Summer of the Viking

by Michelle Styles

  Merri’s eyes shimmered. ‘I wanted him to stay. Everything was better when he was here. Things actually worked. I could stop being nervous and you were happy. I know you were.’

  ‘We survived before Valdar. I dare say we will survive after. Wherever it is, we will be together.’ Alwynn refused to think about her forthcoming confrontation with Lord Edwin and the king. There was no need for Merri to know what she had planned. Merri would be better off. Everyone would be. The only trouble was that right now her insides were torn to shreds.

  ‘How do you do it, Stepmother? How can you be so serene? Don’t you care?’

  ‘I care, Merri, but I have to think of the land and my people.’

  ‘I told Valdar you wore his ring and he still didn’t stay. He said that as long as you wore it, you would never be alone. Honestly I don’t understand adults.’ Merri screwed up her nose. ‘Will you wear it on your hand, rather than secretly under your clothes?’

  Alwynn pulled the ring from out of her gown and slipped it on her finger. Somehow it felt right. ‘For a little while.’

  Merri smiled up at her. ‘I wish things had worked out with Valdar. I kept hoping he’d find a reason to stay.’

  ‘I’m pleased he found a reason to go.’

  * * *

  Alwynn went over to Gode’s pallet where she lay in the small hall. Every time Alwynn had come in since the Northmen’s attack, the old woman had her eyes firmly shut and had turned her face to the wall.

  ‘You are breathing too steadily to be asleep,’ she said quietly. ‘You can’t avoid me for ever.’

  Gode opened one eye. ‘Maybe I don’t want to talk. Maybe I want silence. Helps with the healing, according to the monks.’

  ‘You were born talking, Gode. You will be talking with your last breath. Why did you keep it a secret?’

  ‘Should have told you before now, I guess,’ the old woman admitted with a grimace, raising herself up on one elbow. ‘But you had enough to do.’

  Alwynn crouched down. ‘Merri told me—Valdar’s gone. He took the opportunity and left.’

  ‘Are you happy about that?’

  Alwynn patted Gode’s hand. How could she begin to explain that she doubted if she’d ever be truly happy again, but at least she knew what it was like to be loved and to love in return. Before Valdar arrived in her life, she hadn’t understood what true happiness was. ‘I’d rather think him free and safe. If he’d stayed, there was every possibility that he’d have been killed.’

  ‘He is not like those others. A good man. One of the best.’ Gode coughed. ‘He saved all of us. Killing someone for saving others sounds pretty harsh. I should never have told you who he was. I should have kept my mouth shut. I should have known that he’d keep his word and leave.’

  ‘You know the law as well as I do.’

  ‘Is it the king’s law? Or one of Lord Edwin’s orders?’ Gode tapped her nose. ‘Have you thought about that? Valdar never attacked any of us. He never threatened...’

  Alwynn blinked. Might there have been a way to keep Valdar here? Had she sent him away for nothing? She twisted the ring on her finger. ‘It is far too late to think about such things, Gode.’

  ‘Only too late when you are dead, my lady.’

  * * *

  ‘Lady Alwynn.’

  Lord Edwin’s nasal tones told Alwynn that her time of grace had finished. Silently she gave thanks that Valdar had done as she asked. She schooled her features and prepared for battle.

  ‘Lord Edwin, you returned far more quickly than I had considered possible.’

  Lord Edwin’s boots were mud splattered and his cloak damp. Alwynn’s eyes widened. She had never seen him this unkempt. Had she been wrong? Did he actually care about the people who lived here? Or was something else going on?

  Lord Edwin removed his riding gloves. ‘Once I heard the news, I wasted no time. I rode as swiftly as possible. I only stopped to change horses. Where are the Northmen’s bodies? Are you certain they are indeed Northmen? You must be certain on this point.’

  ‘They were Northmen. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.’ Alwynn tilted her head to one side. ‘They have been buried in a pit. You may ask the monks about them. I believe they collected their badges to show to the king if he requires it.’

  Edwin whistled. ‘And they attacked one of my farms. Why?’

  ‘They wanted food, I presume.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what they wanted. It matters that they were here and my tenants foiled the attack.’

  ‘All the villagers combined. Your tenants and mine.’

  Lord Edwin’s eyes narrowed. ‘My tenants performed heroics with pitchforks. That is what the king wants to hear.’

  ‘But...’

  ‘The king will be arriving soon. He expects a feast. A celebration. He wants to reward the man who saved Northumbria from a terrible invasion.’

  ‘I am sure you are more than capable of providing one.’

  ‘Except...’ Edwin tapped his fingers together. ‘Except they all say it was your steward.’

  ‘My message said nothing about my steward.’

  ‘It didn’t have to. The messenger was very clear on who the hero was.’

  Alwynn struggled to take a breath. ‘Then the king knows about my steward?’

  ‘The king would very much like to meet your steward, as would I.’ Lord Edwin snapped his fingers. ‘Summon him.’

  ‘Impossible. He has left.’

  ‘Left?’ Edwin arched a brow. ‘After such a triumph?’

  ‘We had an agreement. He had promised to return home by summer’s end.’ Silently Alwynn prayed that Valdar had gone and had not remained hidden somewhere.

  ‘And his name?’

  ‘His name?’ Alwynn pasted a smile on. Her hands shook so she clasped them together. ‘His name is unimportant.’

  ‘Surely you know his name. What did you call him?’

  She looked him directly in the eye. Edwin was trying to intimidate her. A sudden cold but calm feeling swept through her. She raised her head and met Lord Edwin’s gaze directly. ‘Valdar, the son of Neri.’

  Lord Edwin blinked rapidly. ‘Those are not Northumbrian names.’

  ‘I never said he was Northumbrian.’ Alwynn inclined her head. ‘Perhaps if you had stayed in the area, you wouldn’t have to hear about this from your neighbours.’

  She picked up a dropped spinning whorl. Valdar’s ring glinted in the sunlight. Alwynn silently groaned. She should have taken it off, but it was her last link with him and she couldn’t bear it.

  ‘He is a Northman, your steward. That’s what my farmer’s wife says. And I, for one, believe her. I will make sure the king knows you have been consorting with the enemy. How long have you been a Northman’s lover?’

  Alwynn stood completely still. It had been too much to hope for that Edwin would overlook the ring. But she knew she wore it with pride. Pride in the man who had left it for her and pride in the love she bore for him. ‘You may tell the king what you like. I know the truth about Valdar and how he saved this village while you went off to further your fortune at court. I know because I was there.’

  ‘I will find him, Lady Alwynn, and when I do, I will make sure he is drawn and quartered like all Northmen deserve to be and then I will see you executed.’

  ‘You had best seek the king’s permission, then. After all, you don’t want to do anything which will damage your reputation.’

  Edwin stepped back. ‘You’ve become unbecomingly bold, Lady Alwynn.’

  ‘Your threats do not frighten me.’

  ‘They should.’

  * * *

  Alwynn took great care with her court dress. After today, everything would change. Today she would give an accounting of her deeds and the king could decide. Where once Lord Edwin’s words would have frightened her, now she was fiercely determined to have her say.

  She kept tight hold of Merri’s hand. Merri chafed under the unaccustomed formality of the court dress, but on the whole was wel
l behaved.

  ‘How much longer?’ Merri whispered.

  ‘There are certain to be others before us,’ Alwynn replied. She steeled herself, waiting for the right opportunity to bow before the king and throw herself on his mercy.

  She was the one at fault and it was only right that she should bear the blame. But she had the satisfaction of knowing that Valdar remained free. She hoped he was far to the north now, in Pictland, looking for a boat which would take him back home.

  ‘And now to why we are here—Lord Edwin’s routing of the Northmen.’

  Alwynn’s mouth dropped open. Edwin had claimed the victory for himself? He hadn’t even been there. What sort of game was he playing now? Was he counting on her being so frightened of her own skin that she wouldn’t say anything?

  ‘Stepmother!’ Merri pulled at her gown.

  ‘Hush, Merri!’

  ‘The Northmen’s bodies have been disposed of, but Lord Edwin has the badges.’

  Lord Edwin came forward and made a low bow. ‘As you can see, my liege...this is how I deal with Northmen who dare set foot on my land.’

  ‘Liar!’ Merri cried. ‘He is nothing but a gigantic liar. Lord Edwin was not here. He was off at court and his steward was with him. He left us unprotected.’

  The entire court went silent.

  ‘Who is this that speaks?’

  ‘Lady Merewynn, my stepdaughter, sire,’ Alwynn answered. ‘And she is correct. Lord Edwin was away. It was one of his farms which was attacked, but it was my steward who fought off the attack.’

  ‘Where is this mysterious steward of yours?’ Lord Edwin said with a sneer. ‘I have heard tell he is a Northman himself. Where precisely did he come from? And where has he gone now?’

  ‘He came from the sea.’ Alwynn held out her hands. She had to make the crowd understand. ‘But what of it? Have we so lost our way that we condemn every stranger to death? That we act before we find out who they are? What sort of men they are? If this is what my country has become, I want no part of it. Actions like these protect no one and they harm us all. Without my steward, more lives would have been lost. Valdar Nerison was the sort of man to be proud of. He did nothing but good on the estate. And he was not afraid to fight. He fought for us, knowing if we discovered where he came from, we would kill him. I ask you, how is that right?’

  Alwynn looked around at the increasingly hostile faces and knew she was truly alone.

  ‘Where is he now?’

  ‘Now?’ Alwynn gulped. ‘He has gone. His time here had ended and so he left.’

  ‘Which proves his guilt,’ Lord Edwin said.

  ‘It proves he had somewhere else to go. Another life beyond Northumbria,’ Alwynn retorted. ‘My word against yours, Lord Edwin. It will be up to the king to decide.’

  Edwin’s sneer increased. ‘Not quite. We have a witness. Bring forth the prisoner.’

  Alwynn steeled her features. She’d hoped and prayed so hard that Valdar had escaped.

  When a badly beaten young man was dragged in, she blinked in surprise. Was this Valdar’s missing boy? The one he had sought to save by jumping into the sea? The one who had escaped and whom Girmir had been hunting when he attacked the farmhouse? The one whom Valdar thought murdered?

  ‘Who is this?’ King Athelfred asked.

  ‘My proof.’ Lord Edwin bowed. ‘Cleofirth the Plough caught him and sent him to me for safekeeping. He wanted his wife cleared of sheep stealing, a crime the Northman steward had accused her of.’

  ‘If he was in your custody, then he took no part in the raid on the farmhouse,’ Alwynn said. Her heart pounded in her ears. The boy could identify Valdar, but he was also innocent of the attack. ‘He can know nothing of it if he was imprisoned in your hall, Lord Edwin.’

  Lord Edwin’s face fell, but he recovered. ‘What does it matter? He tried to take some grain. The law is quite clear on what to do with thieves.’

  The boy hugged his arms about his stomach and pleaded in a foreign tongue that none present could understand. Alwynn stood upright. With each word she uttered, her confidence grew. ‘If we seek to prove we are better than the Northmen, then we must obey the laws. Men are innocent until proven guilty. Not because of their birth, but because of their actions.’

  The entire court seemed to be shocked into silence.

  Lord Edwin clapped his hands. ‘A very pretty speech, but meaningless.’

  ‘Your name, boy!’

  The boy seemed to understand a little. ‘Eirik, son of Thoren.’

  ‘Was this Valdar, son of Neri, part of your raiding party?’

  ‘Valdar, son of Neri, died in the storm which broke the mast. He volunteered to die to save us all, but particularly me.’ The boy closed his eyes and continued in broken and heavily accented Northumbrian. ‘I want to go home. I was supposed to be a merchant. I had furs to trade. My mother waits for me. I’ve a field I want to plough, cows to milk.’

  ‘Did you come to raid this country?’ Alwynn asked, holding her hands out.

  Slowly the boy shook his head. Then his eyes widened. ‘You are wearing Valdar’s ring. How did you get that?’

  ‘It was given to me by its rightful owner.’

  A smile flickered across the boy’s face. ‘Then my mother was right. The Norns decide the time of your death, not men. There is hope for me.’

  ‘I will help you if I can,’ Alwynn said in a low voice.

  ‘I rest my case,’ Lord Edwin said. ‘The Lady Alwynn has been consorting with the enemy and deserves to die and have all her lands confiscated. She seeks to help this Northman. How many other laws will she break?’

  Edwin’s steward grasped her arm and dragged her over to where the boy was confined.

  ‘Unhand me!’ Alwynn said as she twisted against the steward’s tight hold.

  ‘Tell us where Valdar Nerison is,’ Lord Edwin sneered.

  ‘I am here!’ Valdar thundered from the back of the crowd. ‘Lady Alwynn is innocent of any wrongdoing!’

  ‘And you are?’ the king asked as all eyes of the court turned towards where Valdar stood.

  Inside Alwynn died a little. Her eyes drank Valdar in, but she also knew that he was walking into a death trap. There was no way he would get out of here alive.

  ‘Valdar Nerison.’ He came forward with his head held high and his shoulders bristling. His sword gleamed at his side. ‘I am a man from the North, but not a raider or a pirate. The men who were killed at the farm were outlaws. In my country as well as yours. They started the voyage as merchants and became pirates, bent on murder. They acted without the consent of their countrymen and outside of the laws of their land.’

  The king leant forward. ‘And what is your connection to them?’

  ‘I was part of the original fellowship, but we parted ways when I jumped off the ship in a raging storm.’

  ‘He saved me,’ the lad cried. ‘I got the black stone, but he exchanged it.’

  Valdar gave him a dark look. The boy hung his head. Alwynn patted his hand and whispered that it was fine.

  ‘When in Northumbria, I concealed my identity and persuaded Lady Alwynn to hire me. I then fought and defeated the leader of the outlaws, but not unfortunately before he destroyed Cleofirth’s farm.’

  ‘You defeated him in single combat?’ the king asked, tilting his head to one side.

  ‘Yes, and I will happily defend that honour by defeating anyone who challenges my version.’ Valdar gave Lord Edwin a hard look.

  Edwin shrank back. ‘Who defeated the Northmen is not in dispute. The entire village has been celebrating it. But the fact remains that he is a Northman.’

  ‘It strikes me that if this stranger had not been here, the entire village and all the harvest would have been destroyed, particularly as you were at court, Lord Edwin.’ The king turned towards Alwynn. ‘Why did you rescue this stranger?’

  ‘Because he was in need,’ Alwynn said. ‘Lord Edwin had ordered that any stranger who appeared from the sea be killed. I thought it
was wrong to kill a man until we knew if he was friend or foe.’

  As she spoke, her voice strengthened. They might not like what she had to say, but she was determined to say it. ‘Before I knew Valdar, I thought like most people in this room that Northmen were all demons in human form and that no one born in the North could have a drop of compassion in his body. I was wrong. Northmen are like us. Some good, some bad and most just doing their best for their families. Not every Northman raids. In the same way that not every Northumbrian is an outlaw. It is time we stopped judging people on where they were born and started judging them on their actions.’

  ‘And what did you decide with this man?’ the king asked into the shocked silence.

  ‘Valdar Nerison is a good man. He was a friend to all Northumbrians. He has never given me reason to doubt it either. He is the one who saved us. Lord Edwin only managed to capture a boy, but not stop the men who burnt down the farm.’

  There was a round of laughter at her remarks.

  ‘I bet he looted churches in the past!’ Lord Edwin cried.

  ‘Do you have proof?’ Alwynn asked. ‘In Northumbria, we demand proof.’

  ‘Answer my cousin, Lord Edwin,’ the king thundered. ‘Where is your proof?’

  Lord Edwin’s cheeks flushed under the king’s intense gaze. ‘I have none.’

  Valdar laid a bag at the king’s feet. Gold and silver coins spilled from it, along with a twisted gold torc. But there were no crosses or looted treasures from a church.

  ‘This is the bounty from my trading venture,’ he proclaimed. ‘I went and discovered the ship the outlaws had hidden. It should be used to ransom the lad and the rest can be claimed by you as bounty as the ship was on your lands.’

  Lord Edwin looked as if he had swallowed a sour plum.

  ‘And what should I do with booty?’ the king asked. ‘Give it to your countrymen when they next come calling?’

  ‘The Viken who raided Lindisfarne are not my countrymen any more than they are yours. My people have fought many battles against them.’

  ‘And have you won those battles?’

  ‘An uneasy truce exists, but I know how to make places safe from men such as the Viken. I have spent my life doing it.’ Valdar stood proud. ‘You need someone who knows how to make your land safe.’