Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (55 page)

             
Both women pushed until sweat began to run down their brows and after what seemed like an age the boat began to move, with aching slowness, toward the water and at last with a splash slithered afloat.

             
Aehlswith ran into the water, jumped into the boat and held out her hand.  “Alodie - for the love of God, quick!” she yelled.

             
The craft began to drift from the bank as the first dog crashed into the clearing.  With a gasp, Alodie lifted her skirts and flung herself into the water.  The current was very strong and the craft was moving at an alarming pace, luckily upstream.  Taking a deep breath she made a lunge for the boat and grabbing the side half stumbled, half pulled herself up.  Aehlswith grabbed the back of her cloak and pulled her the rest of the way until she fell with a gasp into the bottom of the craft.  “Get up Alodie, quick, they’re coming after us!” she yelled.

             
Shaking her head, Alodie scrabbled to her feet, grabbed an oar and looked back.  Several men were splashing into the river, the nearest being about twenty yards away, although with the snow getting thicker she could not be sure.  She spotted Erik and Leif and also Ragnor, he seemed to be standing on the shore  gesticulating to someone behind him, then he moved back, as did several others as a figure taller than any of them pushed his way through the crowd.

             
He was helmetless, his long dark curly hair loose, reaching almost to his shoulders, and bare chested, the snow coating his magnificent body like a white shirt.  He ran into the icy river up to his waist, up to his chest.  He was fifteen yards from the boat, then ten, five, he made a grab for the side.  Aehlswith screamed and fought to push the boat into deeper water.  “Alodie! Row, help me!” she screamed.

             
Alodie was immobile, frozen like a statue, it was no good, no good at all, she belonged to this man, body and soul, whether he owned her like a horse or not it did not matter, it was impossible for her to be separated from him.  As if in a trance she got to her feet and pulling up her skirts put one foot on the side of the boat, she turned to Aehlswith and opened her mouth to say something, anything, to try to explain, but her friend was looking in the other direction.  She steeled herself to jump but instead of leaping forward she was thrown backward as the boat reached the middle of the river, caught the current with a jolt, and sped upstream.  She looked back.  Herger was getting smaller and smaller but she heard, in her mind as much as in her ears, his words.  “Come back, my love, come back!”

             
“The white and blue I think Alodie, blue suits you”

             
Alodie turned her head and glanced in the mirror, the figure which looked back at her reminded her of a mannequin, an android, a lifeless, dumb creature.  She sighed.  “Yes, if you think so, your Grace”

             
Aehlswith tutted.  “We have won a great victory at Ethandun, Alfred, Edric and the rest of the men are due back today.  You remember - Edric, the man you’re supposed to be marrying - really Alodie, you ought to be ecstatic!  We have finally crushed the Viking menace - the day after tomorrow, at Wedmore, Guthrum is going to be
baptised
for goodness sake.  We have only one more night to suffer here and then we can go home!  You can marry Edric and go back to the children - so whatever are you looking so grumpy about?”

             
Alodie turned and smiled “I’m sorry ‘Swith, I just feel - well melancholy I suppose, forgive me, I’ll go for a walk, that should improve my humour”

             
Aehlswith sighed.  “You haven’t been the same since our escape from your ‘husband’.  Are you sure there is nothing you have neglected to tell me about that little episode.”

             
“Nothing I want to repeat, even to my best friend, I’m sorry”

             
Aehlswith took her hand.  “I understand Alodie, that heathen took you, I’ve known that all along even though you won’t admit it, and you are ashamed to go to Edric with this on your conscience” Alodie smiled and stroked Aehlswith’s cheek.  She wondered what her friend would think if she did tell the truth, admit to her that the only reason she did not want to marry Edric was that she loved her ‘husband’ and not one day had passed since their escape when she had not prayed he would raid the island and take her back. 

             
Aehlswith sighed, deeply, then continued, “You have no need to worry Alodie, what happened that night is between us, you can tell him or not as you wish, I will be saying nothing” she glanced down at her spreading waistline, “I am certainly not in any position to.......”

             
Alodie’s head shot up “What on Earth do you mean Aehlswith - the baby?  No!”

             
Aehlswith looked up, tears were shimmering on her eyelashes.  “Alodie, you are my truest friend, I love you more than anyone on Earth apart from Alfred and the children and I must tell you.  That night you were with Herger - Erik and Leif were in the hall, Cnut was asleep.  The older of the two blond ones - Ragnor” Alodie’s mouth fell open, her friend was blushing red to the roots of her hair “Well, oh Jesu, I have to tell someone. Ragnor came to my bed and - and....” Aehlswith gripped Alodie’s hand, tears flowing down her cheeks “I have always been a virtuous wife to Alfred, even though he is not always able to...”

             
“Look Aehlswith, you were raped, it was no fault of yours, for God’s sake don’t blame yourself!”

             
“You don’t understand Alodie, he didn’t rape me, he was kind, he just talked to me, he held my hand, he said he understood if I was afraid, then he began to kiss me and stroke my arm.  Jesu forgive me Alodie, I - I enjoyed it, it was me, I pulled him to me.  Don’t you understand!  I was as much to blame as he - more!  The baby, it’s his!”

             
Alodie sat down on the bed with a thump.  “How can you be sure Aehlswith?” she said quietly.

             
“I am sure my friend.  You see I finished my moon time the day before we were captured, then when we got back, Alfred didn’t touch me - he doesn’t often, he thinks it is sinful, until after I realised I was late, so you see it can only be Ragnor’s”

             
“Oh dear, oh dear” said Alodie quietly “so how have you managed to persuade Alfred that the baby is his”

             
“That is the worst sin of all” sobbed Aehlswith “when I realised that my moon time was late, I got Alfred mazed with wine and seduced him”

             
Alodie crossed over to her friend and threw her arms round her.  “.......and you have been brooding on it all this time, worrying about it.  My God Aehlswith!”

             
“I am so worried, Alodie” she sobbed.

             
Alodie poured a cup of boiled water and handed it to her friend. “What on Earth for?  No one even knew we had gone, no one will ever find out” she had to smile at that.  They had arrived back in Athelney and had just divested themselves of their cloaks when Alfred arrived and had chided them gently for going out for a stroll in a blizzard.  He assumed they had slept in their beds.

             
“
I
will know.  If it is a boy this child will be a royal prince, an
atheling
.  If anything happens to Edward, my eldest boy, this child will inherit.  A Viking’s bastard on the throne of
Wessex
!” she put her hands to her mouth.  “Oh, Jesu Alodie, what will I do?”

             
Alodie kissed her friend on the top of the head.  “Calm down and pray for a girl” she said “and just remember, when she, or he, is born, it is not the child’s fault, so for your sake and that of the child don’t tell Alfred.  He is a generous man but his generosity can only go so far - and whilst we are in the mood for confidences.................”

             
Aehlswith looked up.  “You are going to tell me that Tom and Nerissa are Rorik’s aren’t you Alodie?”

             
She gasped “How do you know?”

             
“Because I am not a fool.  I had my suspicions all along.  I knew you were sleeping with that glorious pagan, I saw the way you looked at each other - and I’ve seen Tom!”

             
“Who else knows?” asked Alodie tremulously.

             
“No one.  You are like me, a virtuous Saxon lady, and I am the king’s wife, above suspicion, so let’s pull ourselves out of this miserable mood and ready ourselves for the men.  You at least don’t have a child to explain away to Edric!”

             
Alodie bit her lip, now more than ever she knew she could not marry Edric, but how to get out of it?  What to say to him?  She would be finished at court - perhaps a postponement.  Oh, why had she not jumped out of the boat?  Why had she hesitated?  Tears rushed into her eyes and blinking furiously she turned away.  “F- forgive me your Grace, I need some air” she said quickly.  Aehlswith smiled and nodded.
             

             
“Do not be too long”

             
Alodie pulled open the door and taking a deep breath she went outside.  Spring had arrived in all its splendour, oblivious to the scourge of war which had swept the land since the early part of the winter.  The birds still sang, the trees still blossomed, the sun still shone and the rivers still flowed.

             
Shielding her eyes with her hand, Alodie looked downstream as she had done every morning since her return to Athelney.  Five months, five months of the most momentous events in the history of
England
.  Alfred and his lords had been holed up in the marshes, in hiding, true but they had not been idle.  Day after day the king had sent out messengers, spreading the word that he was still in control, still at the helm, and the people listened.

             
The men of
Devon
, led by Edric and Aelfric of Lamporth, had fought on, smashing the raiding fleet of twenty three ships, the fleet of Ubbe Ragnarson, and had wiped out his army as it landed.  Ubbe himself had been slain by Edric.  Most importantly of all they had captured the dreaded ‘raven banner’, woven by Ubbe’s sisters.

             
This victory spurred on the people of
Wessex
.  Instead of accepting the rule of Guthrum they began to rebel, quietly at first but then with more forcefulness.

             
By Easter, Alfred had completed his conversion of Athelney into a fortified base from whence he launched his attacks on the nearest Danish outposts, and the news that the king was still alive and fighting was spreading fast.  Seven weeks after Easter Alfred himself took the field.  He concentrated his musters of
Somerset
, Wiltshire and West Hampshire and advanced to attack Guthrum’s army.  They met at Ethandun, in later years to be called Eddington,  on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain, and put the Danes to flight. Guthrum had been captured, Amund was dead, but Herger had disappeared.

             
The most amazing thing about the whole episode was that, according to Alfred, Guthrum was truly contrite, almost  as if he had been touched by the hand of God.  He had been receiving Christian instruction from the bishop of
Winchester
and indeed was to be baptised at Wedmore at the same time as putting his name to a treaty which would, said Alfred, secure the peace of
Wessex
  “for a hundred years”.  Personally, Alodie would have rather trusted a snake but the king seemed to think a miracle had been worked on Guthrum and he believed his promise to withdraw to
Mercia
and be Alfred’s ally in the future.

             
A brightly coloured drake shuffled onto the river bank wagging its tail feathers and quacking loudly.  Alodie smiled absently at it, then looked up as she heard the sound of horses.

             
Her heart sank.  Edric had come for her.  She saw him immediately as he came out of the trees at the other side of the river.  He was at the head of about a hundred men, some on horseback, some on foot.  The river was low, it being the dry season, and the tide out.  They began to walk the horses across.

             
Alodie sobbed out loud and turning, walked quickly back into the hut.  Aehlswith was securing her headrail with a brightly coloured brooch.   “Are they here?” she asked brightly, and on Alodie’s nod she tutted “then for God’s sake, girl, put a smile on your face - your warrior has returned and he is the hero of the hour, he was the one that slew Ubbe, and remember, this marriage is for love!  Why, there’s half the women in the kingdom would give their right arm to be in your shoes!”

             
“I seem to remember being told the same thing when I married Luke, Aehlswith”

             
The queen tutted again.  “Oh come now, Edric is no more like Luke than - than that candle is to the sun, and he loves you devotedly”

             
Alodie smiled and nodded.  “Of course he does Aehlswith, he is a kind and wonderful man, it is just that - oh I don’t know”

             
The door opened and Alodie turned.  Framed in the opening was Edric.  He was thinner than before, he needed a shave and a wash but his eyes, as he looked at her, still shone with adoration.  He held open his arms and Alodie, despite herself, ran into them.  She began to cry.  How could she hurt this wonderful man, yet how could she go to him with her heart and her head full of Herger?  He deserved better!  He kissed the top of her head.

             
“Oh, my beauty, I have missed you so” he muttered.

             
“Oh Edric” she whispered in reply “I am
so
relieved you are back safely”

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

             
The royal party left Athelney the next morning in a far more dignified fashion than it had arrived five months previously.  Alodie and the younger ladies of the court rode on palfreys whilst Aehlswith and the older ladies travelled in litters.

             
The baptism was to take place and the treaty to be signed at Wedmore Old Hall, a house which belonged to a cousin of Cerdic of Saltop.  The journey of twenty miles would hopefully be covered in about five hours.

             
Alodie was dreading seeing Gwen, who had been sent on ahead to take charge of the place as Cerdic’s cousin was an old bachelor, and she was fully expecting to be sent to sleep in the stables.

             
She glanced round as Edric rode up and fell into step next to her, he kissed his index finger and leaning down, placed it on her lips.  Alodie grinned at him.  He had such a sunny personality that she was glad of his company even though every time she looked at him she felt a stab of guilt.

             
She was glad that her premonition about him had been false - or had it?  She had felt that Edric was part of her past, as far as her feelings went that was true but where was Herger?  What future was there for them?  Even if he was alive would he still want her?  She felt so confused, so frustrated.  If she stayed with Edric she knew that every time he took her she would imagine it was Herger, her heart could never be his.

             
She shook her head briskly, she would swim with the tide, what would be would be.  Herger was right for her heart but Edric was right for her head, being with him was the only practical solution.  Coming out of her reverie she noticed that they had come to a clearing in the forest.   Looking round, Alfred held up his hand.  “We’ll rest the horses here” he called out.