“Do you see how strong he is?” Wulf said proudly. “He will be a big man someday. Perhaps even bigger than I am.”
When Royse was six weeks old, and Cailin fully recovered from the birth, Wulf Ironfist set off to visit his villages. Before he left, he called Aelfa into his and Cailin’s presence. She came meekly, looking particularly pretty in a pale blue tunica she had made from a length of fabric Cailin had given her on Beltane.
“How may I serve you, lord?” she inquired politely.
“Has your memory returned yet, even in part, maiden?” he asked her quietly, his voice both gentle and encouraging.
Aelfa’s light green eyes grew visibly misty. “Alas, my lord, no,” she answered him. “I have tried to remember something of myself, but I cannot. Ohh, what will become of me?”
“It is time that you were wed,” Wulf answered her.
“Wed?” Aelfa looked startled. This was obviously not something that she had even considered. “You would marry me?”
Cailin hissed angrily. The nerve of the wench!
“Not I,” he said, somewhat startled himself by her words. “I go tomorrow to tour the villages belonging to my holding. Since you can remember nothing of yourself, and we have heard of no lost lasses in the time you have been with us, then it is time for you to begin a new life. As lord of this land, your welfare is my responsibility. I will therefore seek out a good husband for you, and you will be wed as soon as it is possible. Before the summer’s end, I think.”
“But I do not think I want a husband,” Aelfa said nervously. “Perhaps I already have a husband, my lord. What if that is so?”
“Is it, Aelfa? Do you have a husband?” He pierced her with a sharp look. “Perhaps you have run away from a husband who caught you with a lover and then beat you for your faithlessness.”
“I cannot remember, my lord,” she stubbornly insisted.
“Then,” Wulf said, smiling benignly, “I think it best we find you a good man and resettle you, maiden. Is it agreed?”
For a very long moment Aelfa was silent, and then finally she said, “Yes, my lord, but could you not marry me yourself?”
“One wife is more than enough for me,” he replied with a chuckle. “Eh, lambkin?” He swept a loving look at Cailin by his side.
“You will never need another,” she said quietly.
When Nellwyn learned of the other girl’s fate, she complained to her mistress, “Why is it that Aelfa is to have a husband and I am not? Have I not served you well, my lady?”
“More than well, Nellwyn,” Cailin assured her. “You may have a husband whenever you choose him, unless, of course, you would prefer that my lord and I select a good man for you. Aelfa is alone in the world and needs our aid; but you, Nellwyn, have always had me, and whatever you desire within reason I will give you for your faithful service.”
“When Aelfa first came,” Nellwyn told her mistress, “I thought her nice, but she is not, my lady. She teases the men to distraction.”
“I know,” Cailin replied. “That is why I suggested to my lord that he find her a husband—in Orrford, if possible.”
“Orrford?” Nellwyn giggled. “It is far, my lady, and not very big, and there are so many cows. More than people, I think.”
“Indeed?” Cailin said, a single eyebrow cocked.
“She will have to work very hard,” Nellwyn continued. “Life is harsh is Orrford, and once she is married, she cannot flirt with others.”
“No,” Cailin answered solemnly. “Husbands will take umbrage if a wife flirts with other men, Nellwyn. Aelfa will have to become a very good and most proper wife, won’t she?” She grinned at her servant.
Nellwyn giggled. “I do not think Aelfa will like either that or Orrford, my lady. She pretends to be meek and modest before you and my lord, but her tongue is sharp, and sometimes foul. She is not, I think, what she pretends to be, yet never has she spoken to me of her past. She does not even talk in her sleep, for I have listened.”
“Soon Aelfa will not be our worry any longer,” Cailin said soothingly to Nellwyn. “By summer’s end she will be gone from us to a husband.”
“Good riddance!” Nellwyn said feelingly. “I shall not be sorry to see the back of that one, my lady.”
Cailin suddenly had a flash of intuition. “Is it Albert or Bran-hard you favor, Nellwyn, my lass?” she asked the girl.
Nellwyn blushed to the roots of her yellow hair. “Ohh, my lady! How did you know? ‘Tis Albert, the fool, but he cannot see me for his eyes are too full of Aelfa, though she toys with him, first favoring him and then Bran-hard. Both are confused by her wicked behavior, but ’tis Albert I love.”
“He will have forgotten her by Samain, I promise,” Cailin said to the girl. “Then we will see if he favors a marriage with you.”
Nellwyn’s blue eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my lady, thank you! I would make Albert a good wife. I would. The fool!”
Yes, Cailin thought after her revealing discussion with Nellwyn, the sooner Aelfa was gone from Cadda-wic, the better. Still her conscience nagged at her. Was she being fair, foisting the wench off on some poor unsuspecting young man? Wulf, however, was fully aware of Aelfa’s shortcomings. He would choose the right man. It would be up to the bridegroom to correct Aelfa’s behavior. Cailin hoped he would be strong enough.
Wulf had been gone for over a week when Aelfa disappeared one afternoon. “Has she run away, perhaps?” Cailin wondered aloud.
Aelfa, however, reappeared before the gates were closed that evening. When questioned about her whereabouts, she claimed to have been out berrying.
“You brought no berries back,” Cailin noted sharply.
“I could find none, my lady,” was the meek reply.
“She lies,” Nellwyn said as she and her mistress made their rounds to see that the fires were banked for the night, that the door was bolted, and everything else in the hall was secure. “She had no basket with her, my lady. How could she berry without a basket?”
“She could not,” Cailin answered. “More than likely she was out meeting a lover upon the hillside, the bold wench.”
“Albert and Bran-hard were looking something fierce at each other in the hall at supper, my lady,” Nellwyn reported.
“There is our answer,” Cailin said. “She is setting those two against one another again, but for what purpose I do not know.”
Cailin climbed to the solar where Aurora and Royse were already long asleep. Lifting the baby from his cradle, she fed the half-sleeping infant before finding her own rest. She could not imagine a better life than the one she had. Wulf. Their children. Cadda-wic. Sometimes she would glimpse the old marble floor of what had once been her childhood home, and the memories would flood her being. Lately when that happened, she found she was no longer sad. Most of her memories were good ones, and whatever happened, those memories could not be taken from her. She would always have them, and in having them, she would always have her family with her.
Cailin slept, not hearing the bolt to the hall door being drawn softly. The door opened, and then it closed as silently as Aelfa could make it. She stood outside the entry a long minute, listening to the sounds of the night, and then she ran on bare feet across the courtyard to the gatehouse. The waning moon silvered her naked form. She carried a small skin of wine in her hand. Gaining her destination, Aelfa quickly entered the small gatehouse, shutting the door quietly. A smile of derision crossed her face at the sight of the dozing man on the stool in the corner. What a weakling he was, and his sense of duty was certainly lacking.