Leofric and Sigefrith worry about sensibilities
Alred strode into the hall to find Sigefrith and Leofric laughing before the fire, a jug of wine close at hand. He froze, furious at the incongruity with what he was feeling just then.
They turned to him, still grinning, and Sigefrith asked, “What news?”
“Have you forgotten what night it is?” Alred asked coldly.
“Not at all – that’s why we’re sitting up all the night.”
“For all I knew, sitting up drinking all the night is all you ever do.”
“Alred,” Sigefrith said gently as he rose, “what is it? Has anyone been killed?”
“Only the elf, but not for long.”
“Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so, but now we must decide what to do with the body.”
“Where is it?”
“We have it in the Hogge barn, but we can’t leave it there, and we can’t simply bury it again.”
“Why don’t you cut it up into small pieces first?” Leofric offered.
“The wound Egelric gave it with the sword the first time seemed to heal. I would not wager much on the possibility that the creature could not simply reassemble itself later. I am not so much interested in what we do with the body as where we put it. I want it someplace where it could not get out again, even if it does put itself back together.”
“We don’t have a dungeon, I’m afraid,” Sigefrith said.
“You have your crypt.”
“Oh, is that what you were thinking! That place is sealed off, and I have no intention of opening it again.”
“It kept him locked up for a hundred years.”
“We don’t know that. We don’t know where he came from.”
“Oh, he came out of there. I would be willing to wager on that.”
“Well, how are we supposed to do that, then? I have hundreds of people camped out there tonight. Shall we parade the body before them all?”
“We shall have to do it tomorrow night. We have enough men who know the secret to get that trap door open again.”
“I don’t like this idea, Alred.”
“Do you have a better one? The priest did everything he knew to still a restless soul, and the thing crawled out of the ground again. It’s an elf! We don’t know what they are. All we know is that your crypt kept him locked up for a hundred years.”
Sigefrith sighed. “Very well.”
“I should like to see it,” Leofric said.
“Oh, you will!” Alred replied. “We need someone to watch the body until tomorrow night. We have the three of us, plus Egelric, Alwy Hogge, and my Aylmer’s boy, Osric. And I want it watched in pairs, and I want one of the three of us there at all times: to wit, someone who knows his pommel from his blade.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Sigefrith smiled.
“Not now, Sigefrith,” Alred frowned. “I’m about to go watch with Alwy and let Egelric get some rest after the night he spent. Sigefrith, you can watch with Osric later this morning, and Leofric, you and Egelric can watch from the late afternoon till nightfall. I hope he will feel better by then.”
Sigefrith and Leofric looked at one another with rueful grins. “I don’t know that you should have Leofric watch with Egelric,” Sigefrith said.
“Why the hell not?”
“I believe I may have offended his sensibilities the first time I met him,” Leofric said, giggling sheepishly – or drunkenly. “I asked to see his daughter’s ears.”
Alred took a deep breath. Should he smack their heads together or scream? “I don’t think that it will matter,” he said coldly after his temper had ebbed a bit. “I am talking about a man who was just taken by the throat and kissed on the mouth by a rotting corpse, and you two are talking to me about offending his sensibilities?”
The two looked uneasily at each another again.
“Fine, then. I shall watch with Egelric this evening. Sigefrith, I shall allow you the great pleasure of sitting in a barn with a decomposing body and making conversation with Alwy Hogge for six or seven hours. That will sober you up quickly enough. Leofric, I suggest you sleep it off. And, Sigefrith – once I reach that barn, I had better see you there in no more time than it takes for you to wash your face and get your horse saddled. Less, if you take a horse that is faster than mine.”
Alred bowed to the King, turned on his heel, and marched out of the hall like the soldier he still was.
