allow this self-glorifying Saxon oaf to steal from Quintus.
Meanwhile, when Ragnar Strongspear withdrew his spy, Wulf and his men began to build a defense around the hall. It was an earthworks that they topped with a stone wall. Small wooden towers were set atop the wall, allowing for an excellent view of the surrounding valley. Winefrith worked long hours in his smithy producing doors for the walls. They were made of strong, aged oak, a foot in thickness and well-sheathed in forged iron. There had never been doors like them.
The hall was always busy, and always full of Wulf's men. There was so much work to do, and even more to oversee. As mistress here, it was Cailin's duty to provide direction. She seemed to have no time for herself, nor any privacy.
One day, in an effort to escape it all, she climbed the ladder to the solar above the hall. It was not a large room, its wood floor covering only a third of the hall below. There were four bed spaces set into the stone walls. They were bare and empty of bedding, for she and Wulf had been taking their rest below with everyone else.
Cailin sighed wistfully, remembering the early days of her marriage, when he could hardly wait to bed her. Since that wonderful night in Byzantium, they had not found time to couple. Wulf seemed totally absorbed in his task of raising the hall's defenses. He came to bed late, tired, and never woke her. She had tried several times to wait for him, but to no avail. She was exhausted herself, for her days were long and began early.
A ray of sun cut through one of the two narrow windows, partly illuminating the room, and Cailin began to visualize it as she had once planned it. Her loom would be by a window to catch the light. There would be a rectangular oak table and two chairs where they might dine in private. The bed spaces would be empty, but for the one in which they would sleep. Eventually their family would share the solar, but not at first. They would have their privacy for now!
'Corio, come give me your aid.'
He arose. 'How may I help you, cousin?'
Cailin explained, and before she knew it, Corio, with the help of several young men, had lifted her loom, the table, the chairs, and the bedding to the solar above. 'Take the brazier, too,' she told him, handing him up the iron heater they had traveled with through Gaul.
He grinned wickedly. 'I do not think you will need it, sweeting. Wulf's passion is poorly pent up. He is set to explode with it.' He chuckled. 'But give him the chance, cousin, and you'll have no need for yon little charcoal burner.'
'Is nothing a secret in this hall?' she demanded, her cheeks red with her embarrassment. Did everyone know she and Wulf weren't coupling?
'Very little,' Corio answered her dryly. Then he took the brazier from her. 'But if you insist, cousin,' he said, grinning mischievously.
When the men had gone back to their assigned tasks, Cailin clambered back up the ladder to the solar. Corio, bless him, had had far more sense than she. He had seen that the chests they used to store their personal belongings had been brought up into the room, as well. She fussed with the positioning of her loom and its stool so she would have the proper light. The table was not quite centered, Cailin thought, but she righted its position and straightened the chairs.
She filled their bed space with fresh hay she lugged up the ladder, and mixed it with lavender sprigs, handfuls of rose petals, and sweet herbs. The feather bed, in its practical cotton ticking, she slipped into a cover of sky-blue silk that she had made for it. It was an outrageous luxury, but who would know but them? Fluffing the feather bed, she placed it over the hay, where it settled on the fragrant herbage. Removing the small alabaster lamp from the niche in the bed space, she filled it with scented oil, and putting a wick into it, replaced the lamp in its space. She lay a fox coverlet across the foot of the bedspace. The bedspace was now ready for occupants.
Cailin looked about the solar. Although it needed wall hangings and more pieces of furniture to make it really comfortable, they would manage for the time being. At least it was ready for habitation. Although privacy was not something the Saxons held dear, Cailin was used to it, having been raised with it. Wulf would not find it a burden, she thought, smiling. Then she heard him calling her from the hall below. Cailin scrambled down the ladder from the solar, hurrying to greet her husband.
'We have finished the defenses for the hall,' he told her proudly, obviously well-pleased. 'The gates have just now been fitted to the entry.'
'The barns within the walls are finished also,' she told him, 'and the harvest is almost all in. I did not go to the fields today, for I was about other business, my lord.' She looked askance at his filthy con-. dition. 'You need a bath, Wulf Ironfist. You stink of your labor.'
'I am too tired to go to the stream and bathe,' he told her. 'Let it be, lambkin. I will bathe in the morning.'
'Should not our daughter sleep in the solar, too?' he queried her mischievously, cocking a bushy, tawny eyebrow quizzically.
'For now,' Cailin answered him severely, 'Aurora will remain in the hall, with Nellwyn to care for her.' Then she left him and went to the end of the room, calling instructions to her household servants.
He watched, somewhat astounded, as a large oaken tub was slowly rolled into a corner of the hall. He had never seen it before, and he realized she must have had their cooper make it. She had great foresight, he decided. A hot bath would feel good. A line of male servants began running back and forth with pails of steaming water which they dumped into the great tub. It took fully half of an hour to fill the tub to Cailin's satisfaction. While it was being done, she marshaled soap and other implements necessary to bathing. Then she signaled him, and he arose, walking down the hall to where she waited, tapping an impatient foot.
'Remove your clothing, my lord,' she said, then ordered the serving men to place screening about the tub. As he took each item of clothing from his tired body, she gathered it up into a pile. When he was entirely naked, Cailin handed it over the screen to the woman appointed laundress for the hall.
At her command, he climbed sheepishly into the tub. He was astounded when she stripped off her own clothing and joined him. 'You mean to make my bath a pleasant experience, I see,' he said, grinning lecherously at her.
'I mean to make it a thorough one,' she countered sternly. ' 'Twill not be easy. A Roman bath is best, but this is better than nothing.' She took up her strigil and began to scrape the sweaty dirt from his neck, shoulders, and chest. The water in their tub just barely concealed her breasts, but Wulf's body was exposed from his waist up.
Reaching out, he cupped the twin orbs in his big hands and began to play with them as she worked. 'We must begin to bathe again every day,' he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her earlobe.
She giggled. 'Behave yourself, Wulf Ironfist. How can I do a proper job of bathing you if you distract me so?'
'Am I indeed distracting you, lambkin?' he said softly, his tongue swirling about the shell of her ear. He slipped a hand below the waterline to give her right buttock a gentle squeeze.
Her violet eyes twinkled at him. 'You are
