Egelric and Elfleda fight

Iylaine was still awake when Egelric got home, late as it was. But he didn’t feel like arguing with Elfleda over that tonight. Gunnilda said that Baby was good about taking naps during the day, so he supposed she would make up the lost sleep.

But Elfleda apparently wanted to argue. “I hear you were out in the fields today, and riding around with that black-​haired brat of the Duke’s,” she taunted. “Is another man’s son good enough for you, Egelric? Or is he another man’s son?”

“Don’t do this, Elfleda,” Egelric muttered, looking down into the fire.

Iylaine, sensing the fight that was about to break out, got up and wandered into the front room.

Elfleda watched her go and then stepped up to Egelric. “Why weren’t you out looking for my son?” she hissed.

“Leda,” he sighed, “we aren’t going to find him. We have tried everything, looked everywhere. He didn’t wander off—the elves took him, the elves hid him. I can’t spend the rest of my life looking for something I’m not going to find—there are other people’s children depending on my work—”

“Other people’s children! You care more about other people’s children than you do your own! That Lord Dunstan! That elf child! What about your child? What about my child? What about me?”

“What about you?” he growled. “If you had just once said our child, our son, our loss, I might have had some sympathy for you right now, Elfleda. But to tell me that I don’t care about our son—our son!—and to ask me ‘What about you? What about you?’ as if you were the only person with a broken heart here—You with a heart!” he sobbed.

Elfleda smiled cruelly. “Don’t try to make me feel sorry for you. This is all your fault—yours and that elf girl of yours. You never cared about me or Finn.”

“Leda,” he sighed, “you’re upset, you don’t know what you’re saying. This is not Iylaine’s fault—she’s only a child! And I don’t see how you can think it’s my fault—”

“Don’t you?” she hissed. “Have you forgotten the curse?”

Egelric was stunned. He hadn’t forgotten, though he had tried so desperately to forget. And Gunnilda was always there to assure him that there was no curse. He could almost believe it when he saw her. But of course there was. Of course there was.

Apparently satisfied, Elfleda turned and walked into the bedroom without another word.

After a few minutes of silence, the door to the front room opened slightly and Iylaine peeked through the crack. Seeing her father alone, she stepped softly into the room and said, “Don’t cry, Da.”

“Whoever told you your Da was crying, Baby?” he asked her, turning away from the fire.

Egelric picked her up, and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and twined her fingers in his hair.

“I love you, Da,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

“You darling!” he whispered, overcome.

And then she lifted her head and looked up at him with a serious frown on her little face. “We don’t need her, Da,” she said firmly.

“Why, Baby! Of course we need Mama. She’s feeling sad now because she lost her little baby, but we still love her and need her.”

Iylaine shook her head. “No. She don’t love us. She told me.”

Had she? Egelric was sorrowed to admit that he could believe it. “No, Baby, Mama says things she doesn’t mean because she’s so sad. We have to help her. Mama loves you. Who takes care of you, and dresses you, and brushes your hair, and plays with you?”

“Gunnie does,” Iylaine answered promptly.

“Oh, Baby,” he sighed. “Gunnie is just helping Mama because Mama is sad now.”

Egelric looked closely into that pale little face, rimmed with firelight. What did Elfleda say to the girl when he wasn’t there? Nothing she had ever done to him had yet caused him to lift a hand against her—but what might he not do if she hurt this little girl? He was suddenly frightened for the three of them.

“Don’t cry, Da,” Iylaine whimpered, patting his cheek dry with her small hand. “We don’t need her.” And then she threw her arms around his neck and began to shake with silent sobs.

Egelric held her and walked with her until she fell asleep on his shoulder. He would take out his fur robe and a few blankets and sleep with her on the floor before the fire, and then he would take her to Gunnilda at dawn himself, before Elfleda rose. Then—he would see.