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But it was more than exhaustion that made her muscles stiffen and her stomach clench, more even than the hunger brought on by the string of fast days that made up Holy Week.
Beside her, Æthelred sat robed in a mantle of deep blue godwebbe that shimmered in the candlelight like a dragonfly’s wing, but his face was dark with suppressed anger. She could only guess at the source of his displeasure, for he rarely confided in her. Instinctively, though, she felt it must be rooted in fear and so she, too, was fearful.
Æthelred was most dangerous when he was afraid.
The king was a man of dark moods, and she thought she had grown used to them. But this most recent ill humour seemed heavier than any she had yet seen. She had told herself that it was because of Ecbert’s death, still raw in all their minds, especially after yesterday’s mournful Good Friday service, with its vivid reminder of death’s agonies. But although this brooding had begun with Ecbert’s passing, she felt that something else was feeding it, and that the storm brewing within Æthelred could erupt at any time into cataclysm. Anxiety made her neck ache, as if she bore a leaden chain across her shoulders.
Reminding herself that it was fruitless to dwell on something she could not remedy, she turned an appraising eye on the sons of the king, most of whom she had not seen since Christmas. The three youngest had arrived earlier today, boisterous and jocular when they entered the royal apartments until they caught sight of their father’s thunderous face.
Edgar had grown like a wheat stalk in a matter of months. He was thirteen now, and his face had lost the roundness of boyhood. His long hair, pulled straight back from his forehead and bound behind his neck with a woven silver band, had darkened to the colour of honey. A sparse beard covered the point of his chin, and that gave him something of the look of Athelstan. He was nearly as comely as his eldest brother, too, with blue eyes that were turned upon the king just now with sober speculation. Not quite a man yet, Edgar, but serious for his age.
Far more serious than the brighter-haired Edwig, who, at fifteen winters, should have been the more responsible one. There was a carelessness about Edwig, though, and she had sometimes glimpsed in him a callous disregard for others that she did not like. He and his elder brother Edrid – the two of them so near in age and looks that they could be taken for twins – served along with Edgar in the retinue of Ealdorman Ælfric, and attended the king only on the high holidays and feasts. Even when they were children she had known them but little.
She watched as Edwig took a stealthy swallow from a leather flask at his belt – some strong liquor, she guessed, forbidden on this holy night, when only watered wine would be served in the king’s hall. Afterwards he waved away some protest from his frowning, twinlike brother, Edrid, who was clearly the good angel to Edwig’s bad.
She glanced at the king to see if he had witnessed Edwig’s transgression, but Æthelred’s brooding gaze was fixed upon the two eldest æthelings, Athelstan and Edmund. They stood to one side of the fire pit at the centre of the hall, deep in conversation with two men whose faces she could not make out until one of them turned and the firelight flickered on a handsome, chiselled cheek and black, curly hair.
And then she knew them – the sons of Ælfhelm, who had arrived without their sire or their sister, Elgiva. Æthelred would surely read treachery in their absence. Did he know, though, with certainty, of some perfidy that Ælfhelm might be planning? Was that the cause of his foul mood?
‘I think, my lord,’ she ventured, although she had little hope that he would respond, ‘that you are troubled by the absence of Elgiva and her father.’
‘I am troubled by a great many things, lady,’ he replied, his voice laced with sarcasm. ‘Would you care to have me enumerate them?’
But she refused to respond in kind.
‘If it would give you ease, my lord,’ she said.
‘Nothing will give me ease except death, and I have no desire for that as yet. Not for myself, in any event. What if I were to tell you that I think my sons are consorting with my enemies? What would you say then to give me ease?’
His words chilled her, and she glanced again to where Athelstan was speaking with apparent urgency to the sons of Ælfhelm. She placed her hand upon the king’s arm and said gently, ‘You judge your sons too harshly, my lord. They are never your enemies.’
There were those, she knew, who would counsel her to speak ill of her stepsons – that as the king’s esteem for them lessened, his regard for her own child must increase. As queen and mother of the heir, they would say, it was her task to put forward her own son and so garner greater status for him and, through him, for herself.
Yet she had no wish to turn Æthelred against the elder æthelings, and that was self-serving, too, in its own way. For she believed that if Æthelred should die while her son was still a child, the witan would place a warrior king upon the throne – someone who could wage war against England’s enemies. It would be Athelstan who would rule the kingdom; Athelstan who would hold her fate – and that of Edward – in his hands.
When that happened, her world would change utterly, and how was she to prepare for it except by cultivating the goodwill of her stepchildren for Edward’s sake? Æthelred’s tally of years was forty winters long now – many years longer than the men of his line who had come before him. And with each year that passed, the tension grew more pronounced between an ageing king who could not relinquish one jot of control and the grown sons who were eager for advancement and responsibility – especially Athelstan.
She felt as though she walked a sword’s edge between them – the king who was her husband, and the ætheling she could not help but love and whom she defended at her peril.
‘My sons,’ Æthelred said, ‘covet my crown, and would take it from me if they could find a way to do so.’ He nodded towards the group near the fire. ‘Even now Athelstan is garnering support from the sons of Ælfhelm for his claim to the throne.’
She looked again to where Athelstan’s fair hair showed golden against Edmund’s darker locks and the black curls of the sons of Ælfhelm. The king could not possibly read what matter they were discussing any more than she could. But she knew that although Athelstan might oppose his father at the council table, he would not reach out his hand betimes to take the throne. He had given her his pledge on that, and she trusted him to keep it. Æthelred had enemies, she did not doubt it – too numerous to count. But Athelstan could not be numbered among them.
‘My lord,’ she said, weighing her words carefully, for if the king suspected her feelings for his son, it would do Athelstan more harm than good, ‘you do your son an injustice. Should he raise his hand against you it would weaken the kingdom, turn the men of this land one against another. Athelstan must know this, and I think he would do nothing that would place this realm in such peril.’
‘Would he not?’ Æthelred asked bitterly. ‘Lady, there is much that goes on, within the court and without it, of which you know nothing. It were best you keep your mind upon matters of your household and the schooling of my daughters. Leave my sons to me.’
He stood up abruptly and left the dais, disappearing into the passage that led to his private chamber. A moment later, she saw a servant hurry to the group at the fire and escort them from the hall, following in the king’s wake. She did not like the look of that.
She beckoned the king’s cupbearer to her, a red-cheeked boy of ten whose father was the lord of several large estates within her dower lands near Exeter.
‘Take a flagon of wine to the king,’ she said, placing a silver penny in his palm as he bent to fill her cup, ‘and linger in the chamber in case he should have need of you. Tomorrow you shall tell me, and no one else, all that you hear.’
The boy nodded and left. Emma rose from the table to mingle with the men and women in the hall, but her thoughts were still directed towards the chamber of the king. Æthelred was correct when he said that she did not know everything that went on at court.
Still, she knew a great deal, and in Æthelred’s court, knowledge was power.
Chapter Seven
Holy Saturday, April 1006
Cookham, Berkshire
The king’s chamber was alive with light – banks of candles turning the night to day and reminding Athelstan that his father did not like the dark.
The king was afraid of shadows.
But his father feared other things as well, and there was suspicion in the hooded blue eyes that swept over the four of them: Ufegeat, Wulf, Edmund, himself. He felt like a warrior in a shield wall, but without benefit of either shield or blade.
Did the king suspect that they had been speaking of Elgiva and a marriage alliance? Was that why they had been ushered in here? If so, he was going to need the tongue of an angel to convince his father that his only intention was to save the kingdom, not steal it.
There was a long, heavy silence while a cupbearer slipped in and filled the goblet that stood on the table beside the king’s great chair, and then the silence was broken by the tread of boots and the creak of leather. Six of the king’s retainers, handpicked to do his bidding and ask no questions, filed into the chamber. Two of them stepped forward to flank the king. They were men whom Athelstan knew well, but when he probed their faces, they did not meet his eyes.
His palms began to sweat. He had often been called to answer to his father for what the king considered misdeeds, but there had never been armed men at his back before. He looked a question at the king, but his father’s eyes were fixed on Ælfhelm’s sons. Following that glance he saw a fine sheen of sweat on Ufegeat’s forehead, and next to him Wulf’s face was so pale that it looked to be carved from wax.
A thin shaft of fear sliced through him, and he cursed under his breath. There was some undercurrent here that he could not read, something to do with the sons of Ælfhelm and, likely, their father. He recalled now what Edmund had told him in London about trouble in the north, and recalled as well the many rumours that had sifted through the hall like smoke today – rumours about Ælfhelm’s absence from this gathering that, like a fool, he had not heeded.
It would not surprise him to learn of some treachery that the ealdorman was planning. For a long time now he’d had his own doubts about where the man’s true loyalties lay, although he had never been able to prove anything. If the king had discovered that Ælfhelm and his sons were plotting some move against him, then he and Edmund might well be deemed guilty by association.
Anxiously he watched his father, who rested an elbow on the arm of his chair, fingered his beard thoughtfully, and addressed Ufegeat.
‘I would know,’ the king said slowly, ‘what it was that you and my sons were discussing in the hall.’
His tone was not threatening, but Athelstan knew his father, knew that it was a ploy – a swordsman’s feint to disguise a second, far more lethal, thrust. He stepped forward to give his own explanation, but the king raised a hand to stop him.
‘I wish to hear it from the son of Ælfhelm,’ he said.
Ufegeat cleared his throat, and the noise of it was loud in the chamber’s tense silence.
‘The æthelings,’ he said, ‘broached the subject of a marriage alliance with my sister. They wished to know if we would support it.’
‘My lord,’ Athelstan began, but his father’s quelling hand silenced him yet again. He cast a nervous glance at Ufegeat.
‘And what was your response to my sons’ proposal?’
‘My first question, my lord,’ Ufegeat said, ‘was whether you would agree to any such betrothal. I reminded your sons that it breaks with custom for an ætheling to wed while his father still lives.’
There was censure in his voice – disapproval of anything that might defy the king. Athelstan glared at him, but Ufegeat ignored him.
‘Indeed, it does break with custom,’ the king said. ‘But you have another reason, do you not, for rejecting such a proposal? Is not your sister already pledged?’
And there was the second sword thrust. Stunned, Athelstan gaped first at his father, then at Ælfhelm’s sons to see their response. Ufegeat’s face had become a blank wall. Wulf, though, looked like he was going to be sick. Was it true, then? And if it was, who had bargained for Elgiva’s hand?
‘My lord,’ Ufegeat said stiffly, ‘I cannot say what arrangements my father may have made regarding my sister. He does not apprise us of every plan that he undertakes.’
‘No,’ the king said, his face thoughtful. ‘Perhaps not. A wise father does not share all his secrets with his sons.’
His eyes, hard and mocking, flicked towards Athelstan, who flinched as the barb struck home. His father had a great many secrets that he kept from his sons.
The king turned to Ufegeat again. ‘Yet your sister appears to know something of your father’s intentions,’ Æthelred observed. ‘Surely you do not expect me to believe that Ælfhelm would confide in his daughter and not in his sons?’
Ufegeat shrugged. ‘Elgiva is but a woman, with a woman’s desires and a meagre understanding of the affairs of men. She longs to wed, to be sure, but I cannot speak to what fantasies she may have spun from the whispers of servants and from her own feverish imagination. I certainly will not be held to account for it.’
‘Ah, but you will, my lord,’ the king said, his bland voice belying the threat in his words, ‘as will your father and this brother of yours.’ He raised his hand and the guards took hold of Ælfhelm’s sons.
Ufegeat resisted, struggling against his captors until one of them cuffed him about the face.
Staggering, his mouth bloody, Ufegeat cried out, ‘We are guilty of no crime, my lord. You cannot prove that we have done anything wrong.’
‘Yet I deem you guilty of treachery against my throne,’ and now the king’s voice was sharp as steel, ‘and in this I am your only judge.’ He gestured to his retainers. ‘Take them.’
Athelstan watched, his gut churning, as the king’s men dragged Ælfhelm’s sons from the chamber. They were not gentle. Ufegeat and Wulf tried to protest and were silenced with vicious blows.
When they had gone he turned to stare at his father, who was still flanked by two of the guards and who was eyeing him now, wolflike, as if taking the measure of a rival.
Would he and Edmund be dragged off as well, locked away until his father decided on their punishment? And if so, for what? He still did not see what Ufegeat and Wulf had done that was so wrong.
‘What is their crime?’ he asked.
The king reached for the wine cup at his side, drank deeply, then set the cup down so hard that the sound made Athelstan flinch.
‘Ælfhelm has betrothed his daughter to a Danish lord,’ his father said, ‘and they were privy to it. You saw their faces.’
If it were true, it would explain the ealdorman’s absence from court as well as his sons’ terror at being hauled before the king.
‘Are you certain?’ he asked.
‘The lady herself sent me word, insisting that her brothers could not be trusted.’ His father’s voice was sardonic. ‘Is that good enough for you?’
‘My lord,’ Edmund said, ‘there must be a blood alliance between your line and that of Ælfhelm. It will garner you the support of all the Mercian nobles against any other—’
‘Support for me?’ the king cried. ‘And what guarantee can you give that they would not support whoever weds Ælfhelm’s bitch?’
There it was again – that suspicion that always lay like a wide gulf between them.
‘We have sworn our allegiance – to you and to Emma’s son,’ Athelstan protested. ‘We are not traitors.’
‘Aye, so you say,’ his father scoffed. ‘But actions speak louder than any vow! You would have conspired against me with Ælfhelm’s sons had they not had schemes of their own in hand! If what you intended was in my interests, Athelstan, why did you not speak of it first to me?’
‘And what would you have said to such a plan?’ he demanded. ‘You would have humiliated me by saying it was foolish, then you would have accused me of disloyalty. What must I do, my lord, to convince you that I am neither a fool nor a traitor?’
He glared at his father, struggling to quell his rising anger, for he knew very well that there was nothing he could do. The king scowled back at him, but before either of them could speak again, Edmund stepped between them.
‘My lord,’ he said, ‘we are certain that Elgiva is the key to securing allegiance in the north.’ Athelstan almost laughed. His brother was beating a dead horse, and in any case, Elgiva was not really the issue here. ‘If you would but agree to—’
‘I will not reward treachery!’ his father thundered. ‘And I will not be tutored by my sons!’
‘No!’ Athelstan shouted back, frustration overcoming caution. ‘Nor by anyone else! You refuse all advice! Why is that? Are you so confident in your decisions, my lord? Was it not you who chose to make Ælfhelm the ealdorman of Northumbria? Yet now you are not so pleased with that decision. How are you to undo it? You cannot legally strip him of his lands and his powers unless you can prove—’
‘I am the king!’ His father thrust himself to his feet as he bellowed the words. ‘And I am the law!’
He glared at them, and Athelstan, staring into his father’s livid face, despaired. His father would never listen to him, not while he felt so threatened.
‘What will you do?’ he asked, although he feared to hear the answer.
The king waved a dismissive hand as if weary of the conversation, then took his seat again. Closing his eyes, he massaged his forehead, and for some time said nothing. He looked tired, and it seemed to Athelstan that every year of his long reign was etched upon his face.
After some moments his father muttered, ‘A hunter does not wait for the boar to charge before throwing the spear.’ Then he looked at Athelstan and growled, ‘I have done what is necessary. Now, leave me. I would be alone.’
Athelstan felt Edmund grasp his arm to urge him away, but he was not yet ready to leave. He wanted to know what his father would do to Ufegeat and Wulf. Ælfhelm would not sit idly by while the king held his sons captive, nor would the other lords take their arrest lightly. They, too, had sons.
‘My lord—’
‘Get out, Athelstan, before I set the guards on you!’
He did not doubt that his father would be as good as his word, so he shut his mouth, bowed stiffly, and followed Edmund out of the chamber and back to the hall. There was no music ringing through the high roof beams, no scop reciting a tale, no rumble of voices. This was Easter Eve, when Christ was in the grave and all men were to reflect on the suffering and death He had endured for their sins. The Winchester bishop stood upon the dais reading a sermon to the assembly. Athelstan paused only long enough to cast a swift, reassuring glance towards Emma, whose eyes – full of questions – met his. Then he followed Edmund, threading his way through the hall and out the door.
When they were alone, standing next to one of the clay ovens still warm from the day’s baking, Edmund muttered several colourful curses, then said, ‘You should have just made off with the girl and wed her.’
Athelstan barked a mirthless laugh. ‘If I had, I would be with Wulf and Ufegeat right now, probably in chains. And God knows where Elgiva would be.’ He frowned. ‘Come to that, I wonder where she is. With Ælfhelm, I assume.’
‘Or with her new Danish lord, whoever that may be,’ Edmund suggested.
‘If Elgiva betrayed her father’s plans for her, she clearly has no desire to marry whoever it is.’ Athelstan recalled the haggard look on his father’s face near the end of their interview. I have done what is necessary, he had said. What was it, exactly, that his father had done? ‘I’ll wager that the king has already taken some action against Ælfhelm,’ he said. ‘I wonder what mischief he’s set in motion, and what trouble is likely to come of it.’
At midnight Æthelred stood in the darkened church among his family and his court. A line of priests bearing glowing tapers – symbols of hope and resurrection – made its way through the nave. But as he watched the candlelight begin to blossom around the altar, something flickered at the edge of his vision, some movement in the shadows that lingered outside the light. His eyes were drawn towards that darkness, and there his dead brother – a dark wraith amid the shadows – stared back at him with black intent.
Pain crawled up his arm and into his chest, and he clutched his shoulder to ease it. Beside him, Emma reached out a hand, but he shrugged it off. This enemy was his alone – a burden he could share with no one, least of all his queen. It had already taken two of his sons, and it sought to sunder him now from those who were left.
He cursed it under his breath, and as if in response the shadow faded, taking the pain with it, and he drew a long, grateful breath.
Released from his brother’s malignant spell he sought and found Athelstan and Edmund, their youthful faces lit by the tapers in their hands. His thoughts swept back to the events of an hour before and to his sons’ protestations of loyalty. He put little faith in them. Athelstan, he did not doubt, was laying the foundation for his own rule in England. It was what he would do, were he in Athelstan’s place.
Ambitious sons, he reflected, were like wild horses that had to be kept in check – with force, if necessary. It had not come to that yet, but it would. His dead brother’s vengeful shade would likely hasten the day.
And when it came, he told himself, he must never flinch. He must do whatever was needed to hold on to his kingdom, even if it cost him his sons.
Chapter Eight
Easter Monday, April 1006
Western Mercia
Elgiva shivered as she peered into the gloom of the little manor chapel, saw that it was empty, and stepped inside. She did not like churches, but she needed a place to think, and this was as good a place as any to take refuge from unwanted company and from the sudden chill breeze that was scrabbling across the manor yard.
Pulling her cloak tight about her, she gazed up at a portrait of Saint Peter that had been elaborately painted on the chancel wall. The saint’s right hand was raised in benediction and in his left he held a magnificent silver key. A golden halo encircled his head, and in his white-streaked hair and beard she could make out a marked resemblance to King Æthelred.
Had the man who drew this, she wondered, ever seen the king? More to the point, she thought, as she began to pace the chapel’s floor, was she ever likely to see the king again?
The gloom seemed to deepen around her as she forced herself, once more, to face the truth. Even if the king had sent someone to rescue her from the living death of a Danish marriage, no one would think to look for her in a stronghold on the western edge of Mercia. Yet here she was, despite her protests that she was unwell and that she should not be made to travel so far to attend some wretched noble’s Paschal feast.
‘You are well enough,’ her father had barked. ‘And I have business with Eadric.’
Yes, she thought bitterly, business that involved hunting and drinking and the swearing of oaths, none of which had anything to do with her. This Eadric – newly come into his father’s estate – was a man of some substance now it appeared. Her father likely wished to bend the new man to his own purposes, to forge another solid link in his chain of alliances. It was a worthy enough goal, she supposed, although she knew there was some larger purpose behind it that her father, curse him, kept from her. As for Eadric, she guessed that he had invited them here in order to court the favour of his powerful overlord.