To Love Again (54 page)

“I am sorry that I did not know them,” he told her. Then together they returned to the hall, where their daughter ran to greet them.

The spring was well under way and the plowing started when the gates were opened one morning to reveal a young girl crumpled upon the earth before them. Wulf and Cailin were summoned from the hall.

“The gods!” Cailin exclaimed. “The child has been beaten cruelly! Is she dead? How came she here to Cadda-wic?”

The girl moaned as if in answer, and rolled over just enough to reveal a form more mature than they had thought. She was small and slender, but obviously older than they had originally believed.

Cailin knelt and gently touched the maiden’s arm. “Can you hear me, lass?” she asked her. “What has happened to you?”

The girl opened her eyes slowly. They were a pale green in color, and the look in them was one of total confusion.
“Where am I?” she whispered so low that Cailin had to bend closer to hear her.

“You are at Cadda-wic, the holding of Wulf Ironfist,” she replied. “Who are you? Where have you come from, and who has mistreated you so cruelly?” She shifted herself, uncomfortable in this position, as she was within a month of bearing her child.

The girl looked uncertain as to what to answer, and her eyes filled with tears that spilled down her very pretty face.

“What is your name?” Cailin gently pressed her.

The girl appeared to think a moment, and then she said, “Aelfa. Aelfa is my name! I remember! I am called Aelfa!”

“Where have you come from?” Cailin asked.

Again the girl appeared to consider, and then said, “I do not know, lady.” The tears slipped silently down her face again.

“Poor little thing,” Wulf said. “The beating she has received has obviously addled her wits. She will remember in time.”

“I will carry her into the hall,” said Corio, who had come but the day before from Braleah. Gently, he lifted the girl into his arms, and when her head fell against his shoulder, a strange look crossed the young man’s face. No woman had yet captured Corio’s heart.

The girl was brought to the hall, where Cailin carefully examined her. Other than her bruises, she seemed fine, but for her loss of memory. Cailin had the tub brought and bathed the girl herself. Aelfa’s hair was like cornsilk, a pale, almost silvery gold in color. A tunica and camisa were quickly found to fit her dainty stature. As she was brought to the high board, everyone in the hall could see that Aelfa was not simply a pretty girl. She was a beautiful one. Corio appeared besotted as he watched her eating, picking sparingly at the food.

“He is bewitched,” Cailin whispered to her husband.

“As I would be had I not found you, lambkin,” he answered.

Cailin was discomfited by his reply, to her great surprise. She had not thought herself capable of such silly jealousy.
She gazed from beneath her lashes at the girl. I am just as lovely when I do not look like a sow ready to birth her piglets, she decided. Why are men such fools over a beautiful, helpless female? I should far rather be strong.

When Aelfa had finished eating, Wulf gently asked her, “Have you remembered anything else about yourself that might help us to find to whom you belong? Surely your family is worried.”

“Perhaps she is a slave, a runaway,” Cailin suggested.

“She wears no collar,” Wulf replied. “Did you see any mark of ownership upon her when you bathed her, lambkin?”

Cailin shook her head. “Nay, I did not.”

“I can remember nothing of myself,” Aelfa said in a sweet, almost musical voice. “Oh, I am afraid! Why can I not remember?”

“You will remember in time,” Cailin said briskly, seeing that Aelfa was preparing to weep once more. The men were being foolish enough without being subjected to that. “Have you not work in the fields?” Cailin asked her husband. “Do not worry about Aelfa. She will stay with me, and I will keep her safe. Corio, will your father not want you at home to help? We are so pleased you came to visit, but go, and do not come back until the Beltane fires, cousin!”

“Are all women so impatient when they are close to delivering their young?” Corio asked Wulf as they exited the hall. “I have never seen Cailin so short of temper.” Then, dismissing his cousin, he said, “Is not Aelfa the most exquisite creature you have ever seen? I think I am in love with her already. Is such a thing possible, Wulf Ironfist?”

Wulf laughed. “Aye, it is,” he admitted, “and I can see you are certainly taken with our waif-child. If we learn anything of import about her, like a husband languishing somewhere, I will send word to you.”

Aelfa, however, could not seem to remember anything of her life before they had found her, apart from her name. Wulf felt that all evidence pointed to a gentle birth, and had wanted to house her in the solar, not the hall. Cailin had, with strangely uncharitable feelings, refused.

“The solar is for the lord and his family,” she said sharply to her husband. “Aelfa is not family. She is safe in the hall, and to house her with us would say otherwise, causing unpleasant talk.”

Among whom? he had wanted to ask, but Cailin’s expression was so forbidding he dared not. He put her irritation down to the fact the child’s birth was near and that she was anxious for it to be born. “You are mistress of this hall,” he soothed her, and was surprised when she glared up at him. He had never seen her like this. Certainly she had not been so easily angered when she had carried Aurora.

“The girl must stay,” Cailin said. “It goes against all the laws of hospitality for us to expel her from Cadda-wic due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding her arrival. Nonetheless she is not family, and I will not have her treated as such, lest it be misunderstood.”

He was forced to agree, and Aelfa settled into the routine of their lives. She was courteous and pleasant to all, but Cailin thought she seemed more so to the men. Cailin did not know what it was that made her suspicious of Aelfa, but her voice within was strong. She had long ago learned not to deny it even when she did not fully understand the warning. Cailin knew from her past experiences that all would be revealed in time. Until then she would be vigilant and on her guard. Her family and all she held dear were once again being threatened. Would there never come a time when they would know real peace? she despaired silently.

Across the hall, Aelfa sat upon the floor with Nellwyn, giggling as they played with Aurora. They made a most charming picture, even if that was precisely what Aelfa had intended, Cailin thought angrily, wondering why the others could not see the girl for the schemer she was. In time, that little voice counseled her wisely.
In time
.

Chapter 17

T
here would never be a Beltane celebration, Cailin thought pensively, when she would not remember the tragedy that had struck her family. The merriment of the festival would always be tinged with sadness for her. When she and Wulf had returned to Britain last year, the holiday had been a subdued one for them because they were too involved with rebuilding their lives. This year, however, it was different. The fields were already green with new grain. There was an air of new hope about them that she could not remember having felt in all her life.

The weather was perfect, and despite the impending birth of her child, Cailin arose early to gather flowering branches for the hall. She took Aurora with her, and upon their return, Cailin noticed Nellwyn and Aelfa loitering about the hall’s gates, flirting with the men on duty. She called sharply to Nellwyn to come and take Aurora, and scolded Aelfa for her idleness. Then she hurried into the hall, hearing laughter behind her and knowing that Aelfa had probably said something rude.

Cailin could not understand why the girl’s memory had not returned. She had not been that badly injured when they had found her. In fact neither her head nor her face had been touched, it seemed. She had been treated with great kindness in the weeks she was with them. Cailin suspected that the girl knew full well who her people were and where she had come from, but would say nothing lest she be dislodged from her comfortable place at Caddawic, which was obviously better than anything she had ever known. Cailin realized that she
did not want Aelfa at Cadda-wic much longer. If the girl could or would not remember, then a husband must be found for her in one of the villages by summer’s end. Cailin was perfectly willing to supply the dowry, but Aelfa must go.

“Mama! Mama! See fire!” Aurora, who was snuggled into her mother’s arms, pointed with fat little fingers at the Beltane fires leaping up across the hillsides as the sun set.

“Aye, Aurora, I see,” Cailin answered her daughter.

“Pretty,” Aurora said. “Look at Papa!”

Cailin smiled as Wulf leapt the fire, laughing, and then other men and women both began to follow him.

“Mama jump!” Aurora commanded her mother.

“Nay, precious, not this year,” Cailin laughed. “I am too fat with the new baby. Next year,” she promised.

Aelfa leapt over the flames, her pale gold hair flying. She was laughing, and Cailin had to admit, even grudgingly, that she was beautiful. The men clustered about her like bees to a honey pot. Corio had come from Braleah village just to see her, but Aelfa did not seem to favor him, to his great disappointment. Her two favorite swains were men-at-arms, Albert and Bran-hard, who vied mightily for her attention. It was just as well, Cailin thought. She was sorry to see the look of hurt on Corio’s face, but she also knew he could do better than Aelfa if he really desired a wife. She watched, half amused, half annoyed, as Aelfa disappeared into the darkness, first with one of her admirers, and then returned with him to shortly go off with the other.

“She has the morals of a mink,” Cailin said to Wulf. “She will have those two at each other’s throats before the night is out.”

“She is young, and it is Beltane,” he answered mildly.

“We must find her a husband, and the sooner the better, from what I have observed here tonight, my lord,” Cailin told him severely. The gods! She sounded like an old woman! What was the matter with her?

“I suspect you are right, lambkin,” he answered, to her great surprise. “She is far too lovely a maid to be allowed to run freely much longer. I cannot have dissension among my
men over a pretty girl. Discord is a weakness we can ill afford. Ragnar Strongspear has taken my advice and is expanding his territory to the south. He has been joined by his brother Gunnar. I have no doubt that, egged on by Antonia, he will be foolish enough to turn his eyes toward our lands sometime in the future. We must remain strong.”

Aurora, half asleep, was heavy in Cailin’s arms. “Nellwyn,” she called to the nursemaid, “take Aurora and put her to bed.” Then she turned back to her husband. “Make inquiries in Orrford to see if any young men need wives. If you make Aelfa choose between Albert and Bran-hard, there will be hard feelings between those two. She is in love with neither, but rather plays with each like a cat with a mouse. Corio is taken with her, but she is not the right woman for him. Best we send her as far from Cadda-wic and Braleah as we can. That way, none of her admirers here is apt to see her again for a long time,
if ever
. By summer’s end, Aelfa must be wed.”

“I must make a tour of all the villages soon to see how it goes with them,” Wulf told his wife. “I but wait for the son you have promised me before leaving you, lambkin. I will personally seek out and find the right young man for Aelfa to wed in Orrford.”

“Good!” Cailin said, but despite their agreement in the matter, her voice within nagged her yet. She remained on her guard, but for what, she was unable to tell.

Royse Wulfsone was born on the nineteenth day of May. Unlike his sister’s hard birth, his entry into the world was a swift and easy one. Cailin awoke in the hour of the false dawn to realize her waters had broken. Within minutes she was being racked with labor, and in the hour that the sky began to lighten with the new day, the baby was born, howling lustily, his face red, his small arms flailing. Nellwyn had assisted her mistress with the birth, but Aelfa swooned at the sight of the blood involved and had to be carried from the solar.

Cailin and Wulf’s son was strong and healthy from the moment of his birth. He suckled eagerly at his mother’s breasts, and always seemed hungry. Denied her daughter’s infancy,
Cailin reveled in her motherhood. Sensitive, however, to Aurora’s feelings, she involved the little girl in her brother’s care as much as she could so that Aurora would not feel neglected. As a big sister, Aurora, who would be four in the late summer, did admirably, running to fetch her mother at her baby brother’s least cry, helping to dress him, watching over him with Nellwyn.

“She is so patient with him,” Cailin observed. “He is going to be very spoiled, I fear. He already recognizes her.”

“Do you see how strong he is?” Wulf said proudly. “He will be a big man someday. Perhaps even bigger than I am.”

When Royse was six weeks old, and Cailin fully recovered from the birth, Wulf Ironfist set off to visit his villages. Before he left, he called Aelfa into his and Cailin’s presence. She came meekly, looking particularly pretty in a pale blue tunica she had made from a length of fabric Cailin had given her on Beltane.