‘The straw has fleas,’ Awyrgan complained.
‘Lice too, probably,’ I said. ‘And don’t be in too much of a hurry to make beds.’
‘I’m not making a bed,’ Eadgifu said, ‘just a place to sit. We’re going to the palace, surely? In Lundene I always stay in the palace!’
‘We’ll go to the palace, my queen,’ Awyrgan reassured her.
‘Don’t be a bloody fool,’ I snarled at him. ‘Those were Æthelhelm’s men. If we’re wrong and they’re still occupying the city, then we leave. We leave tonight. Finan’s gone to discover what’s happening.’
Awyrgan stared at me. ‘Leave tonight?’
It would be difficult. The Temes was wide, and though the current would help us downstream there were shoals in the river that would make it a perilous journey in darkness. But if Æthelhelm’s men were still holding the city we would have no choice. ‘How long do you think we’ll all live,’ I asked Awyrgan with a patience I did not feel, ‘if Æthelhelm’s troops are here?’
‘Maybe they’re not?’ Eadgifu asked.
‘Which is what Finan is finding out, my lady,’ I said, ‘so be ready to leave in a hurry.’
One of the babies began crying and a maidservant hurried the child out of the room. ‘But if Æthelstan’s men are here,’ Eadgifu pleaded, ‘we can go to the palace? I have clothes there! I need clothes!’
‘Maybe we’ll go to the palace,’ I said, too tired to discuss it. If the city was safe then I would let her find her luxury, but till then she could scratch her flea-bites.
I went back to the river terrace to escape the stench of the house and there sat on the low wall that fronted the Temes and gazed down as Berg and two men turned Spearhafoc so that her prow was pointing downstream. They did it efficiently, made her fast again, and so ready to leave the city in a hurry if Finan brought bad news, then all three settled into the ship’s wide belly. They would guard the ship from the night thieves who could strip rigging and steal oars.
I watched the river swirl and tried to make some sense of the day. I reckoned Waormund must have sailed straight back to Lundene when he saw our ships destroying his small fleet off the Northumbrian coast, but if Æthelstan controlled the city, as we had been told, then why was Waormund still here? Why had the big West Saxon not left with the rest of Æthelhelm’s men? And why only six warriors? I had seen four men, but there had been six straw beds, and that too was strange. Why would six men quarter themselves in this riverside house when presumably the rest of Æthelhelm’s men would be lodged in the old fort or guarding the palace at Lundene’s north-western corner?
Night had fallen now. There were buildings on the Temes’s south bank, and the torch flames that lit the entrance to a church flickered their shimmering reflections on the river. A three-quarter’s moon slid behind a cloud. The ships moored at the nearby wharves groaned in the wind, their halliards slapping lazily against masts. I heard men laughing from the Dead Dane, a nearby tavern.
The house door opened and I turned, expecting Finan, but it was Roric, my servant, who brought a flaming torch that he put into a bracket by the door. He glanced at me, seemed to be about to speak, then thought better of it and went back into the house, first holding open the door for a hooded figure who walked slowly and carefully towards me carrying two beakers. One of the beakers was held towards me. ‘It is wine.’ It was Benedetta who offered me the drink. ‘It is not good wine, but it is better than ale.’
‘You don’t like ale?’
‘Ale is sour,’ she said, ‘and so is this wine.’
I sipped it. She was right, it was sour, but I was used to sour-tasting wine. ‘You like sweet wine?’ I asked.
‘I like good wine,’ she sat beside me. ‘This vinegar was found in the kitchens of the house. Maybe they cook with it? It stinks!’
‘The wine?’
‘The river.’
‘It’s a city,’ I said. ‘All cities make their rivers stink.’
‘I remember this smell,’ she said.
‘Hard to forget it.’
Benedetta sat to my left and I remembered the heavy wooden bench where Gisela and I would sit, with Gisela always on my left. ‘The queen is not happy,’ Benedetta said, ‘she wants her comfort.’
I grimaced. ‘She wants a mattress filled with feathers?’
‘She would like that, yes.’
‘She asked for my help,’ I said harshly, ‘and I gave it to her. When I get her to a safe place she can have all the damned feathers she wants, but till then she can suffer fleas like the rest of us.’
‘I shall tell her,’ Benedetta said, sounding as if she looked forward to giving that piece of bad news. ‘You think Lundene is not safe?’
‘Not till I know who controls the city,’ I said. ‘Finan should be back soon.’ I had heard no shouts in the night, no sound of running feet, no clash of swords. That lack of sounds suggested that Finan and his men had met no enemies.
Benedetta had half pushed back her hood and I gazed at her in the night. She had a strong-boned face with large eyes that looked bright against her bronze-darkened skin. ‘You are looking at me,’ she said flatly.
‘I am.’
‘Men look at women,’ she went on, ‘and take what they want.’ She shrugged. ‘But I
