Edris brings a letter

Edris hesitated in the doorway of her husband’s study. “Are you busy, Wynn?”

“Busy serving you in one way or another, my lady,” her husband’s steward smiled.

“Then let it be another!” She laughed as she had not laughed in months, and she rushed in, waving a sealed letter. “From Engern!”

“From my lord?”

“From the Baroness. You don’t suppose she would let anyone communicate with the world in her place?”

“Oh!”

“Please read it! Let’s find out why they’re so late coming home. He had better have broken at least two of his legs if he thinks I shall let him stay away for months like this.”

“At least two?” Wynn chuckled. “How many legs does he have? Let’s see here…”

A large chunk of the seal had already broken off, taking most of the Engern hawk with it. However, the Alsted dragon had kept watch over the letter to the end, until Wynn flicked it away with the tip of her husband’s knife.

“What does it say?” Edris asked, nearly squealing in impatience.

She had not been so eager to hear a letter read since… She could not remember. The only people she truly loved were her own family, and Cenwulf seldom went away long enough to write.

The last time he had taken Baldwin to Saxony, he had been delayed because his squire had broken his leg while there. But that time the delay had been less than it was this year: he had promised her he would be home by May. Sigefrith had made a tour of half the courts of northern Europe in the time it was taking Cenwulf and Baldwin to pay a visit to Baldwin’s grandmother.

“Well…” Wynn chuckled awkwardly. “In fact, it isn’t written in Latin.”

“It isn’t? Oh! But can’t you read Saxon?”

“Hmm, I can, but not as well as I like to pretend.” He folded the letter up again and stood. “And the Baroness’s handwriting is not what it could be…”

“Perhaps I can read it! I can’t believe I read better than you, but so…”

“Do you know whom you should ask, my lady? Father Brandt. She writes just as he does.”

“Even so…”

“It would go so much more quickly if you asked Father Brandt to read it to you.”

Wynn stuffed the letter into her hand and patted the backs of her fingers.

“Is he even here?” she asked.

“I saw him heading across the court as I was coming in. Perhaps he was going into the chapel or into his study.”

“I shall go see!” Edris said brightly.

“That’s right. And if he isn’t there, why don’t you bring it back up and we shall puzzle over it together?”

“That’s a good idea, Wynn. That’s what we shall do. And I shall come tell you what it says, regardless, no? We shall see what my silly husband broke.”