Also by Patricia Bracewell
Shadow on the Crown
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Patricia Bracewell
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Excerpt from Gesta regum Anglorum—The History of the English Kings by William of Malmesbury, edited and translated by R.A.B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, Volume 1 (1998). By permission of Oxford University Press.
Map illustration by Matt Brown
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Bracewell, Patricia, 1950–
The price of blood : a novel / Patricia Bracewell.
pages; cm
ISBN 978-0-698-16452-9
1. Emma, Queen, consort of Canute I, King of England, –1052—Fiction. 2. Ethelred II, King of England, 968?–1016—Fiction. 3. Great Britain—History—Ethelred II, 979–1016—Fiction. 4. Queens—Great Britain—Fiction. 5. Normans—Great Britain—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.R323P75 2015
813'.6—dc23 2014038484
Version_1
Contents
Also by Patricia Bracewell
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Dramatis Personae
Glossary
Maps
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
For Ron and Dot
Who share my earliest memories
Dramatis Personae
*Indicates a Fictional Character
Anglo-Saxon England, 1006–1012
Royal Family
Æthelred II, King of England
Emma, Queen of England
Children of the English king, in birth order:
Athelstan
Ecbert
Edmund
Edrid
Edwig
Edgar
Edyth
Ælfgifu (Ælfa)
Wulfhilde (Wulfa)
Mathilda
Edward
Emma’s Household
Aldyth, niece of Ealdorman Ælfhelm
Elgiva, daughter of Ealdorman Ælfhelm
*Father Martin
*Hilde, granddaughter of Ealdorman Ælfric
*Margot
Wymarc
Robert, Wymarc’s son
Leading Ecclesiastics
Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury
Ælfhun, Bishop of London
Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, Archbishop of Jorvik
Leading Nobles
Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of Northumbria
Ufegeat, his son
Wulfheah, his son (Wulf)
*Alric, his retainer
Ælfric, Ealdorman of Hampshire
Godwine, Ealdorman of Lindsey
Leofwine, Ealdorman of Western Mercia
Eadric of Shrewsbury
Godwin, Wulfnoth’s son
Morcar of the Five Boroughs
Siferth of the Five Boroughs
Thurbrand of Holderness
Ulfkytel of East Anglia
Uhtred of Northumberland
Wulfnoth of Sussex
Normandy
Duke Richard II, Emma’s brother
Duchess Judith
Dowager Duchess Gunnora, Emma’s mother
Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, Emma’s brother
The Danes
Swein Forkbeard, King of Denmark
Harald, his son
Cnut, his son
Hemming
Thorkell
Tostig
Glossary
Ætheling: literally, throne-worthy. All of the legitimate sons of the Anglo-Saxon kings were referred to as æthelings.
Ague: any sickness with a high fever
Breecs: Anglo-Saxon term for trousers
Burh: an Anglo-Saxon fort
Burn: a small stream
Ceap: the market street
Cemes: a long linen undergarment for men
Ceorl: a freeman, neither noble nor slave; peasant
Chasuble: an ecclesiastical vestment, a sleeveless mantle covering body and shoulders, often elaborately embroidered, worn over a long, white tunic
Cyrtel: a woman’s gown
Danelaw: an area of England that roughly comprises Yorkshire, East Anglia, and central and eastern Mercia, where successive waves of Scandinavians settled throughout the ninth and tenth centuries
Ealdorman: a high-ranking noble appointed by the king to govern a province in the king’s name. He led troops, levied taxes, and administered justice. It was a political position usually conferred upon members of powerful families.
Eyas: a falcon chick, taken from the nest for training
Five Boroughs: a region in Mercia made up of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln, it exercised significant political influence in late Anglo-Saxon England
: literally flesh street; outdoor meat market
Fyrd: an armed force that was raised at the command of the king or an ealdorman, usually in response to a Viking threat
Gafol: the tribute paid to an enemy army to purchase peace
Garth: a small piece of enclosed ground used as a yard, garden, or paddock
Geld: a tax levied by the king, who used the money to pay the tribute extorted by Viking raiders
Gerningakona: Old Norse term for a woman who practices magic
Godwebbe: precious cloth, freq
uently purple, normally of silk; probably shot-silk taffeta
Haga: a fenced enclosure; a dwelling in town
Handfasting: a marriage or betrothal; a sign of a committed relationship with no religious ceremony or exchange of property
Headrail: a veil, often worn with a circlet or band, kept in place with pins
Hearth troops: warriors who made up the household guard of royals and great lords
Hibernia: Latin name for Ireland
Hide: an Anglo-Saxon land reckoning for the purpose of assessing taxes
Hird: the army of the Northmen; the enemies of the English
Host: army
Hythe: Old English term for a wharf or pier
Leech: a physician
Lindsey: the district of eastern England between the River Witham and the Humber, in the northern part of Lincolnshire
Mantling: in falconry, the action of a bird spreading its wings and arching over its prey to hide it
Mere: a lake or pond
Murrain: a disease of domestic animals
Nithing: a pejorative term in Norse and Old English meaning “abject wretch”
Reeve: a man with administrative responsibilities utilized by royals, bishops, and nobles to oversee towns, villages, and large estates
Rood: the cross on which Christ was crucified
Sámi: a culture indigenous to Norway, believed to have prophetic skills
Scop: storyteller; harper
Screens passage: a vestibule just inside the entrance to a great hall or similar chamber, created by movable screens that blocked the wind from gusting into the hall when the doors were opened
Scyrte: a short garment worn by men; shirt
Seel: to sew shut the eyes of a falcon for training
Sennight: a week
Skald: poet or storyteller
Smoc: a shirt or undergarment
Thegn: literally one who serves another; a title that marks a personal relationship; the leading ones served the king himself; a member of the highest rank in Anglo-Saxon society; a landholder with specified obligations to his lord
Thrall: a slave
Wain: a wagon or cart
Wergild: literally man payment; the value set on a person’s life
Witan: wise men; the king’s council
Wyrd: fate or destiny
In the Year of our Lord 979 Æthelred, son of Edgar . . . came to the throne . . . His life is said to have been cruel at the outset, pitiable in mid-course, and disgraceful in its ending. . . .
He was hounded by the shade of his brother, demanding terribly the price of blood. Who could count how often he summoned his army, how often he ordered ships to be built, how often he called his nobles together from every quarter, and nothing ever came of it?
The evil could not be lulled to rest . . . for enemies were always sprouting out of Denmark like a hydra’s heads, and nowhere was it possible to take precautions . . .
—The History of the English Kings
William of Malmesbury
Twelfth Century
Prologue
Shrove Tuesday, March 1006
Calne, Wiltshire
Æthelred knelt, his head clutched in his hands, bowed beneath the weight of his crown and his sins. Somewhere above, the vesper bells rang to mark the call to evening prayer, and at the very moment of their tolling he felt his limbs tremble, convulsed by a force beyond his control.
The familiar, hated lethargy settled over him, and though he strove to keep his head down and his eyes shut, a will far stronger than his own pulled his gaze upward. The air before him thickened and turned as black and rippling as the windswept surface of a mere. Pain gnawed at his chest, and he shivered with cold and apprehension as the world around him vanished. Sounds, too, faded to nothing and he knew only the cold, the pain, and the flickering darkness before him that stretched and grew into the shape of a man.
Or what had been a man once. Wounds gaped like a dozen mouths at throat and breast, gore streaked the shredded garments crimson, and the menacing face wore Death’s gruesome pallor. His murdered brother’s shade drew toward him, an exhalation from the gates of heaven or the mouth of hell—he could not say which. Not a word passed its lips, but he sensed a malevolence that flowed from the dead to the living, and he shrank back in fear and loathing.
Yet he could not look away. For long moments the vision held him in thrall until, as it began to fade, he became aware of another figure—of a shadow behind the shadow. Dark, indistinct, shrouded in gloom, it hovered briefly in the thickened air and then, like the other, it was gone.
Released from the spell, he could hear once again the pealing of the vesper bells and the murmur of voices at prayer, could smell the honeyed scent of candles and, beneath it, the rank stench of his own sweat. The golden head dropped once more into cupped hands, but now it was heavy with fear and tormented by a terrible foreboding.
A.D. 1006 This year Ælfheah was consecrated Archbishop; Wulfheah and Ufegeat were deprived of sight; Ealdorman Ælfhelm was slain . . .
—The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Chapter One
March 1006
Near Calne, Wiltshire
Queen Emma checked her white mare as it crested a hill above the vast royal estate where the king had settled for the Lenten season. Behind her a company of thirty men, women, and children, all of them heavily cloaked against a biting wind, rested their mounts after the long climb. In front of her, in the middle distance below the hill, the slate roof and high, gilded gables of the king’s great hall dwarfed the buildings and palisade that encircled it. The hall marked their journey’s end, and Emma looked on it with relief, for it was late in the day and her people were weary.
As she studied the road ahead, a single shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds massed in folds across the sky to slant a golden light upon the fields below. The furrowed land shimmered under a thin film of green—new shoots that promised a good harvest in the months to come, if only God would be merciful.
But God, Emma thought, seemed to have turned His face against England. For two years now, promising springs had been followed by rain-plagued summers so that food and fodder were scarce. This past winter, Famine and Death had stalked the land, and if the coming season’s yield was not bountiful, yet more of the poorest in the realm would die.
She had done what she could, distributing alms to those she could reach and adding her voice to the faithful’s desperate pleas for God’s mercy. Now, as the golden light lingered on the green vale below, she prayed that her latest assault on heaven—the pilgrimage she had made to the resting places of England’s most beloved saints—might at last have secured God’s blessings on Æthelred’s realm.
She glanced around, looking past the horse litter that bore her son and his wet nurse to find her three young stepdaughters. Wulfhilde, just eight winters old, was asleep in the arms of the servant who rode with her. Ælfa sat upon her mount slumped within the folds of her mantle. Edyth, the eldest at twelve, stared dully toward the manor hall, her face drawn and pale beneath her fur-lined hood.
Emma chided herself for pushing them so hard, for they had been on the road since daybreak. She turned in her saddle to lead the group forward, but as she did so the wind made a sudden shift to strike her full in the face. Her mount sidled nervously, and as she struggled to control the mare another fierce gust pushed at her like a massive hand that would urge her away.
She felt a curious sense of unease, a pricking at the back of her neck, and she squinted against the wind, searching for the source of her disquiet. On the mast atop the manor’s bell tower, the dragon banner of Wessex heralded the king’s presence within. He would be there to welcome her—although not with anything resembling love or even affection, for he had none of either to give. Æthelred was more king than man—as ruthless and cold as a bird of prey. Someti
mes she wondered if he had ever loved anyone—even himself.
She did not relish the coming reunion with her lord, but that alone did not explain her sudden sense of foreboding.
As she hesitated, her son began to wail, his piercing cry an urgent demand that she could not ignore. She shook off her disquiet, for surely it must be her own weariness that assailed her. She nodded to her armed hearth troops to take the lead, and then followed them down the hill.
When she rode through the manor gates she saw a knot of retainers making for the kitchens behind the great hall, one of them carrying the standard of the ætheling Edmund. She puzzled over his presence here while a groom helped her dismount. Edmund had accompanied his elder brothers Athelstan and Ecbert to London in February, charged with the task of repairing the city’s fortifications and the great bridge that straddled the Thames. All three of them were to remain there until they joined the court at Cookham for the Easter feast. What, then, was Edmund doing here today?
The anxiety that had vexed her on the hill returned, but she had duties to perform before she could satisfy her curiosity. She led her stepdaughters and attendants into her quarters, where she found a fire blazing in the central hearth, the lime-washed walls hung with embroidered linens, and her great, curtained bed standing ready at the far end of the room. Three servants were setting up beds for the king’s daughters, and a fourth stepped forward to take Emma’s hooded mantle and muddy boots.
She slipped out of the cloak, then looked about the chamber for the women of her household who had been sent ahead and had, she guessed, supervised all these preparations.
“Where are Margot and Wymarc?” she asked, still unnerved by that moment of unease on the heights above the manor.
Before anyone could respond, Wymarc entered the chamber with a quick step, and Emma, relieved, drew her into an embrace. They had been parted for only a week, yet it seemed far longer. Wymarc was a bright, comforting presence in her household—and had been since the day they left Normandy together for England. Four years ago that was—four years since Emma stood at the door of Canterbury Cathedral as the peace-weaving bride of the English king, with Wymarc looking on from only a half step away.
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