Sigefrith returns with a new squire

Sigefrith pulled open the heavy door and saw Cenwulf poking ferociously at the fire – and an otherwise empty hall.

His old friend turned abruptly and held the poker before him like a sword for a moment before he realized who he was seeing. “Sigefrith!” he gasped.

“I come unarmed!” Sigefrith laughed.

He dropped the poker, but still stood as if dazed. Sigefrith went forward to embrace him, and the boys followed him into the hall.

There was something troubling the man, and moreover Sigefrith did not like returning to an empty hall. He did not think it late enough for them all to have gone to bed. The guards and servants he had met on the way up seemed happy to see him, yet he did not think any one of them would have dared to inform him of the sort of bad news he was growing to fear. He decided to follow Alred’s example and make a joke.

“Well, Cenwulf, I leave you in charge of my family for a few weeks, and when I return I find you have banished them all. Unless you have merely confined them all in the dungeon?”

“The dungeon!” Cenwulf repeated, and then he shuddered. “Edris!”

“Edris? You have shut Edris up in the dungeon?” Sigefrith laughed uncomfortably.

“No – the baby – tonight!” he gasped, clutching at Sigefrith’s sleeves.

Sigefrith laughed in relief. “The baby tonight! No wonder you’re as white as a mummer! And I suppose that explains where all my ladies are. Well, boys,” he said, turning back to the four who had followed him in, “I suppose we should turn around and come back in a few days. No one will notice our arrival in their excitement over the arrival of his little one.”

“Not I,” Sir Sigefrith said. “I want my wife. Is she with my lady the Countess?” he asked Cenwulf.

“No, I…” Cenwulf stopped to think. “She and your cousin are in your room with your son.”

“Perfect. May Eirik and I be excused?” he asked the King. “Would you like to come meet them, Brede?” he asked the chestnut-​​headed young man who accompanied them.

“Not so fast, runt,” Sigefrith said. “Leave him with me for now. I reserve to My Majesty the honor of introducing him to whomever I may tonight, starting with my lord Earl. But you two ninnyhammers may go for now. Eirik, I expect to see you, at least, back here to help me get this anxious father thoroughly drunk and put some color back into him. I suppose we shan’t separate Sigefrith and Hilda this night short of taking hammer and chisel to them.”

The two laughed and went out, and Sigefrith slung an arm over the remaining young man’s shoulder to bring him up to Cenwulf. “Meanwhile, Cenwulf, I shall begin with the honor of introducing you to my new squire, namely Brede Stearn, who is most pertinently the grandson of my mother’s sister, but is otherwise related to both me and Leofric on his father’s side, in ways that I shall allow Matilda to puzzle out. He and his father were born and raised in Denmark, and his mother is yet another Norsewoman, but we shall forgive him this because his grandfather and grandmother were born at Hwaelnaess. I only wish I could take you there to see, runt.”

“I am pleased to meet you,” Cenwulf said in response to the boy’s bow, managing a smile.

“Say!” Sigefrith said upon a sudden realization. “If your wife’s baby is on the way, it means Matilda is here, doesn’t it?” He laughed. “We shall see Alred shortly in that case. I hope Edris hurries it along, for we shan’t separate Alred and Matilda with less than a chisel either.”

“Yware?” Cenwulf asked, glancing down at Caedwulf.

“Oh, he’s home too, but his Papa will be putting him to bed first. Edris will have that much time, at least. Where’s Maud? Is she with the ladies?”

“No. She retired to her room after supper.”

“How is she?” Sigefrith asked wistfully, expecting to be disappointed, as he very shortly was.

“The same.”

“Harold?”

“He is growing. You will see him.”

“Everyone else? Is everyone well?”

“Everyone is well.”

“Where is young Eadgith? Is she with Edris too?”

“She is with her father.”

“Alas! And I promised Brede a sweetheart when we arrived home. Well, I’m sorry about that, runt. Don’t be too disappointed. I assure you she is beautiful enough to be worth the wait.”

Brede only blushed.

“You might want to consult her mother before reading the banns,” Cenwulf said dryly.

“I was thinking a chat with her father would be more to the point.”

“A chat with the girl even more so.”

“Come! Could any discerning female refuse the attentions of so close a relative of my magnificent self?”

“I think you have been spending too much time with Alred.”

“A few hours with you will sober me up,” Sigefrith laughed. “Although I believe my intention was to get you drunk. Brede, I – ”

“Sigefrith!” Eadgith cried from the door. “You’re home!”

“I am?” he asked, feigning surprise.

She flew to him and slid her arms around his waist. “How we have missed you!”

“Nothing to how we have missed you. Come and meet our cousin, Brede,” he said, extracting himself from her embrace. “Now, Brede, I know what you’re thinking. I promised you the most beautiful girl you had ever seen for your sweetheart, but I insist that this is only her mother.”

“Oh, Sigefrith–only!” she cried.

“I mean to say that you are not for him. It wouldn’t be fair at all, if the younger generation were allowed to appropriate not only the girls of their age but of ours as well.”

“You have been spending too much time with Alred,” Cenwulf observed.

“Have I improved?”

“I believe a lady might say so.”

“Be kind to her all the same, Brede, for she will be your mother-​​in-​​law someday, and they can be fearsome creatures if one does not befriend them beforetimes.”

“He is a tease,” Brede informed her apologetically. “I should like to meet your daughter, at least, before I decide whether to ask for her hand. But if she is as lovely as her mother, it will be an easy decision.”

“Remind me to keep my son away from Alred’s influence,” Cenwulf said.

“Or your sons, remember,” Sigefrith said.

“My sons – oh, God!” Cenwulf cried, remembering.

“She’s doing very well, Cenwulf,” Eadgith smiled. “Otherwise I should not have come down. But it will be a while yet. First babies take their time, bless them.”

“But she’s so delicate…”

“If it pleases you to think so, I shan’t try to convince you of the contrary,” she said. “But I should like it known that I find her as fit as a flea.”

“In any event that gives us plenty of time to get drunk,” Sigefrith said. “I hope Alred will be along shortly to help. He might also find a more flattering way to describe Edris’s health than comparing her to a blood-​​sucking parasite.”

“What would you have said, Sigefrith?” Eadgith scoffed. “You would have said she was as fit as a butcher’s dog or some such.”

“Better a dog than a flea.”

“Better the flea than the dog with the flea,” Brede offered.

“Well said, runt. We have all been improved by Alred’s example. Shall we send for wine? I believe the occasion merits it on several counts.”

“One thing first, Sigefrith,” Cenwulf said ominously. “There is news you need to hear, and you had better hear it now before you drink, for it would certainly sober you up afterwards.”