Egelric looks down upon a queen

Egelric had spoken his greetings and kneeled to the Queen, but she scarcely seemed to have noticed his presence.

He said, “I asked the man to inform Your Majesty that your husband is well, before anything else. I hope he did not fail.”

The Queen looked up at him as if startled. “He did. I thank you for your consideration, Egelric. Won’t you please have a seat?”

“Thank you.”

“I hope your wife is well,” she said softly.

“She is very well, and sends her affectionate greetings. She made quite a triumph in my country,” he chuckled. “She now speaks Gaelic better than I do. Old Aed wanted to hide her in his beard in the hope that I would eventually give up looking and go home without her.”

He grinned over his memories of Lili’s escapades, but the Queen offered no more than a polite smile. It was certain that there were few ladies who resembled the flamboyant Lili less than the Queen did, and there was little in Lili that a woman such as the Queen could appreciate.

“But I think Your Majesty will be wanting to know how your husband fares, and whither, and wherefore.”

“I was told he went to Ireland.”

“And I was asked to explain the wherefore.”

The Queen inclined her head.

“Well, it seems that King Enna…” Egelric began, but then he wondered just how much it was worth telling the Queen, and how much she would be capable of understanding. He had grown so accustomed to talking to Lili and her sister that he had lost the habit of speaking to less brilliant women. He knew that he had to temper his thoughts, but he had forgotten how. Was it like explaining things to a four-​year-​old, on a lesser scale?

“The King of Leinster, isn’t it?” she murmured.

“That’s right,” he said, relieved that she understood at least that much. “King Enna, who is Murchad’s uncle of course, sent men to the wedding, and they had a few interesting things to say to Old Aed, and to His Majesty by the same occasion.”

“I see.”

Egelric decided that it must be something like explaining the matter to Iylaine, who was not dull, but who scarcely seemed to believe that there was a world outside the valley at all. To his little elf, all the rest of the world was a fairy tale. Perhaps it was so to the Queen as well.

“There are many kings in Ireland, as you know,” he explained, “and one who is king over them, or who claims to be. But the High King is a very old man, and it is no longer enough for him to claim to be the king of kings. Meanwhile there is the King of Aileach in the north, Domnall son of Lochlainn, and he says he will make himself High King, and he is young and strong.”

“I see.”

In fact it was like telling a story to the boys.

“And King Enna’s men told us that the King of Aileach was coming to treat with the King of Leinster, and Old Aed wanted to send a man to speak with him. So when Murchad and Synne left for Leinster, Aed sent his son Cathal with them to meet with the kings. And when His Majesty heard of this, he decided it would be wise to go himself, along with young Sigefrith and also Eirik, who may speak for at least some of the Norsemen who control the seas.”

The Queen smiled faintly. “My husband has always said that what he liked best about Ireland was the fact that there are kings there with kingdoms smaller than his, and nobody bats an eye.”

“The King of Aileach is a powerful king, as is Enna. They will make excellent allies. And it is a great opportunity for our king. Domnall son of Lochlainn is not yet powerful enough to refuse his aid.”

“What aid can we provide?” she asked anxiously.

Egelric supposed she was frightened at the idea of further battles that would take her husband away for many months. But she had not yet endured the half of what Queen Maud had. He wondered now what would happen to her if she had to—or what would have happened to Queen Maud if Sigefrith had spent as much time at her side as he had with Queen Eadgith.

“I don’t think it would be soldiers,” Egelric said. “Don’t forget that Enna’s nephew is now married to the King’s cousin, whose sister is married to Eirik son of Olaf, who is the right hand of King Godred of the Isles, who is the enemy of Enna.”

The Queen blinked at him. She did not understand.

“Sometimes enemies must work together,” he explained, “but they may not permit themselves to do so openly. That is where they need a mutual friend such as your husband.”

She lifted her head and nodded slowly.

“Suppose, for instance, that King Domnall of Aileach wanted to sail his ships down the eastern coast to make war against the High King. The Norsemen would never allow it.”

“I suppose…”

“But if King Domnall asked King Enna to ask King Sigefrith to ask Eirik to ask King Godred… do you see?”

She squinted her eyes for a moment, as if thinking it over. “I see.”

He waited for her to ask what the advantage would be to King Godred, but she did not. Then he remembered he was not speaking to Lili. Indeed, it had been Lili to explain to him the advantage. What a Queen she would have made!

“So, you see,” he said, “our King would be a link between Enna and Domnall on the one hand, and Godred on the other. If our King does not help him, Domnall would quite possibly be barred from raising a navy at all, and if he is a just man, he will not soon forget that.”

“I see.”

Egelric paused, but she did not ask what would happen if King Domnall failed or if King Godred refused. Instead she asked him the question that had probably been the sole thing on her mind since he had come in, and Egelric could not hide a faint frown of disappointment.

“When does Sigefrith plan to return?” she asked.

“His Majesty and Murchad and the others left us three days after the wedding, which fell on the Ides. They had to travel with a woman, but they had a Norse ship, so I think they will have made good time. But they meant to stop and see Whitehand on the way home, so I would certainly not look for him before the Ides. Perhaps not before the end of the month.”

She laid her arms across her belly and nodded sadly. It was clear that the fate of kings low or high meant nothing to her. There was only one king who mattered, and he did not think she would have honored or respected him less if he had been only Lord Hwala of his castle by the sea, or even a mere farmer. To her he was above all else only the father of her children.

Egelric realized suddenly how far he himself had come from the subservient young peasant he had been, if he could look down now on queens. Once he had gazed up at great ladies as if they were living Madonnas and inherently above reproach, but he knew now that Matilda had not been a fluke. His own little wife had taught him that “lady” was not synonymous with “placid” or “docile”; that ladies could err and “get into scrapes,” as Lili called her misadventures; but that they could be sparkling and witty and surprising and even a little wicked.

A woman such as Queen Eadgith could be the helpmeet the Good Lord had intended women to be, but she could not be a man’s accomplice: she lacked the high spirit that was required. Lili had it; Sela had had it, at least as long as she had been the wild thing he had first known; Elfleda had had it in unbearable quantities. Matilda had certainly had it, and Iylaine had such spirit that she could set objects aflame with her own hot temper. Even Maud had had it, to Sigefrith’s cost.

But Queen Eadgith was merely a charming, pleasant, modest, virtuous young woman with all the spirit of a milk cow. Egelric thought that Sigefrith could have named the elder Malcolm himself to stand guard over Queen Eadgith’s bedchamber, and he would never need look to his children’s noses in doubt of their parentage. Such a woman stood in no danger from men such as Egelric and his cousins. And yet it seemed she was just the sort of woman Sigefrith needed.

“He has sent a brief letter to you,” Egelric said, “but he asked that your father read it to you. I have not seen it.”

“My father is here,” she said hopefully. “Perhaps there is good news in it.”

“He wrote it before he left with Murchad, so there can be no news other than what I have told you. But I think you can imagine what it might say, if it is fit only for your ears and your father’s eyes. Though if it is fit for your father’s eyes, I must assume he did not say everything he would have liked to have said,” Egelric laughed softly.

“Oh, dear!” she gasped.

Women were still women after all, he reminded himself, and in any of them he could find at least the fun of making them blush.