Cenwulf can finally laugh
Asleep, nearly dreaming, Edris did not call into question the presence of the man who stood murmuring over her baby’s cradle. Rather, she lay wrapped in a feeling of deep contentment, secure in the knowledge that everything was as it should have been.
Then she remembered that if everything was as it should have been, everything was not as it actually was.
Then she sat up.
“Good gracious! Cenwulf!” was all she found to say.
She tried to throw the blankets off her legs, but her feet were tangled in the sheets, and when she tried to crawl across the bed, she was only further hindered by her own knees that pinned her to the mattress by her nightgown. Fortunately she had all the width of the bed to cross, and so when she flopped ingloriously onto her stomach, she didn’t fall forward onto the floor.
“Edris!” Cenwulf gasped. “What are you trying to break now?”
He pulled her up and fairly dragged her across the bed and into his arms. He reeked of horses and road dust and his own sweat, and his beard was long and rough, but she clung to him and pressed her cheek against his neck until the other cheek could bear the empty air no longer and she had to switch sides. All the while she laughed a little hysterically.
“How is everybody?” he asked.
“You’re home!” she announced.
“I know, Edris,” he chuckled.
“Everyone is well! And you? And Baldwin!” she gasped as she remembered the other beloved person she had not seen in four months.
She tried to run for the door, but he stopped her with a strong arm. “The boy has been asleep on my saddle since shortly after supper,” he said wearily, “and I just carried him up and put him to bed. Now you shall put me to bed, and then you may go and gloat over Sir Baldwin for the rest of the night, for all I care.”
“Sir Baldwin?” she giggled as he went to light the lamp. “Are you certain you won’t care?”
“Sir Baldwin!” he groaned. “And by that I mean our son.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean our son is a knight.”
Edris did not know what to say. Perhaps she was dreaming after all. She hugged her husband tightly as soon as he came back around the bed – he was real enough.
“But he’s not yet eight years old!” she protested.
“Edris, would you mind letting go of me for a moment so I can undress? I am feeling rather filthy now that I have a couple of tidy little ladies before me again.”
“Let me undress you and put you to bed, filthy boy,” she said and reached for his belt. “But tell me this about our son.”
“God in heaven! How I wish you had been with me! If there had been one other person there who noticed just how absurd everything was, I might have been able to laugh about it.”
“Who was it? The Baroness or Leofwine?” she laughed.
“Both! I swear to you, those two and the devil are in league against me.”
“What did they do?”
“God help me, I would have to tell you everything if I told you anything. Your son only comes into it at the end.”
As soon as she pulled his shirt off he grabbed her and kissed her.
Edris knew he was hoping to avoid a conversation, and she herself was tempted to put it off until the morning. But even four months of unsatisfied desire could not stand against her unsatisfied curiosity, and she soon pulled her head away from his. It was her son, after all!
“So tell me!” she said eagerly.
“Let me see,” he sighed. “First, we met her at the summer house on the Rhine.”
“Oh, how sweet!” Edris stopped a moment to remember the golden summers of her own girlhood spent at that house, before she had been sent into the convent.
“Indeed,” he said dryly. “And she was, of course, delighted with her grandson. So delighted that she almost immediately sent me to Engern to fetch his grandfather’s sword for him.”
“Shouldn’t Beda get that sword?” She pulled him over to sit on the chair so that she could remove his boots.
“When has the Baroness ever let her stepsons inherit anything they were supposed to have? If she could call herself ‘Baron’ she would not even let Beda use his title.”
“Even so,” she admitted.
“But she seemed also to take a great liking to Leofwine this year, perhaps to spite me for having accused your brother of being an assassin.”
“Oh! Did you find what happened to him?”
“Nobody has seen Raedwald since last summer. All I learned is that he has a number of great friends and a number of sworn enemies, and some of those are now my enemies and my friends, respectively. Also she has informed me that I shall take the blame if he comes back to her without a head.”
“But that wouldn’t be your fault at all!”
Cenwulf did not bother to reply to that protest. They both knew that the Baroness could make it his fault by sheer force of will.
“And so she kept Leof with her,” he continued, “and Baldwin of course, when I went up to Engern. But as soon as I turned my back, she packed up her entire household and went visiting down the Rhine, leaving only Leofwine and Sophie at the house with a few servants.”
“Sophie, Bernhelm’s little daughter?”
“Also known as Sophie, the Baron’s niece,” he agreed. “And she isn’t so little any longer, as you will shortly see. But one thing at a time…”
“Is she here?” Edris gasped.
“One thing at a time, Edris. Of course the inevitable happened where Leof and a pretty girl are concerned, and by the time I returned with the damned sword, the Baroness was home again and waiting for me with the news that my squire had offended the young lady’s modesty, and would I kindly ride back up to Engern and ask her hand of her uncle on Leofwine’s behalf?”
“But she must have known what would happen!” Edris tossed the other boot away and planted her hands on his knees to push herself to her feet.
“I’m certain she did.”
“She must have ‘desired their intimate union above all things!’” Edris laughed wickedly as she went to work on the knot that held up his leggings. Nearly every phrase of that infamous letter had become material for jokes between the two of them.
Cenwulf laughed with her. “Do you see, Edris? If you had been with me, I am certain I would have laughed over the absurdity of the entire affair. I simply can’t decide whether she did it for the fun of sending me up to be roared at by Beda, or whether she truly wanted Leof as a husband for poor Sophie. I think it must be the former.”
“I hope he will be good to her,” Edris said weakly. She had some doubts that he would.
“Don’t forget that her Uncle Brandt is here to roar at him if he isn’t.”
“That’s true,” she smiled. “I’m certain the Baroness thought of that. Oh! I hope you will let me be there when you tell Brandt!”
“Then we certainly shall laugh,” he agreed.
“But what about Baldwin?”
“But what about this nightgown?” he countered.
“It’s coming off,” she giggled and began to untie the lace. “But meanwhile you tell me about Baldwin.”
“Oh, Baldwin!” Cenwulf groaned. “As soon as I turned my back a second time, she packed up her entire household, Leof and Sophie included, and went visiting up the Rhine to Cologne, where she had Baldwin knighted by the archbishop.”
Edris could not help but laugh. “But why?”
“Because she thinks ‘this mortal life of hers will soon come to an end,’” Cenwulf quoted, “and she wanted to see him knighted before she died.”
“So! I hope she didn’t want to see him married as well!”
“Fortunately by this time I had learned my lesson, and I never again turned my back on her unless I had both Baldwin and Leofwine in tow.”
“You and Sigefrith had better not wait to sign a contract for Baldwin and Emma if that is what you desire. Otherwise she will certainly contrive to marry Baldwin as she likes.”
“Edris, hush,” he sighed and pushed her down onto the bed. “I don’t like to think about it so soon. Why don’t we get to work on our own ‘intimate union’ instead?”
“Is that what you desire?” she smiled.
“More than anything.”
