Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (60 page)

             
Where was everyone? Beowulf and Asher should have been running out of the stables, barking.  Edwin should be here.

             
Gingerly she lifted the latch and pushed open the door, the hall was in darkness, the hearth was cold.  Alodie sniffed, no cooking smells, the place had not been lived in for days, perhaps weeks.  Heart in mouth she walked into the kitchen area and opening the cupboard where she knew the candles were kept, she scrabbled round for one then, wishing she had brought a torch, she readied some tinder, flint and iron pyrites and struck one against the other.  A tiny flame glanced onto the dried tinder then went out.  Cursing, Alodie struck again.  This time a piece of dried kindling curled and went brown, Alodie puffed gently at the infant flame until it began to burn more strongly, then she lit the candle.

             
The dancing flame showed up the cobwebs in the corners of the room and on the preparation table -
cobwebs
in Herluva’s kitchen?

             
Biting her lip she almost ran to the stairs and, all former weakness forgotten, took them, two at a time and pushed open the nursery door.  The two tiny beds, sheets still rumpled, were empty.  There was a stuffed toy on the floor, and a small night-shirt lay on top of the dresser.  With a sob Alodie grabbed the tiny garment and held it to her face.  This was just too unfair, where were they? “I came as soon as I could!” she shouted into the empty room “I came as soon as I could!” the echoes seemed to bounce back, mocking at her, from the bare walls.

             
“There’s no one here milady, there’s no use shouting” Alodie yelped and spun round.  Hyld the bawd stood framed in the doorway.
             

             
Sighing with relief Alodie ran over to her “Hyld!” she gasped, gripping the woman’s arm “where are the children?  Where’s Lady Godgyth, Father Anselm, Edwin, Herluva, everyone!  What’s happened?”

             
Hyld patted Alodie’s arm and perched on one of the beds.  “Peace, Lady Alodie, I’ll tell you all I know.  The hall is deserted and has been since the Viking came back and took the babes”

             
“Oh my God!” gasped Alodie “what Viking?”

             
Hyld grinned, showing blackened stumps.  “Don’t come the innocent wi’ me milady!  Their father, of course.

             
He came first off back in January a’looking for you.  A huge brute of a man, with an ‘elmet covering ‘is face.  Ee spent about half an hour with the children, I remember ‘cause milady Godgyth was beside herself with worry - anyway, ‘ee found out you was in Chippenham and set off with ‘is men but left a troop of warriors here” She grinned again.  “Lusty cocks they was too and generous with it - seems ‘ee left these men ‘ere because ‘ee said war was a’comin and they had to guard this village against the rest of his army” She coughed and spat into the rushes.   “Bits ‘o news kept filtering through to us, the king and his court had escaped, you were with ‘em, it were a very worryin’ time for all ‘ere I can tell you, but we didn’t suffer, Wareham did and the towns around us but we were alright because of Bjarnie and the lads” Hyld smiled, wistfully, and looking in the mirror patted her greying hair.  “They settled in reely well they did, became part of the place.  Each of em did two men’s work.  They had their fun o’course, Bjarnie got Anstice in the family way but ‘ee married ‘er” she laughed. “We called ‘em the turtle doves, I’ve never seen two more ‘appier people and all was well until the middle of March, then the leader returned, ‘Erbert, Egbert or some such name”

             
“Herger” said Alodie, hollowly.

             
“Aye, Herger, well he galloped back into Bredond like Beelzebub, ‘is black cloak blowing behind him.  Anyway he came into the ‘all and pulled off ‘is ‘elmet.  I was there at the time as one of the mites ‘ad a teethin’ fever and Mary was ill.  I can see ‘im now, standing there, ‘is mouth workin’ ‘I’ve come for my children’ ‘ee snapped and we none of us argued with ‘im because, milady, young Tom is his spit and double” she giggled and pushed Alodie.  “I’ve never before seen a more well favoured man though, my pet”

             
Alodie sighed “Hyld, please, the children”

             
“Oh yes, well, he was crool angry.  He got the lads together, he was going to make Bjarnie leave Anstice, said all women was liars, and only agreed to take her when he found out she was the babies’ nurse, and within the hour he was all packed up and ‘im and the lads loaded everything on their ship and sailed off”

             
Alodie gripped her hand.  “Where?  Where did they go?”

             
Hyld shrugged her bony shoulders.  “Bjarnie told Anstice’s father that they were going to Herger’s steading in
Northumbria
, wherever that might be.  After they went Godgyth went to pieces, she said she had nothing left in Bredond and went to live with her sister.  She said Bredond could go to ‘ell for all that she cared.  Since then the young men have drifted away, my trade’s all but dead”

             
“What of Edwin and Herluva?”

             
“Edwin’s moved away, took up with a widow from
Wareham
and Herluva’s gone back to live in her little cottage by the town wall”

             
Alodie took a deep breath and muttered “thank you Hyld”, then, her legs giving way, she sat on the bed.  Where in
Northumbria
?  She could not find out unless Herger was conscious and even if she did bring him round she could not very well get him to direct her in the shuttle.

             
With a sigh she got to her feet and walking out of the door went to the next room along the passage.

             
Her clothes chest was still at the bottom of the bed.  With a grunt she knelt down and threw open the lid.  She had taken most of her good gowns to Chippenham but she still had a lot of decent clothes here.  The scent of lilac assuaged her nostrils as she began to pull out kirtles, gunnas, underclothes, stockings and shoes and bundled them all together in her second best cloak.  Then, turning to her dresser she packed her rose oil, her pot of lemon verbena and her comb and brush set and throwing on her best cloak she took a last look round the room and headed for the door.  Hyld was waiting for her. “You’re leaving us then, milady” she said quietly.

             
“I have to Hyld, I have to find my children”

             
Hyld nodded.  “Don’t come back milady” she said “I can understand why you gave yourself to that Viking, he is absolutely the most beautiful man I have ever seen, but Lady Godgyth can’t, nor can a lot of the villagers, they have blamed you for this.  If you were to come back - well I fear for you, that is all”

             
Alodie smiled “I probably will come back, just for a visit, in a few years when the dust has settled”.  She kissed Hyld on the head.  “Farewell Hyld, look after yourself, I’ve no money to give you but if I can I’ll send you some”

             
Hyld squeezed her arm.  “Worry about yourself milady, I’ll get by” she lifted up her finger and stroked Alodie’s cheek “You always was the fairest of the fair but a word of advice”

             
“Yes?”

             
“Have a bath before you go to your Viking lord, you’re filthy”

             
Alodie laughed.  “I think we’ll both have one”

             
“Together?” twinkled Hyld.

             
“It’d have to be a big tub!” she laughed and blowing the woman a kiss she ran down the stairs.

             
Strangely enough, she felt almost light hearted.  One of her main fears had been having to face Godgyth and admit that the twins were not Luke’s, that at least was solved, and she had not broken her word -
she
was not taking the children away.

             
Opening the door she headed out into the night.  An owl, or perhaps a bat, she was not sure, swooped past her face and the hissing of the surf could be heard a mile down the road.

             
Reaching the village wall she walked through the gates, and holding out her hands felt for the shuttle, then climbed back up the steps and slipped through the hatch.

             
Herger was still sleeping peacefully and his colour looked better.  He had a straggly beard, sores round his lips and he smelled worse than a sewer but even so he was by far the most glorious man Alodie had ever seen.  “Right my love” she said quietly.  “Exactly where in
Northumbria
is this village of yours?  If I had the name of the place it might help”

             
She started the engines and lifted off.  Then grinned,
of course, you idiot
she thought.  Pulling him to a sitting position she reached behind the seat for the attached co-pilot’s head set.  Grimacing as she touched his slimy hair she pushed the set onto the sleeping Viking, then punched some buttons on the on-board computer, after less than a second a row of numbers appeared on the screen.  The computer was now linked directly to the Herger’s memory. 

             
“Computer, search mode - ‘Northumbrian steading” she announced.  An alarming array of lights began to flash, then the computer gave three clicks and Alodie removed the headset.  The computer had worked out, from Herger’s knowledge of his home in
Northumbria
, the exact geographical position and translated it into data.  This was a failsafe backup device used by lost pilots, Alodie could have kicked herself for not remembering sooner.

             
She flicked the switch on the console to auto pilot, then input the instructions for the journey, having to think for a moment and convert herself back into metric, she had got used to thinking in feet, yards, hides and miles.  “Computer, lay in a course for ‘Northumbrian steading’ she said “speed six hundred kilometres per hour, height three thousand five hundred metres, land one kilometre from the nearest inhabited dwelling, cloaking device operative”.   Reaching for a protein pill from the supply under the seat she popped it in her mouth and lay back to enjoy the short four hundred and eighty two kilometre trip as, with a slight hiss, the shuttle lifted vertically then shot,  with a muffled whoosh, northward.

             
As she was not sure of the height of the northern mountains she had taken the ship up to well over the height of any mountain in the
island
of
Britain
.  Below her the land flashed by, mainly forest interspersed here and there with the silver snake of a river and more rarely by a tiny village slumbering through the night.  Alodie was only sorry that she was travelling in darkness, she would have dearly loved to see dawn come up over Anglo Saxon England.  Glancing at the chronometer, she noticed it was
2.14 am
, the sun would not be up for at least another three hours, not that it got really dark at all at this time of year.  Looking out of the window again she saw the bulk of a large town, it was quite sizeable and surrounded by walls.  What was it? 
York
already?

             
Ten seconds later the ship stopped and dropped like a stone, if it had not been for the anti-gravity protection in the cabin she would have blacked out with the ‘g’s she was pulling.

             
Herger grunted slightly in his sleep and his hands clenched and unclenched on the upholstered arms of the seat.  Alodie leaned over and felt his forehead, he seemed to be cooling slightly, for which she was grateful.

             
Blinking, she glanced out of the window, noticing that they appeared to have landed on the summit of a low hill whose ridge ran away out of sight in both directions.  She let out her breath with a sigh and climbed out of the ship.  It was not completely dark and the countryside seemed to be lit by an iridescent silver radiance. 

             
To the south, the land undulated gently down to a verdant valley, in the bottom of which nestled a settlement of small houses around what looked like a large hall, about the same size as the one at Bredond.  Beyond the village the land rose again into gently sloping hills with a tiny track winding away into the darkness.

             
Breathing deeply Alodie turned and gasped.  To the north rose an undulating range of hills, giving her a view of the most beautiful scenery she had ever  beheld.  The hills, so near she felt that she could touch them, were bathed in a soft moonlit glow.  The cry of a night bird cut through the stillness.

             
It called to something deep within her, pulled at a chord of - race memory perhaps.  Then she realised - she had been born in this part of the world,
Yorkshire
.  How could something as unbelievably beautiful as this have, in just over fifteen hundred years, the blink of an evolutionary eye, turned into the drab, colourless, plexi-formed concrete nightmare it had become by 2430.  She felt tears rush into her eyes at the realisation of the loss to the Earth of this beautiful place.  She was just glad, glad to the roots of her being, that she was seeing this, here, now.