Lord Alfric is introduced

The Duchess was recounting to Githa Selle her latest troubles with the stablehands. 

“I shall have to make my own bed out in the barn,” she complained. “I simply can’t trust them any longer. I told them: Don’t give Ruby any of the meadow grass; I go down there this morning and find her munching on the meadow grass. I tell them: Don’t let Ruby out in the pasture with that foolheaded black colt; I go out there this afternoon and find the two of them out there with that colt kicking up his heels right next to Ruby’s belly. She’s carrying Jupiter’s last foal, and I’ll be d – that is, I shall be very displeased if anything happens to either of them.”

Githa smiled and nodded gamely.

Matilda and Githa were standing outside Colburga’s bedroom, waiting with the others to be invited in to meet the newborn heir. But the February evening was pleasantly mild, and Matilda and Alred had come straight from their dinner, where they may have had a little too much mead, and so Matilda drifted along in a warm and honey-​​scented haze of contentment.

“They’re as dutiful as you please when I’m there,” she continued, “but I know that as soon as my back is turned they’re lazing around and playing dice all day, or drinking and chasing the milkmaids around the hayloft all night. I almost believe they have sentries to watch for my coming, because I never catch them at it, but I know that they – ”

“How unfortunate Egelric Wodehead isn’t here,” Maud snapped without turning around. “He knows how to handle so many things.”

Matilda stopped in mid-​​sentence with her mouth hanging open. Githa looked around at the Queen in surprise. But Maud stood with her back to them, smiling waspishly at Githa Ashdown, who only lifted an eyebrow.

But before anyone could speak again, the door opened and Cenwulf stepped outside, beaming.

“His young lordship is ready to receive his visitors,” he announced.

As the others moved to the door with murmurs of delight, Alred took the opportunity to have a word with Maud.

“Your Majesty may well regret Egelric’s absence,” he said quietly, “for Sigefrith will not return until he does, and he may prove to have Egelric to thank for getting home at all!” Alred then turned and followed his wife into Colburga’s chamber, leaving Maud scowling after him.

Colburga lay pale and quiet on her bed, but all eyes were on the baby that Cenwulf gently lifted from her arms. “Young Alfric,” he said proudly.

“Oh, the darling! He looks just like his father!” Githa Selle cried.

“Nonsense!” Matilda said. “He has Colburga’s mouth and chin. Look!”

“He certainly has your handsome eyes,” Githa said to Cenwulf.

“Are you trying to seduce my husband, Githa?” Colburga called from the bed. “Don’t think that because I can’t get up I won’t come after you!”

“Oh, no!” Githa cried, horrified. Colburga only laughed.

“May I hold him?” Maud asked shyly. “How I miss having a wee baby to hold!”

All the women cooed and sighed and babbled nonsense over the tiny boy, who stared up at them with what looked more than anything like great boredom.

“Enough, enough, ladies,” Alred interrupted. “The lad seems to find you all very tedious, as my wife would say. Let’s have him here so I can talk a little with him, man to man.”

Maud handed the baby over to him with a hint of a scowl on her lips.

Alred turned away from her and began his lecture. “Now, young man, the first thing you need to learn about ladies is that they will talk your ear off with their nonsense, but if you ever want to have any fun with them, you have to at least pretend to find their conversation fascinating.”

Young Alfric’s response to this advice was a mighty howl directly in Alred’s ear.

“Sorry, Alred,” Colburga laughed from her bed. “I already told him that when a man starts talking your ear off with his nonsense, the best thing to do is to tell him he’s full of it.”

“Well, well!” Alred said, handing the screaming baby back to a smirking Maud. “That’s enough lessons for this evening. Good work, friend,” he laughed, turning to embrace Cenwulf. “That’s your boy all right. Roaring like a bull of Bashan!”

“Come here, you,” a tipsy Matilda giggled to her husband a while later, chasing him into a corner with her hands raised in a threat of tickling. “What is this about talking nonsense?” she whispered.

“Matilda, Matilda,” he laughed, “I except you of course. You’re the only woman I know who talks like a man.”

“If I talk as much nonsense as you, it’s no consolation,” she said, pinching him.

“Only when you drink too much, you old sot,” he laughed, pinching her back.

Giggling breathlessly, Matilda glanced over her shoulder to see Maud glaring at the two of them.

Matilda had an idea. “Alred, shall we tell them?” she asked in a whisper. “Everyone who is here is here!”

“My dear, you have never said a truer word.”

“I know, but – should we tell them?”

“Tell them what?”

“About you know. About our secret.”

“Ah,” he said, understanding. “I leave that entirely up to you, my dear.”

“Friends! Everyone!” she announced at once, flouncing into the center of the room.

“It’s so wonderful that we are all here for such a happy occasion that I think we ought to do it again as soon as possible. To that end, I invite you all to Nothelm at a date later to be determined, but which shall probably fall in late August, in order to meet the little guest that my husband and I are expecting to receive around that time.” Here Matilda gave a brief but triumphant glance at Maud. “I hope you’ll all be there,” she added, smiling at the smiling faces around her.

After she had accepted a number of congratulations, Matilda heard Colburga calling her name softly behind her.

“Yes, dear?” she said brightly, turning to her friend. But Colburga’s face was pale and sad.

“Matilda,” Colburga murmured. “It doesn’t help.”

“What, dear?”

“It doesn’t help, Matilda,” she replied softly. “It doesn’t help the pain.”

“I don’t understand?”

Colburga looked off towards the small group of her friends, who were alternating between congratulating Cenwulf and Alred and cooing over little Alfric. “You can have another baby,” she said softly, almost to herself, “but it doesn’t replace the babies you lost. I know. I have borne five children and buried three. Each time you lose a part of yourself, and the new baby doesn’t restore it to you. I thought it might, but it doesn’t.”

Matilda stared down at her, surprised. This was not like Colburga. “We don’t expect the new baby to make us forget the one we lost, do we, Colburga? We wouldn’t want that.”

“No,” Colburga agreed after a moment. “But we want to be happy. And I wanted to tell you that it doesn’t make you happy. That’s all.” Colburga closed her eyes.

“You’re tired, dear,” Matilda said softly. “You’ll feel better soon. You’ll see.”

Colburga did not answer.

Alred looked around just then and saw by the slope of his wife’s shoulders that the gaiety had suddenly gone out of her. Colburga was lying there with her eyes closed, and Matilda was staring at the wall. This wouldn’t do.

He slipped past Cenwulf and took Matilda’s hand to lead her back to the group. But she followed too willingly and with a drooping head, and so he led her into the shade instead.

“I shall not allow you drink with me any longer if you are to get all weepy when you’ve had too much,” he warned. “I’m ridiculous enough on my own – we don’t need to be two bibbering girls.”

“Take me home,” she whimpered.

“Did Maud say something to you?” he frowned. “You and she need to get this straightened out.”

Matilda shook her head. “Oh, forget about Maud. Just take me home.”

“You’ll tell me what happened when we get there?”

She nodded.

“That’s good enough,” he said. “Let’s get you home.”