“Shh, shh…”
Palina had told her that she would never be able to care for a baby alone, but Aia prided herself that she was proving her wrong. Just as she had learned a new gait for her walk to compensate for Wendel’s weight on her high shoulder, so had their life together settled into an easy rhythm.
What she did not know how to do was care for a baby not-alone.
“Are you girls entertaining this gentleman,” Baldwin called, “or are you entertaining yourselves with this gentleman?”
“You get two guesses!” Ana said.
“And they’re both right,” Affrais added.
Sigefrith grunted. “Have a look at it, runt. But it’s nothing but what Njal told Baldwin. Lacking the trivial detail of a massacre, of course.”
“Certainly is quiet down here,” Ethelwyn chuckled. “Those boys…”
Egelric acknowledged the worth of silence by failing to break his own.
Eadred woke with a sloppy snort. “My lord!” he gasped reflexively, and then, as he heaved himself to his feet and smoothed the wrinkles out of his tunic, he added, “Dunstan!”
Colban had thought the halls seemed oddly quiet as he had come down.
A small crowd had gathered in a corner of the court, near the great door of the southern tower. A clear space remained before it, however, and glimpses of red tunics and polished mail flashed beyond the duller grays and blues of peasant woolens. The Royal Guard was holding back the crowd.
For five days and four nights Sadb had been Queen of her domain. She sat up so late at night that she burned her costly wax candles down to stubs, and in the morning she lazed in bed until her back was sore. She slouched and belched and scratched herself. She ate honey straight from the jar with her finger. For supper. She left her hair loose and went breezing about the house without petticoats when she liked; and when she did not like, she obliged her maid to pin her curls into a hundred ringlets, donned her wedding dress, and dined at the head of her empty table wearing every last blessed ring, bracelet, and necklace she owned.
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