Mistletoe Kisses and Yuletide Joy (24 page)

She remembered the Star, and pulled it out to lie on top of her clothes
, but there was nothing in the myth to say it could protect men from their own violent follies. But, she thought, holding it tight, didn't the story imply that the woman who wore it could bring harmony and light into her world?

The door opened again, flooding the small room with the flaming light of torches, and showing Magnus waiting, arms crossed. Hera realized for the first time how much pride was at stake here. Raef's pride was deeply wounded, and Magnus would lose face before his men if he was too weak with these enemy prisoners.

She looked around and found her shoes, thinking there was no hope of a solution. Even if Magnus didn't truly want it, he could never give up a prize like Acklingham. Raef would accept nothing less.

Oh, Alfrida, if you hadn't tried to help, at least I might have had something to cherish.

Raef looked at her, then seized the Star. "Is this...?"

Did he think himself magicked by it?
"Yes."

"
I thought you said you'd brought it for Alfrida."

"
When Magnus sent me here, she gave it to me to protect me from you."

He closed his eyes for a moment.
"Hera, you never need protection from me." She looked at him, and even by torchlight she saw him color. "I was not myself."

She touched his face.
"You had reason to be angry. But now, I think, we must go to the hall. For my sake, don't force a fight."

"
I make no promises." He wrapped an arm around her as they left the hut, but it was protective rather than tender. In fact, it was territorial. A claim made by one snarling wolf to another. At least that was one thing she need not fear. Magnus had no physical interest in her.

It was fragile Edith who
lay between the two men, making any kind of peace impossible.

She felt sure that Magnus had told the truth. He
hadn't raped Edith. Raef would never believe that, however. It was far too pat to blame it on some wandering brigands that had done no other damage. As long as Raef believed Magnus to be guilty, the Dane could go on his knees and beg Raef to take Acklingham back and Raef would still have to try and kill him.

The winter night's wind cut cruelly through her clothes, but the ice inside cut crueler still.

Their escort flung open the big doors to the hall, and a blast of heat, light, and noise hit them as they were hustled in and the doors slammed behind. All the light here came from the central fire, but what a fire. They'd brought in the huge Yule log and set it upright to burn like a tree of fire, threatening even the high rafters. The smoke hole above had been enlarged to prevent fire there, and to let most of the smoke escape, otherwise the room would be choking.

Four men played instruments, and some danced. Other men drank, laughing and talking, many with women on their laps. A few
were more intimately engaged still!

Edith would have fainted for sure.

Alfrida leaped up from her place at the big table and ran toward them in a fire of gold—gold bracelets and arm rings, torque and pendants. A pirate's woman, wearing his hoard. "Hera! Thank Sweet Jesus. Are you all right?"

"
Of course. You know Raef would never hurt me." She ignored the memory of his attack, and of what had been interrupted. She had to add, however, "This might not have been wise."

Alfrida glanced at Raef, who seemed to have brought the winter chill into the hot room.
"That wasn't my idea. I only wanted you here."

Magnus pulled Alfrida to his side, and considered Hera and Raef.
"You still refuse to feast with us?"

Raef didn't answer, so neither did Hera.

"Very well," said Magnus, who clearly still had all his wits, no matter how much he'd drunk so far. "We'll feast in another way. This is why I brought you here, Thegn Raefnoth. For my people Yule not Easter is the turning of the year, when the old is put behind us, and the new begins. It's a time for making peace. And a time for starting new wars. Which is it to be, Thegn Raefnoth? Peace or war?"

"
War," Raef said without hesitation.

"
On what cause?"

Raef looked eloquently around the hall, but said,
"You raped my wife, thus killing her. Or if not," he carried on, before Magnus could speak, "you permitted it."

"
On my soul, on my wave stallion, I did neither." With a great bellow he brought silence and attention to the hall and strode into a central space where the roaring fire illumined him.

"
Hear me, hear me! I Magnus Gormsson, the Ravenbringer, swear on my Christian soul and on my great ship, my wave stallion—may it sink beneath me if I lie—that I never touched Edith, wife to Thegn Raefnoth, in any offensive or injurious way. I swear this oath too, on behalf of all my men here gathered—that none belonging to me harmed her. If this oath will dishonor me, let the man who makes it meaningless step forward now. He will be given the gift of a swift death."

All around the hall stayed still and silent. Hera glanced at Raef, and saw a slight frown that might mean doubt. It certainly was a mighty oath that no man would take lightly.

"So," said Magnus, looking around the room, "who here can support my oath before witnesses, that truth shall be known?"

On man stood, an older man with gray in his hair and steady eyes.
"Great Magnus, Lord, Ring-giver, I, Foter son of Thorkyl, speak to support your oath. As you ordered, I did not stop the Lady Edith and her maid from sneaking out of this place, and watched them as far as eye could follow. Though frightened, she did not move as one who has suffered any kind of physical harm. This I swear by Woden and by the White Christ, and on my oath to you, and on the ring I wear."

He held up his clenched fist, showing the iron ring on his right hand, the sort usually given by men such as Magnus to their wild followers.

Another man stood. "I Haakon, son of Omry speak to support my lord's oath. In all the time Thegn Raefnoth's wife was here, I never heard her scream except in the hall over meat. This I swear by Woden and the White Christ...."

And so it went, until twenty men had stood to speak in support of Magnus's claim.

After leaving another silence, Magnus spread his arms. "So be it! That is my oath, by the God on the Cross and Woden's beard, and I stand by it, to my death, and the death of all my followers." He turned to Raef. "What say you?"

Raef's frown had deepened. None could doubt such oaths and witnesses.
"She was attacked on the road? It is no great distance, and no one saw any disorderly strangers about."

Magnus gestured to the head table, littered with broken meats and bread, and stained with drink.
"Come, sit. You do not need to feast, but sit and let us talk about this one thing of which I am innocent. This is Yule, and for Alfrida's sake, I would have the enmity between us be on an honest basis at least."

At an order, churls ran forward to gather the old cloth, complete with all its mess, and to spread a new one. Magnus and Alfrida sat on one side in the big chairs, Hera and Raef on the other on benches. The seating arrangement was inevitable, but it must be salt in Raef's wounds.

"We will still be enemies," he said flatly. "You hold my home."

Magnus leaned back, drinking.
"I can perhaps be persuaded to give it up for gold."

"
I will pay you pirates no more gold. I want you gone or dead."

"
Your king does not think that way."

Raef just shrugged.
"Let us talk of Edith, and see if we can find the truth there, at least."

Hera leaned forward.
"Alfrida, did you speak to Edith? What did she say happened?"

Alfrida took the ale cup given her by a servant and sipped.
"She didn't say much, or much of sense. All about Danes, and how they are foul and disgusting, and how men are foul and do disgusting things. She kept wanting to wash herself and wash herself."

"
She did that here too," Magnus growled. "Never seen such a waste of water."

Raef's hands clenched.
"She was always very fastidious."

With her new knowledge that he hadn't really loved Edith, Hera shared his tangled hurt and struggle. She knew that even now he'd die rather than criticize his wife.

She looked at Alfrida. "Did your maidservant attend Edith?"

"
Fleda? Yes, why?"

"
Call her. Let's see if she can add anything."

Soon the middle aged woman was standing nervously by the table. Everyone seemed to want Hera to question her, so she started,
"Fleda, you remember when Lady Edith came to Froxton not long ago, having escaped from Acklingham?"

"
Oh, aye, Lady Wulfhera. A sad day."

"
Indeed. Did you see her as she arrived?"

"
Nay, but I was called soon after to help prepare a room for her."

"
And you saw her come to the room?"

"
Aye, Lady."

"
You heard a man here say that when she left Acklingham, she did not move as one who has been physically hurt. What was her state when she came to the room in Froxton?"

The woman pulled a face, staring into the distance.
"Weak, Lady. Exhausted like, which was strange since she'd only walked from here. She collapsed on the bed as if she'd sleep, but then immediately called for a hot bath."

"
Did you see her undress?"

"
Nay, Lady. Her maid attended her."

"
Did you see any blood?"

"
Nay, Lady."

"
Fleda, in the weeks between Lady Edith coming to Froxton, and Thegn Raefnoth returning, did you hear Lady Edith say anything about what had happened to her?"

"
She wasn't one for chatter, Lady, and she mostly just had her woman, Gytha, for company. But I heard from the younger maids that she kept warning them to stay away from men. That men would do foul things to them."

Hera sent the woman away, wondering how such stories affected a man who had been intimate with Edith.

Raef, however, showed no emotion when he said, "Gytha might know something, but she returned to Tildwold after Edith's death. She can be questioned, but not now."

Hera considered what she was going to say, considered all the implications. She couldn't not say it, however.
"Did Edith ever actually say she'd been raped?"

Raef turned to her sharply.
"Of course she did. She said it to me."

"
Oh." Despite his anger and possible hurt, Hera said to Alfrida, "What about earlier? When she first arrived."

"
I don't remember. We all just assumed.... After all, Vikings." She glanced at Magnus, and perhaps even blushed. "You think...?"

Raef seized Hera's arm in a cruel grip.
"What are you saying? That she lied about it?"

Trying not to wince, she met his eyes.
"Entered an unreal world, perhaps. Raef, at least
think
about it!"

He let her go, but glared.
"No one could make up something like that!"

Hera thought people could make up almost anything if the mental pain was great enough, but she wasn't sure how to express her thoughts without hurting him further.

Magnus, spoke. "Thegn Raefnoth, you must know well enough how some soldiers run mad during and after battle. In some it is glorious, and we call them berserker. In some it is shameful, and we call them nithing. Some never recover, and their words make little sense."

"
Edith didn't fight," Raef snapped. "Edith didn't see any bloodshed or violence. Edith just opened the gates to you!"

"
But she opened the gates," Hera said, "because she was so afraid. And yet, it took great courage to treat with Magnus."

"
And once they were inside," added Alfrida, "she found herself with no control over her home, surrounded by men she thought barbarians. Men of violence and lusty tastes who made no attempt to hide such things from her."

Magnus grinned.
"Is that a complaint, my plum?"

She poked him in the chest.
"I've grown used to it, but I'm no Edith."

"
Thank Woden."

Raef lowered his head for a moment, hands tight clasped, then looked up.
"Even if this is true. Even if Edith's mind was turned, and she came to imagine things that hadn't happened, she would live still, and be in peace, if not for you, Ravenbringer."

"
Are we all not but the tools of God? Fate lies in His hands."

"
It is your
fate
to hold Acklingham?"

"
So it would seem."