Alwy gets a namesake

“Oh, Gunnie! You’re home!”

Alwy was surprised to find his wife in bed when he came in from the barns. When he had gone out, shortly before dawn, she had not yet returned.

Now she lay upon the bed in her nightgown and with her hair unbound, though she had not crawled under the blankets. Indeed, she seemed to have been thinking about something unhappy when he came in, but she smiled wearily up at him now.

“Good morning, Alwy.”

“How was it?” he asked tentatively. He so feared bad news, but Gunnilda was able to smile at him, and that gave him hope.

“Oh, Alwy! You wouldn’t believe!” she groaned. “Twins!”

“Twins! Two babies? Can I come lie down with you?”

“I guess it’s your bed as much as mine, Alwy. Two boys! Githa was that surprised! She thought she was only getting extra fat this time.”

“Two boys! I don’t know, but I guess that’s real fine! I guess Ethelmund must have been that pleased!”

“Well, Alwy, I don’t know…” she sighed, and when he tried to put an arm around her, she came willingly to nestle her head on his shoulder.

“Did he want a girl or something?”

“No, Alwy, that’s not it. I have to tell you the funny part. One of those boys was so big and fine, and the other one was that tiny, and do you know what Githa went and named them?”

“What?”

“She named the big one Alred and the little one Alwy!”

“She did?” Alwy gasped. “That is funny! ‘Cause I’m so tall and His Grace is so little!”

“That’s the joke!”

Alwy laughed at the joke, and then he laughed again as he realized, “No one ever named their baby for me before!”

“I don’t know, but I guess Osric and Aelfie mean to name their next boy Alwy, but don’t tell them I told you.”

“That would be something fine!” Alwy said, momentarily dazzled by this idea.

“But, Alwy, I don’t know but I guess you had better go down there today and see your namesake. And don’t say anything to Githa, but I don’t feel too good about that little one. I think Ethelmund knows too.”

“Knows what?”

“Knows that the little baby probably won’t make it.”

“You mean he’s going to die?” Alwy whimpered.

“That’s what I mean,” she sighed.

Alwy considered this for a moment in silence, and then he had another idea. “Well, I don’t know, but I guess it’s a good thing she had two babies then. ‘Cause then she will still have one, just like any other time.”

“It isn’t the same though,” Gunnilda murmured.

“I know. But it helps, if you miss your one baby what died, to have another baby. Doesn’t it? Gunnie? Didn’t you always say?”

She shrugged her shoulder against his.

This was what Alwy told himself every day, and especially whenever he saw Gunnilda sighing over her sewing or crying into her pillow. Gunnilda’s last little baby had died all the way back in February, and still she hadn’t told him that he should start looking forward to another one. But perhaps he hadn’t been trying hard enough. Sometimes one had to try very often.

“Well, Gunnie,” he said shyly, “I don’t know, but I guess you look real pretty in the morning with your hair down and your nightgown on. I guess I only ever see you like that at night.”

“Oh, Alwy, I’m so tired…” she whispered.

“I know, Gunnie, but you can stay in bed all day. That’s what! Because you were out all night. And I already did a lot of work before dawn, ’cause I thought you might not get home till later. And so now I can stay a while here with you. Can’t I? Gunnie?”

She did not answer, but only let her eyes go slowly shut. He watched her for a moment, trying to determine what this could mean. Finally he decided that she was only waiting for him to kiss her, and indeed she did not pull her head away when he did.