris to meet you.”

Maud lifted her face to him and broke into a radiant, empty smile. She was so beautiful – and so blank!

“Good morning, Maud,” Cenwulf said gently. He spoke as he did to Baldwin.

“Good morning,” Maud repeated.

“I should like to present to you my cousin, Edris von Engern, whose mother was my father’s sister, and whose father was the brother of Colburga’s father, the Baron of Engern.”

Edris curtsied and began to speak, but Maud interrupted with another of her radiant smiles and the single word: “Colburga!”

“No, no, darling,” Sigefrith corrected gently. “It is not Colburga, but Colburga’s cousin.”

“Colburga!” she repeated dreamily.

“I may look a little like my cousin Colburga,” Edris said to her. “We both had red hair.”

Sigefrith thought she resembled Colburga more than that, but he could not pick a feature on her face of which one could say, “That is like Colburga.” However, the overall effect was certainly a strong resemblance, and he thought that must have been confusing his wife. “Her name is Edris, dear.”

“Colburga, have you been in heaven?” Maud asked.

Sigefrith heard Cenwulf take a gasping breath behind him, and Edris flushed.

“Maud, dear,” Sigefrith began hesitantly.

But Maud went on, speaking more of her own words than she had all month. “Did you see your babies there?”

Cenwulf turned suddenly and crossed the room.

Sigefrith felt a sort of panic rising in him. “Maud, this is not Colburga,” he said firmly. “This is Edris. Edris.”

“Did you see the Lord?” Maud asked her. “Is He very beautiful?”

“Maud! Cenwulf…” Sigefrith didn’t know which way to turn.

“I am certain He is very beautiful, and I am certain my cousin Colburga is with Him now,” Edris was saying. “But I am only Edris.”

She seemed to be capable of speaking to Maud, so Sigefrith went to Cenwulf. “She’s confused,” he explained.

“I know, I know,” he whispered through his fingers.

“She doesn’t mean any harm. I’m sorry.”

“I know she doesn’t. Don’t be sorry, Sigefrith. I’m crying for you, too.”