“Good morning, where’s your wife?” Alred smiled. It was what he always said as soon as he set foot in the hall, even if his visit came in the afternoon. His greeting only ever varied if he met Lili first, and then, Egelric was told, it was: “Good morning, where’s your husband?”
“She’s playing with the boys,” Egelric sighed. “She and Hetty always do after breakfast, as you well know. You might go directly to them, and not bother yourself with me.”
“Not bother you with myself, you mean.”
“That too.”
“I shall go to see the ladies later if they don’t hear me and come on their own.”
Alred went to sit on the couch, by which sign Egelric understood he was to leave his desk and go sit in the chair before his lord.
“If I go back there now,” Alred continued, “I shall find myself with a young elf clinging to each of my legs, and I shall be obliged to go shambling around in a very undignified manner, like the old man when he tries on Papa’s boots.”
“That boy will be filling your boots before he’s ten – mark my words!” Egelric warned him.
“I know it!” Alred laughed. “He already can’t fit into shirts Dunstan was still wearing when he was eight. What am I supposed to say now? ‘They grow up so fast!’”
“Once they start walking, you are doomed anyway.”
“I’ve always been doomed from the moment I feel a little hand squeeze my finger,” Alred sighed. “I suppose those days are over.”
“When they’re over, they begin again with the grandchildren. But you’re not even forty yourself.”
Alred shrugged dismissively and said, “Which reminds me of the purpose of my visit: our friend Cenwulf is not yet forty either, and, as if to proactively prove the truth of your remark, he had his finger squeezed not twelve hours ago.”
“Oh! I’ve been waiting to hear that. I trust mother and child are well?”
“Both very well, both very beautiful. A little – or rather, somewhat large – girl. Whom they named Matilda.”
“Ah.”
“And just when I thought Edris could not possibly be more charming, she asked me to be the dear girl’s godfather.”
“An honor indeed.”
“Precisely what I said, old man. Mind you, she’s bound to be the most un-Matilda-like Matilda that ever was: tall, and freckled, and chestnut-haired, and green-eyed. And with Edris raising her, she’ll act like a lady instead of a pirate.”
Egelric smiled.
“What about you, old man? You’re already over forty, as I recall. Does that make you exempt?”
“You don’t waste any time,” Egelric muttered.
Alred laughed. “You’re the one who may or mayn’t be wasting time. Married a month already!”
“I don’t even want to think about that. I cannot yet believe that I have a wife, not to mention a sister-in-law and imminent niece or nephew… ah… in-law.”
“As it were,” Alred nodded sagely.
“I am certainly not ready to think I could have a child. At the moment I am still hoping I will wake up from this dream. If I start having children I might not want to.”
“Well? Isn’t that what we should hope?”
“I only hope to – wake.” Egelric murmured the last word, for Lili appeared in the doorway just then.
“Alred!”
“Lady Lili! You angel! You waited just long enough, and no longer. Now I shall have the pleasure of telling a piece of good news twice!”
“You have good news? That’s good news!” she laughed. “But Hetty will come soon if I don’t go back. I told her I thought I heard your voice. So, if you hurry, you may tell it three times.”
“I shall not delay! How convenient for us messengers that your husband has begun hoarding all of the beautiful ladies to himself out here.”
Lili laughed, but she went to sit in the other chair rather than sit on the couch beside Alred. Since her marriage, Lili had never sat beside another man unless her husband was on the other side of her.
“First you must let me try to guess,” she said. “And I guess that Edris has had her baby!”
“I had better hope that your sister is less clever than you, my dear, for you have just deprived me of one of my three chances to tell my good news.”
“You must still tell me whether it’s a boy or a girl. I am not clever enough to guess that!” she said with her pretty laugh.
“A little girl. Lady Matilda.”
“Oh!” Lili cried softly. “How sweet of her! Wasn’t it sweet?” she asked Egelric.
“Aye,” Egelric said quickly. He was still unaccustomed to having his opinion asked of him – or rather, as was more often the case, being asked to confirm Lili’s own.
And then Alred looked to him as well, as if he were seeking a way out of a conversation about Matilda.
Egelric thought himself decidedly ill-prepared for the management of delicate feelings on any side. It had always sufficed to remain grave and taciturn when such matters were mentioned, but his impulsive little bride would speak, and somehow this always seemed to implicate him.
“Perhaps you would like to visit the Countess today?” Egelric asked her. “It would give me a chance to visit my daughter.”
“Oh, could we?” she asked, as delighted as a child. Such raptures always reminded Egelric that he was easily old enough to be her father.
“I had meant to ask you whether you would stay for dinner,” he said to Alred, “but perhaps I shall ask for an invitation instead? Unless you won’t like to ride all the way back again so soon?”
“Why don’t you take Lili, while I stay here with Lady Hedwige?” Alred suggested. “It’s a shame to leave her alone simply because she can’t ride.”
“Oh! That’s sweet of you!” Lili gushed. “Isn’t it sweet?” she asked Egelric.
“Aye,” he sighed. He was beginning to believe he would never wake.
Chapters
So, the baby boom of 1082 has begun! I have 13 babies planned for this year so far, and I have only planned through September!