Hilda lets another secret slip

“Good day, my darling girls!” Hilda said as the door was opened unto her and she stepped into the dusky hall.

Estrid and Synne looked up from their embroidery and each put on a tight smile.

“Good day, Hilda,” Estrid said and rose to drag the embroidery frame out of the way.

“What’s that?” Hilda asked and nodded at the bright cloth as she shrugged out of her cloak.

“A banner,” Synne said.

“Another! Well!” Hilda flopped herself into a chair beside the two of them. “When do you mean to stop making banners and start making little dresses, Puss?” she asked Estrid.

Estrid did not like it when Hilda called her by Brede’s name for her, but telling her so would only have made it worse.

“Did you come alone?” Synne asked anxiously.

“Afraid of elves?” Hilda laughed. “Sigefrith brought me, but I don’t know but that I mightn’t enjoy a romp with an elf, for that matter. I am told that they are quite beautiful, all of them. I think I should like a blond one, for a change.”

“Hilda!” Estrid scolded.

“Oh, anyway!” Hilda said. “I don’t think elves attacked the little slut at all. I think she had five ordinary men and then got frightened about what her father would say.”

“Hilda,” Estrid frowned again and glanced at Synne.

“Well, and how old are you, child?”

“Thirteen,” Synne said.

“Twelve!” Estrid reminded her.

“Thirteen in March!”

Hilda laughed. “Let me think – when I was thirteen I believe I already knew whereof I spoke! I wasn’t even close to fifteen when Haakon was born.”

“That’s no reason, Hilda,” Estrid said.

“Look at you! How old were you the first time?”

“Fifteen! My wedding night!”

“Oh, your wedding night!” Hilda laughed. “Of course. I also! And Haakon was born a mere four weeks later!”

“I don’t think Brede would like Synne to hear such talk,” Estrid said uneasily. But she should have known that telling her so would only make it worse.

“Brede can talk, I’m certain!” Hilda huffed. “What’s good for the gander is good for the goose, you tell him that! Listen to me, darling girl,” she said to Synne, “don’t let the men tell you what you want and you don’t want, what you like and you don’t like.”

“Hilda, please,” Estrid protested, beginning to feel quite overwhelmed.

“Someone has to talk to the girl, now that she hasn’t a mother. And I’m not sure I trust you to do it, my little ice princess. What did your mother tell you about it?”

“I don’t know,” Estrid muttered.

“She told you the same thing my mother did, I don’t doubt – the same thing they heard from their mother, and so forth and so on! Listen, Synn, my mother told me that there is one dreadful thing in marriage, but you simply must bear it. But I said, why only bear it? If the boys like it so, and the chambermaids and the common girls, then either our fathers were doing something wrong, or our mothers were. There must be something to it. And there is! Isn’t there, Puss?”

“Hilda…”

“Look at the blush on her, Synn!” Hilda crowed. “I’m certain Brede knows what he’s about.”

Synne wrinkled her nose. “Oh, Hilda – he’s my brother!”

“Fortunately, only he and Selwyn are. That leaves a large number of young men available for you, even after you exclude the married ones, the poor ones, and the ugly ones. What about that Sigebert boy? I think he likes you.”

“Hilda, Brede will have a fit if he hears about this,” Estrid said.

“You needn’t tell him everything, you know,” Hilda said. “They talk about us.”

“What do they say?” Synne asked.

“Synne!” Estrid said. “You are too curious.”

“So were you, at that age,” Hilda said. “You always wanted all of the details.”

“She did?” Synne asked eagerly.

“You thought I did,” Estrid said. “You only wanted to talk about it, and so, you decide I want to hear it! I thought some of it sounded rather dreadful, as our mothers said.”

“But you don’t think so any more?” Hilda smiled wickedly.

Estrid could not hide a smile of her own.

“That’s right,” Hilda said. “Synn, you ask your sister here for the details. She acts the ice princess…”

“Oh, Hilda! What a bother you are! I don’t even know the words for such things except in Norse!”

“What?” Hilda shrieked with laughter. “Doesn’t Brede ever talk to you in bed? Or did you teach him enough Norse for that?”

“Certainly not!”

“You ought to! Think of the conversations we four could have over dinner, with no one else any the wiser!”

“You must teach me, too!” Synne protested.

“Synne!” Estrid cried, remembering her.

“She will,” Hilda promised her. “But, truly, coz, you must ask Brede to teach you tonight. Good Lord, what a lesson that will be! Oh! That reminds me. Estrid, you must help me.”

“With what?” Estrid asked uneasily. She could not think of anything that she would like to do for Hilda that such a conversation would have brought to mind.

“I had a fight with my dear mother-​​in-​​law today – I know, same as every day – and it’s this: you’ve been married since September – ”

“August,” Estrid interrupted.

“Precisely! And Eadie since June, and both of you are still making banners and pillows and things as if your husbands had taught you neither the words nor the deeds – and I was looking at that dress I had started making for Dora and never finished because Siggy died – and, so, I told Mother that I meant to finish that dress after all, and I would give it to Eadie or to you, to whomever has a baby first, and so now you must hurry and have a baby before Eadie does, because I want you to have it. It’s such a pretty dress. Won’t you, coz?”

Estrid gasped. She could have told Hilda that she was very likely to oblige her, but she hadn’t told anyone yet besides Brede, and she had no intention of doing so any time soon. Certainly her cousin Hilda would be the next to know – but such a request! And for such a reason! Perhaps she would tell Synne next after all.

“Oh, I hope you do!” Synne said. “Won’t it be fun to have a baby around? And won’t it be funny, to think that it will be Brede’s!”

“Funny–looking, certainly,” Hilda laughed.

“I think my brother is rather handsome!” Synne protested.

“Not as handsome as mine,” Hilda said. “Estrid would have had much prettier babies if she had married Olaf. And then Brede would have married Affrais of Thorhold, and she’s so beautiful that he might have had a chance at having pretty babies despite himself.”

“Married Freya?” Synne cried.

“Oh, dear!” Hilda laughed. “Another secret I’ve let slip!”

Synne looked anxiously at Estrid. Estrid only tried to preserve an unruffled expression. She had no idea what Hilda meant, but she was certain it was no accident that she had mentioned it.

“My husband does tell me everything,” Hilda tittered. “It seems King Sigefrith had meant for your brother to marry Affrais, but then Brede went and married Estrid behind his back, as they say. But I’m certain Sigefrith will forgive him someday. I only hope Affrais does!”

“Did she know?” Synne asked.

“Oh, I’m certain she did. She was quite fond of him, too, wasn’t she?”

“I don’t know,” Synne mumbled.

“Anyway, a girl that beautiful will have no trouble finding a husband. Perhaps it is Brede who will be sorry!” Hilda laughed. “You had better not invite your friends to visit you, Synn, or Estrid certainly will be!”