To Love Again

for safety's sake. 'I had to barricade myself in the solar to escape the unpleasant attentions of Ragnar Strongspear. Would you have had me wandering the hall, playing the gracious hostess to that savage pig?' She was furious.

'But you did not escape my uncle last night,' Aelfa said meanly, coming forward, a nasty smile upon her beautiful face. 'You look quite well, considering the active night you must have had beneath my uncle.'

'I will kill him if he has touched you!' Wulf Ironfist said angrily.

'I already have,' Cailin told him bluntly, and Aelfa grew pale at her words. 'He did not rape me, my lord, though he sought to do so.'

'How could you have killed so large a man, lambkin?' her husband gently inquired. Was she truly all right? he wondered.

'I slit his throat,' Cailin said tonelessly.

'With what?' he asked. The gods! She was so pale.

'The voice within would not stop nagging at me,' she began. 'I do not know why I did it, but when you departed to visit our villages, I put a knife beneath the feather bed in our bed space. When he climbed atop me, I found it and I killed him. There was so much blood, Wulf! I can never sleep in that solar again. Ever?'' She began to weep.

He comforted her as best he could, and when she had ceased to sob, he told her, 'I have much news, lambkin, and it is good.' Then seeing the darkling stain spreading across her tunic dress, he cried out, 'Lambkin, are you injured?'

Cailin looked down and laughed weakly. 'I need Royse,' she said. 'My breasts are overflowing with my milk.'

'Nellwyn will have him here shortly,' he promised her, and put a loving arm about her. 'Aurora too.'

'How devoted you are to each other,' Aelfa sneered, 'but what is to become of us, I should like to know?'

'Her memory has returned, I take it,' Wulf said with a small attempt at humor. They walked into the hall and seated themselves at the high board. Aelfa followed, but positioned herself next to Harald.

'She never lost her memory,' Cailin told him. 'Let me tell you a story that I learned as a child. In ancient times a Grecian king named Menelaeus had a beautiful queen who was called Helen. The king was old, but he loved his wife. The queen, however, was young, and she fell in love with a handsome youth, Paris. They fled to his father's city of Troy. A war between Troy and several powerful Grecian states erupted over the insult to Menelaeus and his efforts to regain Helen, the beauteous queen.

'Troy, however, was considered impregnable. Enormous high walls surrounded it. There was a goodly supply of fresh water and food. For many years the Greeks besieged it, but they could not take the city. Finally they agreed to cease their war with Troy, and as a gesture of peace, the departing Greek armies left a magnificent large, carved, and decorated horse on wheels behind for the Trojans. The citizens of Troy opened their gates and brought the horse into the city. All day they celebrated their victory over Menelaeus and his allies.

'In the dark of the night, when all lay sleeping, the Greek army, which had secreted itself within the belly of the Trojan horse, came forth and took the city of Troy, showing no mercy. All were killed, and the city destroyed.

'Aelfa was Ragnar Strongspear's Trojan horse. She allowed herself to be beaten, and she pretended to have no knowledge of herself but her name, so that she might gain our sympathies. Then she set about to fascinate and lure both our gatekeepers because she could not be certain which one of them would be on duty the night she intended to let her uncle and his men into Cadda-wic.'

'Albert and Bran-hard told me what happened,' Wulf said. 'I have forgiven them both. They have learned a valuable lesson by this.' He looked out over the hall at Ragnar's men. 'Now I must decide what to do with these men. Shall I kill them, or show mercy?'

'Mercy, lord!' the men cried with one voice. 'Mercy!'

Cailin leaned over and whispered to her husband. 'Ragnar's brother, Gunnar, will think to profit from his brother's death; but his daughter, Aelfa, is, I think, ambitious. She will want her uncle's lands for Harald, who is to be her husband. Is there not some way in which we might set these men against each other? If they are busy battling one another, they will not have time to bother with us, my lord. And let us not forget our old friend Antonia Porcius. Those lands were hers before Ragnar Strongspear stormed across them. I do not think Antonia is ready to let go of her dreams for Quintus, the younger, yet.'

Wulf grinned at his wife. 'Truly Flavius Aspar and Byzantium lost a valuable strategist in you, lambkin.' Then he turned to his prisoners, his look fierce. 'Ragnar Strongspear is dead,' he told them. 'Harald Swiftsword, will you swear fealty to me? If you do, I will not oppose your taking of Ragnar Strongspear's lands. You are, I think, your master's natural heir. His sons are too young to be strong neighbors.'

'What of my father?' Aelfa demanded. 'He is Ragnar's brother. Should he not inherit my uncle's lands?'

'Why would you want your father to have what your husband could have, Aelfa Gunnarsdottar? If Harald does not claim Ragnar Strongspear's lands for himself, he will never have anything of his own. If he is strong enough to hold them against your father, why should you mind? Do you not desire to be a great lady?'

'I am strong enough to hold those lands for myself,' Harald bragged loudly, and turned to the other men. 'Are you with me?' he demanded, and they cried their assent. Harald turned back to Wulf Ironfist. 'Then I will swear to be your man, my lord, and keep the peace between us. Aelfa, what say you?'

'Yes!' she said. 'It was decided long ago between us, Harald, and if I would take you landless, I would certainly not reject you when you are about to become a great and propertied lord.'

'Then,' said Wulf Ironfist, 'I will free you all!' and they cheered him loudly.

Ale was brought, and a toast drunk to the peace between Wulf Ironfist and Harald Swiftsword. Then they prepared to march from the hall, but Wulf took Harald aside and told him, 'Beware of the lady Antonia. The lands you now claim were her family's lands for many generations. Perhaps you might take her as a second wife to keep her from another man who might attempt to gain those lands through the woman.'

'I thank you for the advice,' Harald replied. 'It might not be such a bad idea. Ragnar always said she was bad- tempered, but the best fuck he had ever had in his life. Under the circumstances I must either wed her or kill her. I'll think on it.'

'Best to marry her,' Wulf said. 'She and Aelfa will battle each other constantly, and consequently keep out of your business.'

Harald laughed. 'Perhaps you are right,' he said slowly. 'Yes! I know you are!'

When they were gone, and the morning was beginning to take on a more normal tone, Wulf took his wife by the hand and led her out into the summer sunlight. They strolled together amid the ripening grain.

'This incident has made me realize that we cannot remain at Cadda-wic,' he told her. 'It is too prone to attack here in its narrow valley. The hills press too closely about us. We cannot see our enemy until they are almost upon us. I have ordered a new hall to be built at Brand-dun for us. It sits upon a hill, and we cannot be taken unawares by an enemy. We will continue to farm these fields and tend to the orchards that once belonged to your family, but we will no longer live here, lambkin. Will you mind very much?'

Cailin shook her head. 'No,' she told him. 'Though I have many happy memories of the house in which I grew up, it is gone. The earth is drenched with my family's blood, and now the blood of Ragnar Strongspear as well. I do not think I could remain here even if you wanted me to, my lord.'

He nodded with understanding, and she continued, 'In my childhood the roads that the Romans built to connect the towns they erected in Britain became unsafe. There was a time, not in my memory, but surely in my father's memory, when those roads were safe; but then the legions left, and with them the way of life we had known for centuries departed as well. No one would have dared to attack the estate of Gaius Drusus Corinium or Anthony Porcius in that faded past. Times are different now, Wulf, and your people are a different people. To survive we must change, and I think we can do so without sacrificing the values that we hold dear. You are not like Ragnar Strongspear or Harald Swiftsword. You are a different kind of Saxon. Your feet, like mine, are not mired in the intractable past. You, too, dream of a future that cannot even be imagined by most. I will gladly go with you to Brand-dun! There is nothing left for us here at Cadda-wic but memories. I will discard the bad ones and leave them behind. The good ones I will carry in my heart always. Ohh Wulf! We almost lost each other once, but the gods ruled that we should be reunited to love again. I am so happy!'

'Mama! Mama!' Aurora came running through the fields toward them, her silky golden hair flying, her little legs pumping for all they were worth. 'Mama!' Behind her Nellwyn came, carrying Royse.