The Beast of Caer Baddan (28 page)

Prince Iestyn gazed at the ring for what Leola thought to be far too long.

Is he going to leave? Or strike me dead for such impertinence? 

“I shall go,” he said at last. “God keep you.”

“God keep you, Sir.”

She watched Prince Iestyn and the knights turn their mounts around and ride away, then let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you mad!” cried a voice behind her.

Leola turned to face Fridiswid and every woman in the village with the dryhtcwen.

“What has bewitched you, that you would invent such a thing?” Fridiswid cried.

“Drudi said that she leaned on a hazel tree,” Drudi's mother said.

“No!” another woman cried in horror at the thought.

“I made him leave, did I not?” Leola said to the dryhtcwen.

“With such a tale that he shall discover its falsehood and return to kill you for it,” Fridiswid replied.

Leola thought to contradict her words.

“What I said was true,”
she would answer.
“I am married to a Britisc aetheling.”

But she knew they would not believe her and did not wish to give them more proof of her hazel-tree-faery-curse.

“He shall not return,” Leola said aloud, with far more assurance then she thought.

“You fool,” Fridiswid replied. “You have placed the village in jeopardy. You must go.”

“Dryhtcwen, please,” Redburga said.

“She has endangered all of us.”

“It was not she who has a warrior hidden!” Redburga cried.

“That is a duty!” Drudi's mother cried.

“And if this Britisc aetheling should have found him?” Redburga asked. “It would be the death of all of us!”

“Enough!” Leola cried. “Do not argue for me, Aunt. I shall go.”

Leola walked through the crowd of women, and they made way for her as she went.

“Are the Britisc gone?” Erna asked, when Leola returned to the hut.

“Yea,” Leola replied, her words were short and harsh to match the emptiness in her heart.

“I buried it very deep,” Ead said.

“Good.”

Leola picked up her basket and began to fill it with bread.

“What are you doing?” Erna asked.

“I must go to Tiwton,” Leola replied.

“No!” the twins screamed.

They wrapped their arms around her as if to hold her there forever.

“You must stay here with us!” Erna cried.

“You cannot leave us, ever!” Ead cried.

“I must,” Leola said.

Redburga opened the door and stepped in. “You are staying, Leola,” she said.

“I think it would be best if I left,” Leola said.

“No!” the twins screamed. “Do not go! Stay here! Stay here!”

“I have pleaded your case to the dryhtcwen.” Redburga said. “She has agreed to let you stay."

“Oh, Aunt,” Leola replied, “and now I shall have everyone staring at me as if I'm some curse.”

“Never mind them, Leola,” Redburga said, giving her a gentle squeeze. “I need you.”

“Very well.”
But her heart told her she would not be much longer in Anlofton.

What if Owain does want me back? Will he come here to get me?

Leola did not think that she was scared of that. She did not even think she was sad. There had been a hole in her weary heart ever since her parents died. It seemed to her that, no matter where she went or who she was with, she was not home.

Even before the Britisc had destroyed her parents hut in Holton, it had not been a real home to her. It had only been a bitter reminded her of her father's laugh and her mother's smiles.

Now, here in Anlofton, she would be an outcast, avoided and shunned. The women would hurry passed her and teach their young ones to do the same, as if Leola had contracted some strange infection. Under such ostracism, Leola was sure that the longing in her heart would overwhelm her.

As she contemplated these things, she came to one certain conclusion. If Owain came for her, she would go with him without any hesitation.

Chapter Twenty Three: Fare You Well

The next day brought Drudi over to see Leola.

“Mother says you lied to that Britisc Aetheling,” the girl said.

She leaned over the fence and watched Leola and Redburga pick the ripe vegetables and put them in the different baskets.

“Well, I did lie,” Leola replied. “I told him that the ridends had not been here.”

She did not mind Drudi's frank conversation, for the girl seemed to be the only one in the village still willing to talk to her. Leola also guessed that Drudi's mother did not approve of the their continued discourse.

“Oh, I see,” the girl said. “What ridends?”

“You do not remember the Britisc ridends coming here to water their horses?” Leola asked.

Leola wondered how anyone could forget the fear of the two Britisc ridends and the horror at their violent deaths, least of all Drudi.

“No,” Drudi replied, a puzzled look on her young face. “When was this?”

Leola sighed.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “The point is that I did lie and that it was to protect the village.”

“Oh,” Drudi replied. “But mother said that you said that you were the wife of an aetheling.”

“Yea,” Leola said, not looking up from her work. “That is what I said.”

“Is it true?” Drudi asked.

Leola smiled on the the ring of excitement she caught in the girl’s voice.

“Yea, it is true,” Leola said, at last.

“That would make you a dryhtcwen!” Drudi said, and burst into giggles.

“I suppose…” Leola said.

“How thrilling!”

Leola had to laugh as well, thinking of her own shock when Owain first asked her to marry him. She glanced over at Redburga, who was smiling and shaking her head.

“Yea, I suppose it is,” Leola said.

“Drudi,” Redburga said, wisely, “
how many wives did Giwis Cyning have?”

“Nine,” the girl replied, promptly. “He had nine wives. I know. Mother told me.”

“And how many of his wives actually matter?” Redburga asked.

Drudi hesitated and when she spoke her words were cautious and slow. “Only the first one matters. She is the cwen.”

“Yea,” Redburga replied. “And what is the likelihood that Leola is this aetheling’s first wife, his cwen?”

Leola watched the grave truth appear in Drudi's eyes as if some torch had been lit and she could now see.

“Oh,” the girl said.

“Yea, Drudi,” Redburga said. “Do not expect Leola to give herself false airs. She is a commoner like us. It does not matter what some Britisc aetheling did six months ago. Now,” and she rose to her feet. “Do not dawdle too long, or your mother shall be over here looking for you.”

When Redburga had gone into the hut, Leola changed the subject.

“Tell me, what
are you up to?” she asked.

“Raynar asked me to marry him,” the girl replied.

“Well,” was all Leola could say.

She could feel Raynar's cruel hand grab her neck and push her head into the stream. She swallowed hard, remembering the pain and fear, as her nose and mouth filled with water.

“I like him little,” Drudi continued, “but there are no other men here.”

That is very true
.

“I doubt I should be the one to advise you, Drudi,” Leola replied. “But this I shall say. You are over thirteen-”

“I am fifteen!” Drudi cried.

“Yea.
So you can marry, but no one shall expect you to do so until you are twenty. So I would suggest you wait until you feel you are ready to. If it takes you those five years to decide, so be it.”

Drudi's face beamed. “That is good advice, Leola! Thank you!”

She went skipping off, and Leola was left with a heavy heart, wondering if she had said the right thing to her.

Two other girls walked down the road, carrying bundled wheat under their arms. When they came near to the little fount garden where Leola sat, they began to run and scurried past as fast as their feet could take them.

Leola sighed.

I really am a curse now
.

Redburga returned to the garden and switched her now empty basket with Leola's full one.

“Nearly everyone is avoiding me, Aunt,” Leola said. “I suspect that Drudi's mother would be angry if she found out that she was talking to me.”

“Let them be,” Redburga said. “They will pout but shall soon come around.”

“I wonder how you managed to convince the dryhtcwen to let me stay.”

Her aunt was silent, staring off into the distance as if she did not hear Leola's words.

“Redburga?” Leola said.

“Drudi was not begot by Eoforhild's husband,” Redburga said at last.

Leola was surprised but wondered why her aunt would tell her that.

“Wigmund Earlmann was rather promiscuous,” Redburga said. “
and Eoforhild's husband was rather absent. When Eoforhild gave birth to Drudi, everyone knew that the child was the earlmann's daughter.
Fridiswid was annoyed with her husband and sought to punish him. She took a lover herself and conceived. It happens a lot, but the dryhtcwen is supposed to be above that. Fridiswid's daughter looks exactly like her, so no one ever suspected that the father was not the earlmann. Only I knew the truth.”