Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (19 page)

             
“Nice try, lad” guffawed Oswy, “come on, old hen, let’s get you up to bed” he added, taking Godgyth’s hand.

             
The assembly began to break up, suddenly Luke bowed to the king.  “May I make a request your Grace?” he asked, Alfred looked up. “there are still priests in
Winchester
, I trust”

             
Alodie felt a sick feeling creep into her stomach as she had a horrible premonition of what he was about to say “Several” laughed King Alfred “priests I have a surfeit of, it is warriors that I lack”

             
“Well” continued Luke “why don’t we marry today and I can sleep in my own bed”

             
“Capital idea nephew” agreed Oswy, winking lewdly.

             
“B - but the wedding was arranged for September 9th” stammered Alodie,  her legs beginning to give way.

             
“Pah!” snapped Oswy “a month away almost.  That was before the heathen attacked, when we were having a proper celebration my dear”

             
Alodie’s look of horror did not escape Aehlswith, and she held up her hands “Enough” she announced “perhaps the lady has had sufficient tribulations in the last day or so without having a wedding sprung suddenly upon her,  come my dear” she held out her hand and taking it, Alodie followed her up the stairs and into Luke’s room.

             
A maid was in the process of changing the bedding as they entered and as she pulled the cover from the bed an object fell to the floor.  Alodie bent down to retrieve it.  It was a lady’s hair comb, very ornate, made of gold and silver and embedded with tiny stones, several long dark hairs were entwined round the teeth.  Aehlswith gasped whilst the maid, embarrassed, curtsied to them both and rushing out of the door, shut it behind her.

             
Alodie stood and stared at the object in her hand, trying hard to suppress a smile.  This could, just could, be a way out, or at least a postponement.  Aehlswith, a look of concern on her lovely face, placed her hand on Alodie’s shoulder.  “Sit down my dear” she said quietly.   Alodie obediently perched on the bed next to her. “Look at me” she commanded.  Alodie did so.

             
“He was with a woman last night wasn’t he, your Grace” she said, trying her best to sound heartbroken and attempting to squeeze a tear or two into her eyes.  Aehlswith patted her shoulder.

             
“My dear, try to understand, he was drunk, women have been throwing themselves at him since he arrived, they even had a wager.  They are jealous of you without even seeing you, your Luke is the most beautiful man to come to this court in years, but all he talked about was you.”

             
“Your Grace......” cut in Alodie.  Aehlswith held up her hand.

             
“Call me Aehlswith, Alodie.  I hear you are a scholar and can read.  I too am able to read, I think we must be the only women in
Winchester
who can, I have so been looking forward to meeting you, I think we will be friends”

             
Alodie looked up. “Aehlswith, please understand, Luke does not love me, he just wants to bed me”

             
Aehlswith smiled in reply “Look in the mirror, Alodie, all men will want to bed you, believe me, being beautiful is a much greater trial for a woman than being plain”

             
“As you will know being beautiful yourself” replied Alodie, and she meant it, for Aehlswith was lovely.  She was of medium height with a silky complexion, red brown hair and wide set grey-green eyes.  Her figure was slightly plump with childbearing but she was still by far the best looking Saxon woman Alodie had seen.

             
“Thank you Alodie, I used to be called the loveliest woman in
Wessex
”

             
“Used to be?”

             
“Used to be.  I lost that crown in June when a certain golden haired girl arrived from
Bohemia
”

             
Alodie blushed and looked away “Jesu, Aehlswith, looks don’t matter.”

             
Aehlswith got off the bed and walking to the dresser began arranging the pots and unguents which the maid had set out there on being told to prepare the room for a lady.  She turned “I know that and you know that but try telling those idiots downstairs.  Do you know they expected me to tear your hair out on sight, most of the women were actually hoping I would, especially that trull Gwen of Saltop, the owner of this comb.  I want to have her banished from the court, but his grace the king will not hear of it, her husband is a very influential thegn.”

             
Alodie crossed to the window and pushed open the shutters, the town of
Winchester
spread out before her, a hotch potch of thatched cottages, wattle and daub huts and quite substantial stone buildings.  By far the largest of these was the church about half a mile away down the track which passed as the main street.

             
Almost under the window and just over a low wall was a pigsty, its three adult and eight or nine juvenile inhabitants rooting in the mud and grunting and squealing from time to time.  As if that was not noisy enough two traders, both apparently selling rabbits, began to argue loudly in the street.

             
Yesterday’s rainstorm had freshened the air and the hot August sun was beginning to dry up the puddles.  Somewhere nearby a lark was singing, the melodies pouring like golden liquid from its throat.

             
Alodie turned back to Aehlswith, the germ of an idea had come to her,

“I really can’t marry Luke Edmundson, your Grace, - er Aehlswith, it’s impossible”

             
Aehlswith made a gesture of impatience “Because he tumbled that slut, come Alodie, don’t be a lackwit!  Luke’s the answer to a maiden’s prayer, rich, young, handsome, it only happened because you were not there, men do not have our gift of constancy, we have to forgive them their little - slips”

             
Alodie walked over to the oaken dresser and sitting in front of it began to brush her hair in front of the ornate mirror.  She looked up again at Aehlswith “This Saltop woman is the least of my worries Aehlswith, it has naught to do with that, nor the fact that I do not love him, you see I am  - married already” Aehlswith’s jaw dropped and she put her hand to her mouth.

             
A squealing from the pig sty below broke the silence which had fallen. and the two rabbit vendors began to argue more volubly.

             
Alodie sighed and began to brush the other side of her hair “married already, Aehlswith” she repeated “to King Herger, the Viking, the celebrations I escaped from were those following my own wedding”

             
Aehlswith dropped her hand “you jest” she whispered.

             
Alodie held up her arm.  The bracelet Herger had given her was pushed above her elbow, the stones twinkling in the sun. “Does this look like Saxon workmanship your Grace?  He put this on my arm when we married.  He bought me Aehlswith, bought me after I had been stripped and auctioned in front of a thousand of them, bought me and married me!”

             
Uncalled for Alodie felt hot tears splashing down onto her blue and gold mud spattered  wedding gown, making dark splotches on the material.  The queen came over to her and putting her arm round her shoulder kissed the top of her head “Oh my dear” she whispered “oh my poor dear”.

             
Alodie had not cried for years, she could not remember the last time, and it all flooded out, she cried for her mother, she cried for her father, she cried for the villagers that had been enslaved and slaughtered but she cried most of all, selfishly perhaps, for herself.

***************************

             
That evening at supper the hall was in a ferment.  Alodie did not attend, she was fast asleep with a healing potion of Aehlswith’s own making inside her.  Godgyth had recovered and had refused point blank to go to bed, saying that as she had been unconscious all night she had no intention of sleeping the day away as well.  She had spent the afternoon with Oswy making enquiries about Emma but no one seemed to have seen her or heard news of her, nor could anyone be spared to go look for her.  It seemed clear that she was either wandering in the forest or, God forbid, a captive of the Vikings.

             
After supper the women retired to their embroidery whilst the men held a council of war. Alfred was at the head of the table with his witan to the left and his eorls, eoldermen and thegns to his right.  The conversational ball had been bouncing back and forth for most of the evening and it was growing late.

             
They had had some good news of sorts during the day with the tidings that King Osketyl himself had been killed during a drunken brawl late the night before but his men were still in place, ensconced in Wareham and now under the sole command of Amund, so the death of Osketyl himself was no great loss to the Viking army.

             
“Again I say attack” said Oswy, banging his fist down on the table in his impatience, he was actually an eolderman, raised to the nobility by Alfred after Ashdown but had been a thegn like his father before him and stuck to the old title for day to day use.  “We’re almost matched for men mustered, that bastard Guthrum, saving your presence your Grace, did not reckon on the fyrd being here in its entirety for training.  I say let’s set off tomorrow, thanks to Alodie we know where they are and their numbers, we’ll slay ‘em like we did at Ashdown” He picked up his goblet and took a long draught of mead.

             
“I don’t know” quavered Edwy of Milston “it’s all very well saying that but I am against force of arms.  What if we lose?”

             
“If we lose, we die!” interjected Aelfric, thegn of Lamporth, Edric’s father and Oswy’s greatest friend “If we win a lot of us will die too but whichever way it goes we take a goodly amount of the heathen with us, thus making Wessex a safer place for our children and ridding the Earth of the scum.  Personally...” he continued, leaning across the table and spearing a piece of chicken “...personally, I look upon ridding
Wessex
of the heathen as my sacred duty to God”

             
“Well said, Aelfric, well said old comrade” Oswy interjected, clapping his friend on the shoulder.  There was a rumble of agreement in the hall even, Oswy noted, from some of the witan, a lot of whom were old soldiers themselves.  Edwy held up a withered, slightly trembling, old hand.

             
“Aye Oswy”    he quavered “but you have nothing to lose, the Vikings are in possession of your lands and serfs.  Neither do you have a son.  I had five, I lost four at Ashdown, I do not want to lose my only other boy”

             
Oswy picked his teeth with the point of his dagger. “I had two, Edwy, they both died, also at Ashdown,  killing Norsemen, and I have a nephew, my only blood kin and as dear to me as any son, whose betrothed has been forced into marriage with one” he put his hand on Luke’s shoulder “I also have a stepdaughter who may be in their hands.  It is not just my lands I worry about”.  He leaned forward and glared at the witan “what sort of a nation are we? What sort of a country will we become if we let these - these animals slaughter our people and take our lands and women at will and pay them for it?”

             
“With respect, father, and forgive me for disagreeing with you” interrupted Cuthbert of Milston, Edwy’s surviving son, a puny lad of seventeen.  “I agree with my lords of Bredond and Lamporth.  If we do not fight we will all be killed anyway.  If we ignore the Vikings and let them overrun us they will not - can not - allow the ruling houses of
Wessex
to live.  These are not gentle people just wishing to settle, they are pagans, the most bloodthirsty people on Earth, they have overrun the rest of our island, we must not let them overrun
Wessex
.”

             
Alfred smiled and raised his goblet.  “Stout hearted lad” he said, then climbing to his feet addressed the assembly “I have listened to your good counsel my wise advisers
,
and have decided.  We are not involved in some minor trade war here nor do we just wish to punish the Vikings for the odd raid - we are fighting for our very survival.  There is no question of lying down like whipped curs this time.  We have the fyrd here almost in its entirety and are expecting reinforcements daily.  We will fight, and may God smile on our endeavour, let us pray to Him for victory”

             
As they all fell to their knees Luke smiled.  They’d fight alright, he had a certain Herger to meet up with.  Alodie had to become a widow and quickly.

Harald and Toki were in a sorry state.  Herger and his search party had found them less than half an hour after losing Alodie and Godgyth.  Herger, on seeing their injuries, (especially the  scratch marks left by the branch down the left side of Harald’s face, which unfortunately for him looked suspiciously like nail marks), and recalling Thorkil’s story of Alodie’s fighting prowess, had had the two men taken straight away back to the hall and had begun to question them closely.

             
At first they had blustered and denied everything.  Harald maintaining that he had caught his face on a branch which had then sprung back and hit Toki on the forehead.  They then changed their story to one of encountering another maid who had fought them off.

             
Guthrum, even though they were his men, was for using torture but was overruled by Herger as tortured men would say anything to stop the pain and he wanted to get at the truth.

             
After three hours of intense questioning Harald finally broke.  “Alright  my lord” he sobbed, “we did see the wench - yes, and the old woman, in the woods about four, five miles from here.  I swear Herger, neither of us had any idea who she was.”

             
Herger slammed his gauntleted fist down on the wooden table which almost cracked under the force of the blow.  “That is hard to believe Harald, you have known my wife longer than any of us!  Come, my hearty, think again, you’ll have to do better than that!”

             
Harald swallowed, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbing about like a cork in a barrel.  “I swear Lord Herger, it was too dark to see anything”

             
There was silence in the room, an almost palpable silence.  Herger looked from one to the other of them, breathing deeply, trying to control his anger, trying to stop himself from smashing them both to a bloody pulp.

             
Toki spoke “B-but when we did realise it was the Lady Alodie, we released her immediately, and the old woman too..............”

             
Herger walked toward the window then turned, his face a mask of anger. “Liar!” he snarled “Lady Alodie would not have raked your face like that for no reason.  I ask you now, did you or did you not harm her?  And before you answer, remember, I have been around scum like you since the age of ten, I can smell a lie from a league away, and let me tell you, this room stinks!”

             
The rain hissed down on the window, outside a seagull screamed its lone cry.

             
“I’ll admit it lord” said Harald at last, his voice cracking “we tried, but she fought us off.  You’re well shot of her sir, she fights like a demon.  My lord Herger, surely you cannot expect us not to try take advantage of a piece like that when we’re on campaign!”

             
Herger drew a sharp breath and crossed over to where the men stood, he pushed his face close to Harald’s, their noses almost touching, then he hissed through clenched teeth “If anyone -
anyone
has
‘taken advantage’
of my wife I will chop off his balls, roast them slowly over the fire and then make him EAT THEM!  Continue, you cursed dog!”

             
Harald gulped and held up his hands.  “I swear sir, after we let them go they ran into the woods and....”

             
“....and?”

             
“and disappeared” he finished, lamely.

             
Herger smiled, then, even though Harald was over six feet tall and built accordingly, he grabbed him by the shirt with one hand and lifted him bodily from the floor.  Walking with his kicking burden to where the fire blazed in the middle of the room he held him over it and said quietly “speak, Harald, this is my weak arm”

             
“Thor help me, Herger, t’is true, we didn’t see them after they ran into the clearing where you found us”

             
“Why did you not bring them back here?  Why release them?” The terrified man did not answer, Herger lowered his arm, the flames licked at Harald’s legs, he screamed.

             
“Speak scum!” roared Guthrum from the back of the room.

             
“I do not know!”

             
“Shall I tell you what happened, Harald?” said Herger, quietly, “you took it in turns to rape my bride then threw her and the old woman over the very convenient cliff nearby to silence them”

             
“No, no!” screamed Harald “I swear lord, we did not!”

             
Herger opened his hand and released Harald who dropped into the middle of the flames.  With a yelp of pain he leaped out only to be met by the point of Thorkil’s sword.

             
Herger stalked toward the door then turned. “Take these vermin and drop them both down the dried up well next to the privy pit until we have the truth of this.  When the bodies of my wife and her aunt are found I will cut the
blood eagle
on them both”

             
“and if they are not?” asked Guthrum.

             
“The bastards will starve!” he opened the door “and Guthrum” he continued, his voice dripping ice “if their bodies
are
found I shall also kill you” with that he strode from the room.

**********************

The rain poured from the sullen skies in a never ending torrent, the water, warm though it was, running in rivulets down the back of Luke’s shirt.  He shook himself, cursing the Vikings under his breath, and glanced up at the lowering clouds.

             
In order to combat the menace, the fyrd had split into two groups, one surrounding
Wareham
where the larger forces of King Amund were gathered and the rest attempting to invest Bredond.  Although it had been only a week it seemed as if they had been camped in these wet woods for an eternity.  Luke shivered, once again cursing the Vikings for not choosing a hot dry summer to invade.

             
It would have helped matters enormously if Alodie had been more co-operative.  Oswy had found a priest who had backed Luke up in his argument that the Viking ceremony was not valid but he finally realised that she was just using her wedding to Herger as an excuse to get out of her marriage to him.  To make things worse, when he accused her of this she had admitted as much and calmly shown him the comb that Gwen had left in his bed.  “Not that I mind who you sleep with Lieutenant Commander” she had said, tersely, “it’s just that I’m tired of this
‘I love you’
rubbish and your going round the court looking like a hurt puppy, whining for sympathy.  Remember you are an E & MTC star ship officer on a mission, act like one.”

             
That was what really hurt, she did not believe for a minute that he loved her and he did, he was sure he did.  She was wondrously beautiful, incredibly intelligent and had a body which could make a man go hard just thinking about it.  True, most of her views he disagreed with, and once she was properly his he would have to take steps to make sure she stopped this
‘I’m the boss’
crap, it would be an uphill struggle but worth it to bring her to heel.

             
Why, once they were married he would be the most envied man in
Wessex
.  King Alfred had promised him a grant of land adjoining Oswy’s and then his ‘uncle’ had chimed in with the news that he was making Luke his heir.  Luke had, of course, offered to join the two estates under the thegnship of Oswy whilst he lived, after all he was his dearest uncle (Luke found himself believing his own story sometimes), so Alodie’s refusal to play ball with the wedding plans was the only fly in the ointment.  What ailed the woman?  He would be a good husband to her – admittedly when Alodie had first informed him that the wedding was off he had gone to bed again with Gwen, in a fit of pique, but she meant nothing to him.  Young Mildred, Edric’s sixteen year old cousin, was next on his list, he liked redheads.

             
He was shaken out of his reverie as Edric himself arrived, soaked to the skin, and hunkered down next to him “Well, me lad” he announced “it looks as though the cursed of God won’t come out to play. We’ve tried everything short of setting fire to the stockade to no avail.  His Grace says that if they don’t come out tomorrow we go in.”

             
Luke nodded, “not before time”

             
Edric took out his dagger and began sharpening it on a stone “in the meantime” he said, testing the point on his thumb “you’re relieved from watch, come back to the tent and have a meal and get dry”

             
Sighing with relief Luke followed his friend through the damp undergrowth and back to the main bivouac, which consisted of a tent made from hides sewn together and treated with fat to make them waterproof.

             
Night was beginning to fall and the shadows cast eerie shapes along the ground.  Luke shivered again, deciding that, in this light, you would almost think that bush was a woman.  Suddenly it moved.  It
was
a woman, heavily cloaked.

             
As they watched she tottered and fell.  Both men ran over to her and Edric lifted her into his arms.  “Phew, she’s quite a weight” he grunted.  Luke pulled back her brown fustian hood.

             
“Jeez! Er Jesu Edric, it’s Emma” he gasped.

**********************

             
Once inside the warmth of the tent and with hot broth spooned inside her Emma began to come round.

             
She was escorted to a corner of the tent and soon closeted with Luke Edric and Oswy.  She informed them, between sips, that she had run away on sighting the ships and had been hiding out in the woods ever since, living on berries, water and precious little else.

             
She had attempted, she said, to get to
Winchester
to warn the fyrd but  had got lost.

             
“Why did you not go back to Bredond with Alodie to warn the village?” asked Oswy, after the woman had stopped shivering.

             
Emma glanced up at him, she hoped guilelessly “I - I don’t know.  I’m sorry Father, I just panicked.”

             
“Hmm, never mind, you’re safe now” he absent mindedly patted her hand.  Something in her story did not gel but he had had to fight against his inborn dislike of Emma for years, it made him feel guilty, he wanted to believe her but could not bring himself to.

             
“H-how did you eventually find out?” she asked, taking another sip of broth, “about the Vikings taking Bredond I mean”

             
Oswy beamed “T’was Alodie, brave lass, she warned the village and a lot of people escaped. She then fled into the forest to try to reach
Winchester
but was captured by the heathen and taken back to Bredond where she was bought by one of them - King Herger.  The bastard forced her into marriage.  However she escaped, overpowered two heathen, stole a horse, saved your mother and managed to get to
Winchester
to alert us.  She is the heroine of the hour!”

             
Oh how wonderful
thought Emma
and the besotted fools would not believe me for a second if I told them that the witch had blown up the two heathens she overpowered with flames from her fingers and flown to
Winchester
!
“W-was Alodie harmed in any way?” asked Emma, hopefully.

             
“No, thank the Lord” said Luke “but I am sworn to kill Herger as Alodie will not marry me whilst she is still married to him”

             
Emma replaced the cup on the table.  “But surely, Alodie cannot think that the heathen ceremony is valid”

             
Oswy shook his head.  “Bless the lass, she is so virtuous that she cannot go to Luke’s bed whilst she is married, however tenuously in everyone else’s eyes, to the Viking.  She feels that she is sinning”

             
“Did she - er escape unravished?” asked Emma.

             
“Yes, she escaped at the wedding feast, before the heathen had a chance to force her to his bed” replied Luke.

             
“Well, thank the Lord for that” she said, crossing herself.  Luke smiled and Oswy patted her hand than gestured to the pallet which had been made up for her.

             
“Yes, well, sleep now Emma, we’ll get someone to take you to
Winchester
tomorrow.  I am sure your mother will be pleased to see you”

             
Emma curtsied “Good night Father, Edric, Luke” bidding her goodnight they left.

             
Walking slowly to the pallet, Emma lay down, fully dressed, her hands behind her head, the muted sounds of the men chuckling, dicing and drinking coming to her through the hide which separated her from them.
You fool, Alodie
she thought
you idiotic fool, I know your weakness, you are afraid, terrified, of giving your body to a man, even such a man as Luke
.  She herself now had no such fears, for she was no longer a maid.