Matilda sees a connection

Alred smiled faintly despite his sour mood when he came into the bedroom. Matilda was lying fully dressed on the bed, atop the blankets, but fast asleep. But Margaret too slept soundly in her cradle, and so he let the baby lie and went to stretch out next to his wife.

“Sorry to wake you,” he said.

“Oh, I wasn’t sleeping,” she mumbled, blinking in confusion.

“So that’s why you didn’t scream when the spider went crawling over your face.”

“The spider!” she shrieked, sitting up and slapping at her face and hair. “Oh, you!” she huffed when she understood the joke. “Now he’s on you!” and she turned and slapped him lightly as well.

He threw his arm around her and pulled her down onto his shoulder, where she could do less harm. “My lady ought to be kinder to me. I’ve just had a dreadful meeting.”

“With whom?”

“With Aylmer and a good number of the peasants.”

“What did they want?”

“They want Egelric gone. Well, Aylmer doesn’t, but they do.”

“What?” she cried.

“More particularly, they want Baby gone.”

“What? Why?” she asked, sitting up. “That poor child!”

“They think that Gyfu woman’s death is Baby’s fault.”

“Never!”

“It seems Gyfu went to the Ashdowns the night before, or a few nights before, and Baby was there. And it seems that Githa and this woman got into an argument about Baby and her supposed ‘evil eye,’ and Baby overheard. So naturally, just as two and two make seven, it is thereby obvious that the wolves attacked the woman because Baby wanted them to.”

“But that’s – that’s absurd! Everyone in the valley is likely to see Baby at one time or another, and bad things are likely to happen to everyone in the valley – it doesn’t mean that Baby is behind them all!”

“You think like that, and I think like that, dear, but the peasants don’t think like that.”

“Why, it’s too easy to look after the fact and see some connection to Baby! But I’m sure you could make the connection to anything else! Such as – such as noticing that everyone the wolves killed had eggs for breakfast that morning! Or that it was a new moon every time! Or that – ”

“Wait a moment,” Alred interrupted. “What did you just say?”

“That it was a new moon every time?”

“Wait a moment! Was it?”

“Well, it was the last time, remember? Peas and beans? That’s why I remembered it.”

Alred sat up. “Let me think. What about the time before that? When was it?”

“That was when Sigefrith found the man,” she said thoughtfully. “It was the night Witburga died, so it was the twenty-​​eighth.”

“And the last time was the twenty-​​ninth, exactly one week after Margaret was born! What about the time before that?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Neither do I. Wait here.” 

Alred leapt up and ran down the stairs to fetch his journal. Back in the bedroom, he held it under the candlelight and read aloud, “‘Twenty-​​ninth January. New moon. On this night wolves killed Frewin, son of Curran, called The Red.’ I knew it! Matilda, you’re brilliant!”

“What about the other times?”

“They didn’t kill any other men. Let me see about the animals.” He looked back to December. “‘Thirtieth December. New moon. Thirty-​​first December. On this night wolves killed a goat belonging to Freeman Alwy Hogge.’ That’s close! Let me see November… No: ‘First December. New moon. On this night wolves killed a goat belonging to Freeman Ethelmund Ashdown.’ Before that… no, I think those were the first times. Matilda, I believe you’ve found something!”

“Perhaps the wolves are taking advantage of the darkness to slink into our midst undetected? Clever wolves!”

“And wolves that don’t howl to give themselves away. Clever indeed.” Alred shook his head grimly. “But it means that next time we can be ready for them. We’re men – we’re still more clever than they are. Or at least my wife is,” he said, smiling fondly down at her.