Prince Colban receives Duke Alred

“I’ve come to swear fealty to my new Prince,” Alred smiled as he came into the nursery. “I hope he is receiving.”

“He is,” Maud said haughtily, her back to the door. She was never particularly pleased to see Alred, ever since she had quarreled with his wife.

“Let’s see him then.”

Maud turned, smiling slowly.

Alred whistled. “That’s a lion cub if I ever saw one!”

“Did you ever see one?” Sigefrith asked.

“Shut up, Sigefrith.”

Maud only smiled. Alred little knew how truly he spoke. The child was all cat. He had his father’s tawny skin, the slant of his eyes, and his long and slender limbs. 

The nose, it seemed, had to be his as well, since it looked like neither hers nor her parents’. That would be revealed in time. She did wish she had taken a closer look at Finn Wodehead’s nose before he disappeared. Then she might know what to expect.

All that he had of his mother, so far, was her ears and perhaps her hair. He would have dark hair like his father, she thought, but in the sunlight there was a sheen of her own chestnut across his head. Oh, he would be beautiful – of that there was no doubt.

“What do you plan to name him, Sigefrith?” Alred asked after inspecting the boy. “How about Leo? Or Leofric!”

“‘Son of a serpent!’” they growled in unison and laughed, remembering an old, departed friend.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Sigefrith said thoughtfully. “Let me see, I named Caedwulf for my storied ancestor, and Britamund for my mother. I don’t want to name him for my father, because then he’ll be ‘Young Sigefrith’ and I don’t want to be ‘Old Sigefrith’ like poor Egelric, after having been ‘Young Sigefrith’ all my life. Perhaps it is Maud’s turn to choose. What was your father’s name again, Maud?”

“I want to name him Colban,” she said quietly. Malcolm’s father was named Colban.

“Colban?” Sigefrith repeated after a moment’s surprise.

“He saved your life, didn’t he?”

“Well – yes, that’s true. In that case I am happy you chose Colban. I wouldn’t stand for naming my son after that treacherous Malcolm!”

Maud looked around in alarm.

“I don’t mean Magog, I mean that son of a – Scots King.”

Alred snickered. “Would be a fine joke if you named him Prince Edgar. He would have a better chance of being king than the other.”

“Colban,” Maud insisted. “I’ve already begun calling him Colban, and I won’t stop now.”

“Very well, Maud,” Sigefrith said. “Prince Colban, if it pleases you. Eh, Prince Colban?” he said, pinching the baby’s foot. Annoyed, little Colban drew his foot back.

“Don’t harass him, Sigefrith.”

Sigefrith shrunk away, hurt.

“Say, Sigefrith,” Alred continued, “you should get God to come down here and be his ‘God’-father.” He laughed at his joke. “Wouldn’t Father Brandt punch a new hole in the roof of the church if he saw God himself coming up to the font fully rigged in kilt and dagger?”

“Alred, you pagan,” Sigefrith laughed, “one of these days you’re going to slip up and call them God and My God before Father Brandt and he’s going to put a new hole in your roof!”

“No, listen!” Alred went on, choking with laughter. “You should get God and My God to come, and give him two godfathers. Then Father Brandt will explode trying to figure out how to do that while yet ‘having no other God before me.’”

Maud smirked as the two of them began punching each other, which is what they always did when they got laughing too hard.

But her heart beat rapidly. What if it were possible? Was it wrong for a man to be godfather to his own child? Oh, of course it was wrong! But it was wrong for a man to have a child with another man’s wife! What did the rest matter now? She wanted Malcolm to see his son. And she wanted to see Malcolm.

“Couldn’t we, Sigefrith?” she asked quietly.

“Couldn’t we what?” Sigefrith asked, still laughing.

“Have Colban and Malcolm come for his christening.”

“You had better put your milkmaids away first, Sigefrith,” Alred warned. “God Almighty told me that The Lord My God must have had a sweetheart or two or six while he was here – he came late to bed most every night.”

Maud went white.

Sigefrith laughed. “I wouldn’t mind having a few of his bastards around – pardon me, Maud,” he coughed. “We could use men like that here.”

Maud was beginning to feel dizzy. Sigefrith had no idea what he was saying.

“Send God Almighty over to my stable then,” Alred said. “He’s the stronger one.”

“Don’t I know it! Every time he squeezes me, something cracks.”

“Is that what happened to your head?”

Sigefrith sent one of the children’s toy turtles skittering across the floor as he lunged at Alred.

“Out!” Maud cried. “You’re worse than children!”

“Beg pardon, Your Majesty,” Sigefrith said sheepishly as they slunk out. But she heard their footsteps thumping down the hall as one of them chased the other outside.

She would have to talk to Sigefrith about Colban and Malcolm another time.