Eadgith and Britamund gather flowers

Eadgith looked up from the moonlit patch of wildflowers and saw the light of a firebrand come bobbing up the hill. She ducked behind a bush, but she could not speak to warn Britamund.

“What are you doing up here, Princess?” the King called once he had grown near. “Where’s Eadgith?”

“Oh, Papa!” Britamund squealed. “She’s right here – Oh! Eadgith?”

Eadgith came out from behind the bush, thankful that the ruddy light would hide her blush.

“There she is!” Britamund hopped around in glee.

“So what are you two ladies doing all the way back here? I thought we had lost you.”

“Oh, Papa! We’re getting flowers to put under our pillow as Lady Hilda said, so we may dream tonight of the men we shall marry. I want to see whether it is true I must marry Dunstan.”

Sigefrith glanced up into the shadows where Eadgith stood, and she wished she had stayed behind her bush.

She hadn’t said more than a polite greeting to him since she had returned from her father’s, and she had been looking forward to their first conversation with a sort of dread. The mere weight of his eyes on her now was harder to bear than their dinners and their fireside chats had been in weeks past. In her brief absence, he had somehow grown, in the words of Alred, as wide as the whole world.

And seeing him tonight in his role as king before all these hundreds of people had made her feel as tiny as a grain of sand.

“The contract hasn’t yet been signed, Princess, so if he’s not the man there’s still time to tell me.”

“But you’ve spoiled it now, Brit,” Eadgith said. “Remember? We must gather the flowers in silence.”

“Ohhhhhhh no, I forgot,” she moaned.

“You can’t expect Brit to do anything in silence,” Sigefrith laughed.

“Papa, look!” she said, shoving her flowers up under his chin. “Lady Hilda says we must find seven different flowers, and I already have five!”

“Good girl!”

“And we want to get the seventh one in the churchyard, for better luck, but Lady Hilda says you needn’t because she tried it with only flowers from her garden, and she dreamt of Sigefrith, so you see, it works!”

“But only if you gather them in silence, Brit,” Eadgith said, finally daring to approach the two.

“Can’t we start over?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps you must gather seven entirely different flowers now.”

“Oh, no!”

“In that case I am terribly sorry to have disturbed you ladies,” Sigefrith said. “But if I had known what you were about, I could have spared you the trouble. I believe I already know whom the both of you will marry.”

“You do?” Britamund cried. “It’s Dunstan, isn’t it?”

“Would that be so difficult?”

“He’s so quiet!”

“Just what you need in a husband, Princess,” he chuckled. “You talk, he listens.”

“I know. But what about Eadgith?”

“If Eadgith will allow me to walk home with her, I shall tell her on the way.”

“But when will you tell me?”

“Soon. But right now Brede and your brother are waiting for you by the fire to take you home.”

“Oh! Can’t I walk with you and Eadgith as far as the castle?”

“No. But I shall walk with you as far as the fire to get another brand. This one is about to burn up my hand. And meanwhile Eadgith will begin gathering her flowers again, so that she may tell me tomorrow whether I have guessed correctly.”

Eadgith was finally released from her paralysis as her last chance to protest arose. “Oh, but I was supposed to walk home with Sigefrith and Eirik!”

“I have already acquired the necessary dispensation from your brother and may legally take you home myself. Unless you would rather go with them?”

“Oh…” Oh! Now she would have to choose. “No…”

“Well then. Come with me, Brit. Here, Eadgith,” he said, plucking a flower from Britamund’s hair and handing it to her. “Here’s the first of the new bunch.”

“Oh, but – but I must gather them in silence.”

“Then you’ve spoiled it! Let’s start again.” He took back the flower and dropped it at his feet, and then provided a second from his giggling daughter’s head. “Now, henceforth I talk, you listen. I shall be with you in a moment.”

Eadgith stood paralyzed again with Britamund’s flower in her hand, and she watched the light of the firebrand go bobbing down the hill, silhouetting the forms of a bouncing girl and of a man who seemed as tall as the trees.