Lady Eadgith is discontented

“Sigefrith, do you mean to fall asleep there?” Estrid giggled. “Are you become an old man so suddenly, which falls asleep before the fire after his supper?”

Eadgith smiled at her brother, who reclined on the bench beside hers. He did not seem to be asleep, but dreaming, certainly. It was a shame that Estrid should rouse him.

He had seemed to become a man suddenly, though not an old one of course. She hadn’t expected it, for she had thought that if he would change, it would be upon becoming a knight, or perhaps after returning from his voyage to Denmark. But it had not been until they had moved into his new house on All Souls Day that he had, as it were, put away childish things.

Now he spoke as a knight, thought as a knight, and carried himself as a knight. He was no longer guest nor pensioner but master. He met daily with his steward and often with his tenants. He sat at the head of his table and said the prayer before meals. His men called him sir and rose when he entered the room. If they thought it droll to have a master who was not quite seventeen, they never showed it.

Indeed, she had on several occasions overheard his tenants and servants boasting of their master, and his tremendous sword was already a legend. Haakon Tryggvason, who was a veritable giant, had imposed such swords on all of his men – the joke being that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to reach him to spar with him – but in these parts had never been seen a sword as tall as a man’s shoulder and which had to be swung with two hands. Her brother and his squire were guaranteed an audience whenever their two swords crossed.

He reminded her ever more of their father, at least to the eye, and to the ear when he laughed. But there was something in him that was not in their father – or perhaps only something in their father that he lacked. She hoped he would never acquire it.

“He’s not old, he’s only drunk,” Eirik laughed.

“I am not,” Sigefrith said, “but you may well be. Do you realize that if you drink through my wine before Christmas, there won’t be any more until spring?”

“You can always get some from the Baron.”

“That isn’t what I mean. How shall I pay for it?”

“Oh, again,” Eirik sighed. “I know, you have walls to dig and wells to build, or vice versa.”

“Precisely.”

“I never should have allowed you to get the falcons. Now you will deny me everything else.”

“Allowed me? You begged me.”

“Well, we aren’t allowed to hunt stags. We must have some fun.”

“You may visit my father if you want to hunt stags. We are on the King’s land. And you may drink his wine as well.”

“Whose wine? Your father’s or the King’s?”

“Both!” Sigefrith laughed.

“To your health, too, I suppose.”

“To the health of these beautiful ladies,” Sigefrith said, with a smile for his sister.

“Alas, but when shall I have a beautiful lady of my very own?” Eirik sighed, with a wink for Sigefrith’s sister.

Eadgith flushed. As awkward as she felt around Brede, Eirik made her feel positively frightened. There was something about him that made her feel herself a lamb, and he a great, blond lion. It had not troubled her so much when they were at the castle, but his presence made her nervous here. Perhaps it was that the size of the house brought them into closer contact, or perhaps it was simply that they lacked the crowds of people at the castle… or a certain person in particular, who would not allow anything bad to happen to her…

Her mother seemed to read her mind. “I suppose you never will,” she sighed. “We’re so lonely and out of the way here.”

“Mother!” Sigefrith protested. “We have many friends here, and even family.”

“I don’t mean in the valley,” she said. “I mean here in this house. No one ever visits us.”

“We haven’t been here two weeks,” Eadgith said.

“And everyone has visited us,” Sigefrith added. “Matilda was here only today with her boys, and Cenwulf and Alred ate with us yesterday.”

“Sigefrith never comes,” she said petulantly.

“But Harold is ill,” her brother said. “You don’t want him to leave his wife and baby and come sit around our fire.”

“And fall asleep like an old man,” Estrid added, with a glittering smile for Eadgith.

Her mother did not respond at all, but only looked at the fire with a bit of a pout.

Eadgith turned her attention to tracing the pattern on her dress with her finger. She did not like to see her mother sighing over Sigefrith. She could not forget what her father had told her. And ever since he had, she had noticed on many occasions how her mother liked to follow Sigefrith around, with her eyes if not with her feet, and how she often found excuses to touch him, or even embrace him.

And her mother could permit herself this, and Sigefrith could permit this, because they had known one another since they were tiny children. But she wondered what it meant to him. Certainly her mother had taken over the role of the Queen in many ways while they were living at the castle. Eadgith now wondered in how many ways precisely. Such thoughts would tend to explain why her mother should pout and sigh over his absence.

Such thoughts also made Eadgith ill.

“You leave your wife and baby to come sit around our fire,” Eirik pointed out to her brother.

“They’re only upstairs!” Sigefrith protested. “She can come down if she likes.”

“I’m certain Haakon sleeps by now,” Estrid said. “She probably pouts up there because you are down here.”

“She mustn’t be jealous of my family. Our family, rather,” Sigefrith said, for indeed they were all cousins in this house.

“She’s jealous of Eadgith today,” Estrid said, never shy when it came to making trouble for Eadgith.

“What? Why?”

“Because you said she might have the black mare for her own, and Hilda wanted her.”

“What does Hilda want with that horse? Hilda doesn’t care to ride, and she can’t ride at the moment anyway. Eadie needs a steady horse to ride to my father’s. Besides which, Sigefrith gave me that horse, and he told me he meant for Eadie to have her after her foal was weaned.”

“Oh, if Sigefrith gave it to her…” Estrid said, with a malicious smile for Eadgith.

“I shall talk to Hilda. Good Lord!” He came to sit beside his sister and pulled her into his arms. “If she wants to be jealous, she should rather be jealous that she is pouting in her room while I am sitting down here with my arms around my first love, shouldn’t she, my darling?”

Eadgith tried to smile.

“Why the sad little face, Eadie?” he asked softly. “Did Hilda bother you about that horse?”

“She didn’t say anything to me. I didn’t know.”

“If she does, you must tell me. I don’t want anyone making you unhappy, not even – and especially – my wife.”

“I’m not unhappy, Sigefrith.”

“I’m glad.”