“Sigefrith!” Synne called, and she ran up the hill to meet the King.
Brede rose, but he waited in the court alongside Sigrid, who sat weaving a strip for the rug she was making.
Even after sunset, the dim light of a spring evening was better for working than the gloom of the hall. They burned more candles than they could afford, but the dark stone still seemed to drink up all the light they poured onto it. With everything else that weighed on his mind, it seemed an added burden to Brede, who had grown accustomed to the bright halls of the castle, with their torches and brilliant tapestries. Even the run-down old manor house in Greve was fairer than this. And his mother had been there to make it bright…
“Sigefrith is here!” Synne announced as she dragged the King up to meet his young cousins.
“We see that, Synn,” Brede said.
“Good evening, ladies and runts,” Sigefrith said as he sat and pulled Brede down beside him. “Where is the other runt, in fact?”
“He’s down by the brook catching an ague, I believe,” Brede grumbled.
“No!” Synne laughed. “He’s only catching peepy-frogs.”
“What does he want with these so-called peepy-frogs?” Sigefrith asked.
“He sells them to Yware.”
Sigefrith laughed. “To put down little girls’ dresses, I suppose.”
“Yes! And in his sisters’ beds and other things.”
“If he tries that on Brit when he comes to live with us, he will find that she will pull his pants up around his ears and his ears down around his knees so quickly that he won’t know which of his ends is up any longer.”
Synne giggled. “Brit likes frogs anyway.”
“That’s true, but not in her bed. What are you making, Sigrid? Bandages for your brother, for when he comes to spar with me?”
“No,” she laughed. “Only a rug.”
“That can always serve as a litter in which we might carry him home.”
“Or a shroud in which to bury me, is that it?” Brede asked.
“Now, now, I’m not so unskilled as to accidentally kill you. Where’s your uncle, Synn? Is he helping Selwyn catch peepy-frogs, too?”
“No!” Synne giggled. “He’s gone to see Alred.”
“I’m certain he will be back soon,” Sigrid drawled. “He’s afraid that if he leaves us too long alone in the dark we shall amuse ourselves by celebrating a Black Mass or something.”
“Sigrid!” Brede gasped.
“What? That’s what you said!”
Sigefrith laughed.
“But you’re a lady, and ladies don’t mention such things,” Brede scolded, red-faced.
“Then don’t mention them to me!”
“God! I can’t do or say anything, even when our uncle isn’t here!”
“It is quite a responsibility,” Sigefrith said, “to have the charge of two young ladies.”
“Responsibility! My life is responsibility from morning to night.”
“Life, in general. I’ve come to add another one. Care to take a stroll with me?”
“And leave the girls?”
“I don’t believe they will engage in any occult rituals while we are away, will you, girls? We shan’t be far. Ask Selwyn for how much peepy-frogs are selling these days if he comes back while we’re gone. I know a young Scot who would like nothing better than to find a peepy-frog on his pillow tonight.”
“Don’t tell Synne that,” Sigrid said. “She will want to kiss it first.”
“Shut up, you!” Synne howled.
After they had left the girls far enough behind, Sigefrith said, “I had an interesting conversation with Theobald today.”
“Theobald? I didn’t know he was here. I should like to see him.”
“It was an unexpected visit, to say the least,” Sigefrith chuckled. “Late last night Matilda got it into her head that she had to come home immediately. So ‘immediately’ that she dragged Theobald out of bed to accompany her.”
“Poor Theobald!”
“Theobald is too much of a gentleman to even notice that it was an imposition.”
“Or rude, as far as my lady the Baroness is concerned.”
“Well, let’s not be too hard on her, runt. I suppose she needed some time away from her family to think, and she simply had the misfortune to arrive at her conclusion at midnight.”
“Which was?”
“I don’t know, but I suppose it was that she was tired of being away from her family. Theobald had to find his own way to a bed at Nothelm this morning, so in a rush was she to get to Alred.”
“Lucky Alred!”
“I suppose he will have a few things to confess to your uncle this evening, now that I think about it,” he laughed.
“I believe he means to confess those sorts of things to Father Brandt. At least, that was the advice he gave me.”
“What do you have to confess, runt? Or – wait, you don’t have to tell me. I’m not a priest.”
“Neither am I!”
“I believe Father Brandt will still tell you that it is better to marry than to burn.”
“Oh, he does.”
“Excellent! This leads directly to the matter I wished to discuss with you.”
“Oh?” Brede asked, suddenly nervous. What did Sigefrith know? Always more than one realized – such was Brede’s observation thus far.
“As I was saying, I had an interesting talk with Theobald this afternoon, and now I should like to ask you: what do you think of Affrais of Thorhold?”
“Of whom? That Freya girl Sigi is always begging to see?”
“‘That Freya girl’ indeed, although I find that a less elegant way of putting it.”
“I didn’t touch her!” he gasped.
Sigefrith laughed. “Damn, I miss having you around, runt. I hope your brother is at least half as amusing as you.”
“Don’t mind me. That was only my guilty conscience speaking.”
“Father Aelfden is having an effect on you, I see.”
“Something like that.”
“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, you rascal, only asking your opinion of the girl.”
“Why?”
“Well, now that you’re a grown man with a house and income and responsibilities, I suppose that you will be looking to share them with some little woman or other.”
“Oh…”
“She was here for two weeks, runt. Don’t tell me you didn’t at least form an opinion of her.”
“But she’s only a girl. She’s younger than Sigi.”
“I wish you and Malcolm would quit making me feel so old with your ‘only a girls.’ My bride is scarcely older than Freya and Sigi.”
“She’s old enough, though.”
“You reassure me,” Sigefrith said dryly. “Well, form an opinion of her now, and let’s hear it.”
“I… don’t… know…”
“Her father wasn’t much to see, but her mother was a Welshwoman and considered a great beauty, and Affrais resembles her strongly. But she got her eyes from her father. Have you noticed them?”
“Not particularly.”
“What do you notice? No – don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I only mean to say that she has the greenest eyes you will see outside of catdom, and if you haven’t noticed, it is proof that you are looking at other things than a girl’s eyes.”
“I tell you, I haven’t been looking at the girl at all. She’s only Sigi’s friend, as far as I am concerned.”
“Well, here’s your new concern: what do you think of her for a wife?”
“But – I beg your pardon, but she’s only a girl!”
“I know that. I wasn’t proposing you marry her at once. Anyway, I suppose you have the common decency not to bring a fine lady to live in a stable. But it’s not too early to begin thinking about contracts and so forth. You know, she has a good thirty hides of land from her grandmother on the other side of the hills. Indefensible, as far as we are concerned, but the income will make you a rich man at least until we are besieged. I shall give you another ten or fifteen across the river opposite here so you don’t seem such a pauper before her. Better land, mind. Eh, runt?”
Brede stood stunned, staring off into the trees. He opened his mouth to ask, “What about Estrid?” But of course, there was nothing “about Estrid” to mention…
“I know: responsibilities, responsibilities,” Sigefrith chuckled. “But I suppose you will manage. You know, runt, I have dearly wanted a tie to the Baron’s family. While his daughter lived…” he shrugged and sighed. “Mind, he has three sons, but I had wanted one of them here in the valley, and not merely one of us up on the hill. And I have observed that, except for your uncle, who is obviously disqualified, and my own children, you are my closest living relative. And Affrais is Theobald’s closest living female relative. I am only too delighted that he has offered her. He has knights of his own with sons. Say something.”
“I don’t know what…”
“Come, Brede. She’s beautiful, wealthy, noble, and in my opinion she’s already fond of you. You might not have been looking at her, but I often caught her looking at you. What is it?”
“I’m only surprised…”
“There’s no impediment to this, at least?”
“What do you mean?”
“You haven’t gone and gotten yourself secretly married, or anything else I should know?”
“No, no, of course not.”
“Excellent. Now, don’t! and we shall be clear. Come, Brede, it won’t be for some time yet. I took you in, put up with you for two years, taught you to fight, made you a knight, gave you a house and land, and now in return I ask you to marry a lovely young lady. I’m not the harshest of sovereign cousins, am I?”
“No, Sigefrith, you are quite the opposite,” Brede said with a weak smile.
“Thank you. Well then, she’s only thirteen now, so I suppose we should wait at least three years. How old does that make you?”
“Twenty.”
“An excellent age for marriage. Think you can behave yourself until then?”
“Behave?”
“Father Brandt’s advice notwithstanding, if one cannot marry, one is sometimes obliged to burn. However, a gentleman has to take care that no gentlewomen are singed in the process. Understood?”
“Yes.” Sigefrith knew. Sigefrith always knew.
“Excellent. Now, let’s go back before it’s quite dark and help Selwyn count his peepy-frogs.”
Chapters
Whoa I forgot that Sigefrith wanted Freya for Brede. How weird would that have been?