‘Cedric will tell you. Her options are few.’ The breath moved in and out of him in a slow and harsh rhythm. Irwin came forward and touched his shoulder, urging him to bed, but Wilfrid shook him off. ‘Take Glannoventa, take Annis and be done with vengeance.’
‘What have you done, Cedric?’ Annis could not keep her voice from trembling as she faced him in the hall. She was too angry and bewildered to even try.
‘It’s not I. This was Wilfrid’s plan.’ She had caught him as he was about to take his place at the table, so he faced her with the well-laid table between them. ‘He conceived of it. He proposed the idea to me. We discussed it at length and, after a time, I understood him to be right.’ His voice was so calm in the face of her displeasure that it was a bit off-putting. It had the ominous tone of something that had been decided and now she was to receive the speech that had since been prepared to deal with her discontent.
‘You both discussed it, did you? And when did you think you would discuss it with me? Was I to wake up one morning to a wedding?’ A pang of regret crossed his face, and she felt a stab of victory.
‘I am sorry for the way that happened. It wasn’t my intention. Of course, I meant to speak with you first.’ He went to sit down, remembered himself and gestured to her own seat. ‘Please. Let us share a meal and discuss it.’
The last thing she could do right now was eat, but she sat because she wanted his full attention. ‘There is nothing to discuss. I cannot marry the Norseman. There will be no good to come of it.’
‘You can and you should.’ He picked up a loaf of black bread and pulled off the heal. The words and you will floated silently in the air between them. ‘Let us run down your list of choices, shall we? If you marry fast, your options are Lord Strang and Hrypa of Whalley. The first is older than Wilfrid and the second would embroil us in a war to bring Mercia back to its former glory. I would advise against him, as sinking Glannoventa into war is not something you want. You are welcome to the first, but he has three sons and they would tear you apart in the fight that would ensue after his death. If you do not choose to marry fast, then you will either wait for another king to be chosen, or you will wait for Jarl Eirik to arrive, whichever happens first. The new King will likely send a man to you who will aid an alliance to usurp the Danes. This will anger Jarl Eirik and we will be sunk into another war with the Danes. Or, far more likely, Jarl Eirik is on his way here now and will arrive with a Dane for you. You will be married on the eve of his arrival—my guess would be week’s end—and have a Dane’s spawn planted in your belly before the year is out.’
Her hands had come together during his speech and were clasped over her breasts with her heart pounding beneath them. She longed to refute every word of what he said, but she could only watch as he dipped the bread into his stew and took a bite of it. The problem was that it all made too much sense. Her options had been laid out before her and she did not like any of them. She hated them, in fact.
‘Then I am to marry the Norseman by week’s end and have his—’ she could not say the crude words ‘—have his child, instead?’
Cedric’s eyes gentled as they landed on her stricken expression. ‘The way I see it, you have to marry—and soon. You have five options before you. Choose one.’
Were they even really options when none of them were what she wanted? It was all so unfair that she wanted to plant her fist into the face of the first man who arrived hoping to claim her as his wife. After years of avoiding this discussion, it all seemed to be coming to a head at once. The only ways to avoid war were to wed the Dane Jarl Eirik put forward or the Norseman. Or were they? ‘How do you know that Jarl Eirik will not declare war once he learns I have wed the Norseman?’
‘Good question,’ Cedric answered between bites. ‘I do not know, but Wilfrid and I believe it can be avoided. Jarl Eirik is known to have a tenderness for his wife. If we are lucky, he will arrive with her. If we are not, then she may still have a gentling affect from afar. When he arrives you will believably profess your great affection and admiration for your Norse husband. Rurik will do his part to convince the Jarl that he will work with him. It will take a bit of doing, but I believe, in the end, Jarl Eirik will relent. Rurik has no allegiances that I’m aware of. I believe he can be convinced to align himself to the Jarl. Jarl Eirik might even consider it a boon that Rurik has ties to King Feann.’
Whether that was true or not, she could not say. She rather believed that Cedric thought the Jarl to be rational when she held no such illusions. However, there was a bigger issue with her marrying Rurik than Jarl Eirik. ‘I cannot marry him.’ When he paused in his meal to look at her, she took a steadying breath and continued in a lower voice so as not to be overheard. ‘I was in Maerr. I was there, Cedric. Once he knows, he will not want to marry me when killing
