Cenwulf tells of Maud

Cenwulf found Edris and Baldwin in the little sitting room in the northwest tower when he arrived home.

The room had once belonged to his daughters, but he had had it divided into two, and the smaller room, presently her bedroom, would be Baldwin’s after their wedding. The larger he had furnished in a hurry for her, since there were no comfortable rooms in the castle but his bedroom and office in the northeast tower – and he could not open Colburga’s room.

However, the result was more pleasant than he had anticipated, if somewhat exotic, for Ethelmund Ashdown had sent up one of the Moorish couches he had been making for his own home, Leila had sent cushions, the Duchess had sent the wall-​​hangings she had embroidered for her bedroom before Alred had surprised her with her “harem,” and Eadgith had sent a small carpet she had made. His friends truly were, as she liked to say, very kind.

“Good evening, Edris,” he said. “How was your day?”

“Papa!” Baldwin cried from the floor, interrupting her reply.

“Yes, Papa’s home,” he said, kneeling beside him. “How are Noah and his wife today? Oh! I see they are very spitty today.”

“I hope it won’t hurt him,” Edris said. “The animals are all too big for him to swallow.”

“They are not too big for him to gnaw,” he chuckled as he inspected the tooth marks on the wooden Noah. “Ethelmund will need to make you a new set when you are older, Baldwin.”

“I am making him animals of cloth,” she said. “He might chew on those.”

“Is that what you’re sewing over there?” he asked, standing again.

“Yes,” she smiled. “I forgot to tell you that I do know how to sew and embroider very well, in addition to singing and praying and tending a garden.”

“I’ve seen you pray in church, but I haven’t yet seen proof of this singing, gardening, and sewing you are supposed to do so well.”

“You might inspect the sewing now.”

“I shall.” He sat beside her on the couch – closer than he would have liked, but Baldwin had his ark before the other end of the couch, and so he had to sit in the middle, directly beside her. “What is this? A bear?” he asked as she passed him a small stuffed toy.

“It is. I thought a bear would be easy for a start.”

“A serpent might be easier.”

“Even so,” she smiled, and then they both stared at the fire.

“It’s warm in here,” he said suddenly.

“Oh! Have I had them build the fire too high?”

“No, no. It’s only warm after coming in from the cold. The snow is still coming down.”

“Does it always snow so early here?”

“Most years, I believe.”

After another awkward silence, she asked, “Did you see Her Majesty the Queen?”

“I did,” he sighed. “Edris, we believe you might meet her as soon as you like. She doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”

“How is she?”

“She’s like a little child. A quiet, well-​​behaved, smiling child, but a child. An infant even. Occasionally she will repeat a few words of what she has heard, and even more rarely she will say something of her own. Most of the time she simply smiles and gazes at Sigefrith. As Alred said, like a sunflower following the sun.”

“It is very sad.”

“It is very hard on Sigefrith and the children. Two months ago, they were quite happy. The hardest thing is that she seems to have taken an aversion to their younger son, Colban. The first time Sigefrith brought him to her after she began speaking again, he was in one of his sour moods and did not want to see her. Perhaps she was offended. Now, for all he begs to be held, she will not touch him.”

“The poor baby,” she murmured. “How old is he again?”

“I don’t know… two and a half, I suppose. He was born in the summer – and he’s older than two and younger than three I believe. I don’t… I suppose I lost track of those years.” He shook his head to clear it.

“Will she not recover over time?”

“I wonder. Alred told me he wonders whether the man who hurt her did not hit her over the head. We have seen men injured in the head who became as little children afterwards.”

“Do they recover?”

“Sometimes.”

“It is very sad. I shall be pleased to meet her whenever it is convenient for you. We had a simple girl with us in the convent. She was very like a child, as well, though she was quite mischievous.”

“Then she was more like a child than even Maud is,” he said, forcing a smile.

“Even so. But not all children are mischievous. Baldwin is not.”

“Give him time. I believe he is still busy planning his first, great escapade.” They smiled fondly at the boy, and Cenwulf said, remembering Maud, “I believe we should wait until a thaw. I don’t like to take you so far in the snow.”

“Is it so very far?”

“Not very, but I don’t like it.”

“I’m not ill any longer, you know.”

“I find you pale, nonetheless. And your hands are often cold.”

Her hands may have remained cold, but her pallor disappeared at once beneath a pink blush. It was true he did sometimes take her hand when he spoke to her, but it was always a rather awkward situation once he had it, for he never knew what to do with it afterwards.

“We shall go whenever you think best,” she murmured.

“Very good. Do you mind if I leave you to your sewing now and go below? I have to look something up for Alred, in an old letter.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I shall bid you good night, in case I don’t see you again this evening,” he said. But he already knew he would not.