Gunnilda gets a surprise

“Alwy Hogge, where have you been?” Gunnilda cried when her husband came in.

“Hallo, Gunnie,” Alwy smiled sheepishly.

“You knew you had to take them skins up to the castle tonight! And who do you think did it in the end? And who do you think milked them goats? And took the scraps out to the pigs? Who do you think?”

“Well, I don’t know – ”

“Well, I do! I did! And I had to leave them kids over to Githa’s so I could go to the castle, so you better go apologize to her too! Where you been? And don’t you tell me you been over to the chapel, because I went looking for you there and there isn’t nobody working over there!”

“Well, Gunnie – ”

“What is it, Alwy? I want you to tell where you been all the time lately, I’ve had just about enough! Has someone got you working for them? You know you don’t have to work for no one, Alwy Hogge, you’re a free man now! You just send that Duke over here if he’s got you working on another one of his projects!”

“Well, Gunnie – ”

“What is it? You got a girl now? Don’t you think I won’t find out, Alwy!”

“Well, I guess I don’t!” Alwy cried, loudly enough to interrupt her interruptions. “I guess you’re still my girl, Gunnie, even though you’re my wife too.”

“Well, what then?” she huffed.

“Well, I don’t know, Gunnie, I guess I didn’t want to tell you yet, but I guess I got to.”

“I guess so!”

“Why don’t we go for a walk?”

“A walk? I walked all the way over to the castle and back, and now you want me to go out again? No, thank you!”

“Well, Gunnie, I guess it would be easier to show you than to tell you.”

“Oh, Alwy!” she groaned. “Just tell me!”

“Well, Gunnie, I guess we should go for a walk, like we did when you was just my girl. You ‘member how you would wait for me under my big oak tree for when I would finish my work?” he asked with a dreamy smile.

Gunnilda sighed. “Oh, Alwy, of course I remember. Let’s go, if that’s what you want. But it better not be far!”

It wasn’t very far, but it was uphill most of the way, so Gunnilda was out of breath and out of sorts by the time they came up out of the woods above Egelric’s farm.

“Why – Alwy, there’s a house up here on this hill! I never knew that!” she cried, mystified. Her gossip-​​based powers of divination had failed her, or so it seemed.

“Well, I guess you can’t see it from the road,” Alwy offered.

“Well, whose is it? You better not think you’re going to take me to visit someone, Alwy Hogge,” she warned. “My hair is a mess!”

“Well, I guess your hair is real pretty like that.”

“But Alwy – whose is it? It looks like a gentleman’s house – I just don’t understand. Has he got you working for him?”

“Well, I guess it’s your house, Gunnie,” Alwy said with shy pride.

“My – my house?” Gunnilda laughed at the absurdity of the idea. And then she saw the look in Alwy’s eyes, and her heart sank. “Oh, Alwy, I’m afraid someone’s been playing a real mean trick on you,” she said gently.

“How come?”

“Who told you this was my house?”

“Well, I guess no one did. It’s your house ’cause I built it for you.”

“You… built… this house?” she breathed.

“Well, I guess I had a lot of help!” Alwy said excitedly. “Egelric helped, and Aylmer’s boy Osric helped, and Egelric’s man Alfric helped and also his other men when they wasn’t working for him, and Ethelmund did a lot of the carpentry, and other people too! And – wait, Gunnie, I have to tell you lots of things but I forget. Wait – listen – ”

Gunnilda’s shoulders slumped. She was overwhelmed – this made no sense – and yet there it was, and surely no one had tricked Alwy into believing that he had built a house when he hadn’t.

“Are you sure – sure that this house is for me, Alwy?” she asked. “Are you sure and sure that you weren’t just working on a house for someone else, and got confused?”

“I’m real sure, Gunnie,” he said, laying an arm across her shoulders. “Don’t you believe me? It was my idea, and His Grace the Duke let me have the land, and Egelric helped me.”

“Well, if Egelric helped…” she murmured.

“Don’t you want to go inside and see?” he asked eagerly. “It’s not all finished but almost.”

She nodded and meekly allowed him lead her up to the door.

“Wait! I almost forgot!” he said, sweeping her up into his arms. 

“I guess I got to carry you in the first time, for luck. You ‘member when I took you home the first time? How long ago was that?”

“I guess that was about eight years ago, Alwy,” she said, dazed. “It was just before Bertie was born.”

“That’s right! I guess I carried you both in, didn’t I?” he laughed. “‘Member how you was just a girl?”

“I guess I was sixteen.”

“I guess we was three babies in our house that first year,” he said as he carried her inside and set her on her feet. “I never growed up, but you did fine, and Bertie too.”

Gunnilda looked around the dark room as Alwy knelt to light a fire in the hearth.

“Alwy,” she said softly, still afraid to believe, “this is a gentleman’s house. This is as nice as Theobald Selle’s old house.”

“It’s nicer,” he said. “It’s bigger, and nicer. You’ll see.”

“But Alwy – real windows! With glass!”

“It was His Grace the Duke gave you the windows, because you nursed his girl. You can see the sun set from here,” he said as he joined her at the window. “You can’t see Egelric’s house, but you can see the smoke from his chimney.”

“You can?” she said, laying her fingers gently against the panes.

“When it’s light enough. Come on, Gunnie, I want you to see the bedroom. We got two small rooms for the kids, but you and me got a big room, just you wait and see!”

“Rooms for the kids?” she asked dreamily.

“That’s right! No more kids sleeping on the kitchen floor. Come on, Gunnie.” He took her hands and led her to the bedroom.

“Oh!” she cried aloud when she stepped into the room. Two tall windows, handsomer even than those in the kitchen, filled the west wall.

“We got windows in here too,” Alwy said proudly as he lit another fire. “And a fire too! So you can be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And I guess that spot would be a fine place to put a cradle. I guess Bedwig won’t be needing it much longer – but maybe someone else will someday,” he added shyly.

When she didn’t answer, he continued, “Oh, I ‘member what I wanted to tell you. Egelric says Aylmer’s young Osric wants to get married, so he’s going to live in our old house. And he’s going to work for me two days a week – I got my own man now, just like Egelric! And his girl – that’s old Ulsfrey Graybeard’s girl, the one with the red hair – is going to do laundry for you, and take care of our goats and make the cheese. She’s a real nice girl, you’ll like her, Gunnie. And, Gunnie – are you crying, Gunnie?”

She turned to him with a smile, but with tears on her cheeks.

“Don’t you like your new house?” he asked, heartbroken.

“I guess it’s too nice for me. I guess I’m just waiting for the fine lady to come home and make me get out of her house.”

“I guess you’re the fine lady now, Gunnie.”

“Does that make you a gentleman?” she smiled.

“Well, I don’t know, I guess I’m still just old Alwy Hogge. But I bet when you was sixteen and got married to old Alwy Hogge, you never thought he would give you a house like this someday!” he laughed.

“No, I guess I never did,” she admitted. Suddenly she was moved to kiss his sunburnt cheek, which only caused him to chuckle again. “Don’t you laugh, ‘old Alwy Hogge,’” she said, regaining her spirits. “I guess you never thought you would give a me house like this someday, neither!”

“No,” he said, pulling her close and mumbling shyly into her neck. “No – but I wanted to.”