Eirik is ill at ease
“What are you doing up here by yourself, my lonesome kitten?” Eirik asked Estrid as he came out of his bedroom.
Estrid was lounging on the wooden bench in the sparely-furnished sitting room at the top of the stairs. “What are you doing getting up only now?” she asked him. “It’s nearly time for dinner.”
“I was out late last night,” he grinned. “What’s your excuse, sourpuss?”
“Oh, Eadie is home,” she grumbled as she sat up. “Everyone is down in the hall fussing over her.”
“Jealous?”
“No! Hilda hates her, that’s all I care about. I’m sure I don’t care if Sigefrith or Lady Eadgith pay her more attention than me.”
“What if your brother does?” he said as he sat next to her on the bench.
“Oh, you wouldn’t!”
“Wouldn’t I?” he laughed. “I’m getting tired of my little kitchen maid. A fine lady like Eadie might be more entertaining. I’m glad she’s home.”
“Sigefrith would flay you alive and you know it.”
“Not if he doesn’t find out.”
“How would you hide it?”
“Oh, we could just say that she’s getting fat…”
“Oh! That’s not what I meant! You’re awful!” she laughed. “And then she gets suddenly thin again! ‘But what’s that sound under your bed, Eadie?’”
“‘Only a kitten!’ says she!”
They both stifled shrieks of laughter.
“Oh wouldn’t it be the funniest thing!” Estrid gushed. “If Eadie were to go the way of Hilda!”
“In that case, don’t count on your old brother,” Eirik said. “I don’t care to be chained to that girl—or any other—for the rest of my life.”
“I didn’t mean you, puppy.”
“Who then? Brede?”
“Not Brede!”
“And why not? Don’t tell me you’re still letting him come around.”
“What if I were?”
“Listen, I told you I don’t like him, and most particularly I don’t like him for you.”
“But who else is there?”
“Nobody else for now, but what does that matter? You’re a woman. You don’t need a sweetheart. Why don’t you wait and let your brother pick out a nice man for you, kitten?”
“I should rather pick out my own.”
“You would only choose a pretty face like Brede and never mind that he’s a penniless nobody who won’t even earn a name for himself with his sword.”
“He’s not nobody. His blood is good. He’s our cousin, and the King’s close cousin, too. And he will be a knight, just as you will.”
“Don’t even mention us in the same sentence! The day that boy beats me with his sword is the day I hang mine up for good! That little weedy thing!”
“Oh, Eirik…”
“Don’t! He’s only here because Sigefrith took pity on him. Some husband for you!”
“I didn’t say I meant to marry him…”
“Then stay away from him! He has one thing on his mind, and that’s to send you ‘the way of Hilda,’ as you put it!”
“Eirik! You know I never would.”
“I don’t know what Hilda has been whispering in your ear,” he grumbled.
“Nothing that makes me eager to go her way,” she giggled. “It all seems rather dreadful to me.”
“Simply continue thinking that for now, kitten, and we shall do very well,” he said, putting an arm over her shoulder. But Eirik was not quite at ease. He knew Brede, and he knew what it was to be a young man…
“Is it?” she whispered suddenly.
“Is what what?”
“Is it dreadful?”
Here was a chance to undo some of the damage Hilda might have done. “Well… for the girl I suppose it is. I don’t know why they let us. I suppose it is so that we will give them presents, or tell them they are pretty, or pay attention to them.”
“Or marry them,” she giggled. “Like Hilda.”
“That’s true. But you don’t need any of those things, do you, kitten? I tell you you’re pretty and give you presents and pay attention to you.”
“But you won’t marry me,” she said, pretending to pout.
“If you find a man you want to marry, tell me first, would you please? Besides, you know he won’t thank you if you force his hand.”
“Sigefrith seems happy enough.”
“Sigefrith is too dense to even realize that his hand was forced. But you should tell Hilda to watch out—one of these days she will manage to make even Sigefrith lose his patience, and he will wonder what on earth he’s doing with that girl, and that’s the day he will figure it all out.”
“He won’t mind. He’s mad about his baby.”
“Most men won’t be so easily appeased, Estrid,” he warned.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry, puppy, I don’t even want to think about it. I’m a good girl,” she said with a saucy grin.
Eirik smiled back at her, but he was not quite at ease.
