Eadgith becomes a confidante

Eadgith awoke in a panic. It wasn’t a dream—someone was trying to climb into bed with her—someone who smelled like wine—and she wasn’t even in her bed—she didn’t know where she was—

She shrieked and struggled, and the intruder fell onto the floor with an inglorious thump, followed by a loud “Damn!” But it was a woman’s voice.

“Matilda?” she gasped.

“Damn! Ow! Ohhhhhhh…”

“Matilda—is that you?”

“Ohhhhhh, yes! I fell.”

It was Matilda… and she was in bed at her father’s. She had come for a visit with Matilda. That was all.

“What are you—I mean, what do you need?” Eadgith asked.

“I just came for a snug little chat,” Matilda slurred. “Can I come in?”

“Is it late?”

“Ohhhhhh, yes!”

“Oh, dear. Well—come in.” Her bed was narrow, but so was she, and Matilda was certainly a small woman.

Matilda clambered in and snuggled up against her. Eadgith thought she smelled rather like her father on the nights when her father was best left alone.

“Think I was a man?” Matilda giggled.

“I don’t know. I suppose I did for a moment.”

“You must learn to get used to that!”

“Not just yet.”

“Ohhhhhh, no, enjoy your peace while you still have it! Your father will have made Sigefrith wait a whole year for you, and he will make up for it when he finally gets you, you may be certain of that,” she cackled.

“Oh, dear!”

“By the by,” she yawned ostentatiously, “your father told me to tell you goodnight. He couldn’t remember whether he forgot.”

“You told my father you were coming to see me?”

“I suppose I did.”

“Were you sitting up with my father?”

“I suppose I was,” she giggled.

“Alone?”

“Well—yes! Oh, don’t worry, dear. Two old married people such as we. Besides, we were out on the wall a good part of the time, and you can be certain that cooled us right off! You should see the snow coming down, Eadie. I don’t think I shall be getting home for a few days yet.”

“Oh, dear, won’t Alred be worried?”

“Ohhhhhh, no! Not with your father to protect me, and you and Sir Leila and these babies to keep me occupied. On second thought,” she giggled, “I should say: with Sir Leila to protect me from your father, and you and the babies to keep me occupied.”

“Oh…”

Eadgith did find it shocking the way that Matilda and her father flirted with each other, but since they did so in full view of Leila, and of Alred when he was there, she could only suppose that it was acceptable.

“I must console myself with Leofric alone now that you have swiped Sigefrith away from me,” Matilda sighed dramatically. “He only has eyes for you. My generation has been wholly eclipsed. But, you know, he did want to marry me once. Don’t tell Alred.”

“He did?”

“I knew Sigefrith before I ever knew Alred. That was fifteen, twenty years ago. Oh, my! Your father was already married to your mother, so I was safe there, but Sigefrith was still on the loose. What God-​damned idiots we were!” she laughed. “And I had heard your father complain that Sigefrith always fell for the wrong sort of woman, so when he asked me to marry him—he was as drunk as a bard’s bitch, mind—I thought to myself that it must mean I was the wrong sort of woman, or that he thought I was, and I smacked him good! I never told Harold, though. Good thing, or you might be a widow now or, or… whatever.”

“Oh, dear!”

“And don’t tell Alred. I don’t think he would widow you, but he would never let me sit on Sigefrith’s lap now if he knew he had wanted me once. Oh, dearie!” she sighed. “We were but children then. Wasn’t he a fine big man, though? Not that he isn’t any longer… Oh, Eadie, how old are you, again?”

“Fifteen.”

“Fifteen! Twenty years younger than I. By God’s name, you could be my daughter. Look at me, Eadie! I’m all through.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why, I’m as stale as a mummy.”

“What nonsense! You’re beautiful.”

“Oh, on the outside, perhaps. But on the inside I’m as stale as a tomb. I’m all through. I’m thirty-​five years old, Eadie,” she quavered. “I’ve no business having babies now. I might as well be dead.”

“Oh, dear!”

Eadgith sat up and tried to wrap her arms around the suddenly sobbing woman, but she did wish that Matilda had chosen Leila as her confidante. She knew why Alred had sent his wife out for a visit and a change of scenery, but Matilda hadn’t spoken of it until now. She had only laughed and sparkled and flirted and drunk…

“Don’t let Sigefrith keep you from having babies,” Matilda sniffed. “I don’t think he will, but don’t let him if he tries. Else you’ll find yourself at thirty-​five with a tomb where your womb used to be, and you’ll be through.”

“But… I believe Alred is only worried about your health,” Eadgith said awkwardly. Oh, if only her father were not with Leila now!

“A lot of good your health will do you when you wish yourself dead!”

“Oh, dear!”

But Eadgith learned one advantage of the drink that night: it took no time at all for Matilda to cry herself to sleep.