Egelric meets a lady
“Egelric,” Elfleda said, interrupting his grim musings, “There’s a page from Nothelm at the door. You are wanted at the castle.”
Egelric slipped past her without a word and opened the door.
“Aren’t you going to take your coat?” she asked, her voice almost tender.
“What do you care?” he snapped, and slammed the door behind him.
Egelric stalked up the path through the woods. In truth, the evening was bitterly cold. After a day of snowfall, the sky had cleared and the temperature had plunged. Fine, icy snowflakes swirled in the wind, shining in the moonlight like stars.
They stung his skin, but Egelric relished the pain. Mere cold and snow couldn’t possibly hurt him enough.
If he hadn’t chased that horse! If he hadn’t gone to that feast! If he hadn’t kissed that girl! If he hadn’t come to Lothere! If he hadn’t been born!
He didn’t want to see Alred tonight. He didn’t want to see anyone. He thought Alred had understood that.
But when he reached the castle, he was surprised when the servant told him that he would see whether Her Grace the Duchess was ready to receive him. When had she ever sent for him before?
When the servant returned, he was shown directly to Matilda’s room. He could hear the new baby squirming in her cradle.
“Good evening, Goodman Wodehead. I am certain that my husband has thanked you already, but I wished to thank you personally for what you did for us two nights ago. It is remarkable that you were able to save all of our horses, but I particularly want to thank you for saving Jupiter. As you know, that horse saved his master’s life once, and I know that my husband would have been very sorry not to have been able to render him the same service.”
Egelric bowed. This was precisely what he did not want to hear. They were only horses…
“However, I am sorry that you felt those horses were worth risking your life over, Goodman. They can easily be replaced, whereas you are invaluable to us,” she scolded gently.
Egelric bowed again.
“Now that I have you here, perhaps you would like to meet her wee ladyship?” Matilda turned and lifted little Lady Ethelburga from her cradle.
“She looks like Your Grace,” Egelric said shyly. This tiny girl was the daughter of kings, he reminded himself. Her very skin looked to be made of a rarer material than his own.
“She doesn’t act like her mother,” Matilda smiled. “I was a dreadfully fussy baby, but Ethelburga is a wee angel. Would you like to hold her?”
“Oh – Oh – I don’t know much about tiny babies. My girl is a bit older…”
“Nonsense, I’ve seen you playing with little Wynnie Hogge many times. Here, she won’t bite you, and even if she does she hasn’t any teeth. You know how mothers believe that everyone wants to hold their babies, and you wouldn’t want to disappoint me.”
Egelric found that a noble baby had about the same feel as a farmer’s baby, but at only two weeks old she was already boldly holding his gaze. Such babies really were born to rule, he thought.
But as he stared into her dark eyes he remembered another pair of eyes like that, eyes that had never opened on the light. Oh, how unfair it all was. Of course he didn’t begrudge the Duke and Duchess their children – he only wanted his own son.
Matilda smiled at him, never dreaming how his heart was breaking to look at her little girl. He was charming in his way, she thought. He was shy around her, of course, but she thought she could imagine what he would be like with Alred. Alred still had a soldier’s way of falling into an easy comradeship with his inferiors. It was too bad about that wife of his – and that odd child. If he had only had a normal wife and family, she wouldn’t have felt so uneasy about the amount of trust that Alred put in him. Alred would no doubt make a gentleman of him, and she didn’t want to have that witch Elfleda at her table.
