Leofric stood in the doorway of his son’s study for a moment, struck dumb with surprise. He had been certain that Matilda would not be here–and yet there she was.
“Father!” Sigefrith smiled, and his smile gleamed with uncharacteristic mischief.
“Runt!” Leofric replied, recovering some of his presence of mind.
“Leofric,” Matilda said calmly and held up a hand.
“Matilda.” Leofric bowed deeply to kiss it. Afterwards he felt he ought to explain himself, and so he said, “I went to see Eadgith at the castle – but my wife was there – and then I came here to see Dora and Haakon – but then I saw Ruby in the stable…” The more he spoke, the more he wondered why he was speaking.
“And so you came to see me!” Sigefrith laughed. “I am not surprised that Mother keeps you from Eadie, but I didn’t know that Matilda stands between you and your grandbabies.”
“He doesn’t want witnesses when he flirts with Hilda,” Matilda smiled.
“Or doesn’t want Hilda to witness when he flirts with you,” Sigefrith countered.
“So instead he arrives here in time to witness you flirting with me,” she laughed.
“I would never presume!” Sigefrith grinned.
“I know!” Matilda said, and a metallic clang came into her laugh. “I’m old enough to be your mother, after all!”
“Never!”
“I am flattered by your incredulity, young sir, but your mother is scarcely older than I, and if I had had my first baby at the same age you did, why, he would be older than you now!”
“Then I am almost sorry you didn’t – and sorry he wasn’t a girl!”
“I am not!” she cried. “How jealous I would have been!”
“Come in and sit down, Father,” Sigefrith said. “Quit hanging about in doorways like a great, gawking looby.”
“Was I gawking?” he asked as he sat next to Matilda, as far from her as he might.
“I wasn’t watching, but you certainly have the look of a looby.”
“It’s in the blood, runt. Look at yourself.”
His son laughed. “Doesn’t Sigefrith often tell me I look just like you at this age! As you are, so shall I be: a great, gawking looby!”
Leofric laughed, too, but he was struck by the thought that he had indeed once looked like Sigefrith, and felt the same – a young man with an unlined face, hair without a strand of gray, all of his teeth, a back that did not ache, knees that did not creak when they bent…
And he was acutely aware of Matilda next to him on the bench, leaning with her whole body towards his son…
But perhaps it was only her hair that made him think so. She wore it up today, though he had seen it bound only a few times in his life, and then usually when she dressed up as a page to accompany her cousin or her husband someplace a woman might not go. It made her look older, and yet he would not say it did not flatter her, for it exposed her long neck, and it was that, perhaps, which made her seem to lean.
It also revealed her tiny ears. His lips had once found them to be deliciously soft and covered with a fine, ticklish down, but he did not believe he had ever properly seen them. They were like a child’s ears. With her modest hair, her little ears, and her plain, high-necked gown, she seemed a wistful, unhappy child – a child grown far older than her years.
“Did you come alone?” he asked her abruptly, and the gravity of his tone sounded harshly against the teasing banter it interrupted.
“Alone?” she asked, blinking slowly at him. “Yes.”
“Is it wise?”
“Are you thinking of the elves? Or of the danger posed by your son?” she asked with that pealing laugh again.
“Sigefrith doesn’t allow Eadgith to ride out without escort.”
“Sigefrith never has allowed it. Fortunately, I did not marry Sigefrith.”
“I suppose Matilda can take care of herself,” his son said.
“Un–fortunately, I did not marry you,” she laughed.
“So I often tell myself,” Sigefrith laughed with her.
Leofric did not feel himself scowling, but he must have been, for Matilda suddenly said, “Look at your father, though! I can see he doesn’t approve.”
“Of what?” Sigefrith asked.
“I’m not certain,” she said with an affected tone of thoughtfulness. “Either he doesn’t approve of my riding over the countryside alone, or he thinks it unseemly for a withered old nag such as myself to be flirting shamelessly with a young stallion such as you.”
“Certainly the former,” Sigefrith said, “as no man with eyes would think to call you a withered old anything. Perhaps he disapproves of my pretension in thinking to address you at all.”
“He doesn’t think so highly of me as that,” she said, and her laugh was like the blare of a trumpet before a battle. “All women are the same to him, I’m certain.”
Leofric rose. “The two of you might find it easier to discuss me as if I were not here, if indeed I were not here.”
“We’re only jesting, Father,” Sigefrith said contritely, but Matilda smiled up at Leofric as if she already tasted victory.
“I know that. I presume Hilda and the children are home?”
“I’m certain they are.”
“He doesn’t allow Hilda to go out alone, either,” Matilda said. “I must conclude that my husband doesn’t care what happens to me.”
“Nonsense, Matilda!” Sigefrith cried. “He only knows that you’re capable of defending yourself.”
“Perhaps I wouldn’t fight.”
“Hilda says the same thing to me,” Sigefrith laughed. “God help us men if the elves begin showing their handsome selves to our women, eh, Father?”
Leofric grunted and went out.
Chapters
Well that was awkward...