Jorvik

by Jorvik- A thrilling tale of Viking Britain (retail) (epub)

  Alas, Mildryth’s aged parents repeated their denial. ‘You must tell Lord Sigurd that we have not seen hide nor hair of her for years,’ announced the man, looking rather apprehensive.

  Asketil wore an air of disappointment. ‘Tis not on Lord Sigurd’s behalf that I come, but for myself.’ His look told all.

  Mildryth’s mother was confused. ‘Lord Sigurd is dead?’

  Asketil shook his head. ‘No, but he has resigned himself to the fact that he will not see Mildryth again. I, however, have not.’ He risked taking them into his confidence. ‘I have loved Mildryth for years – as she loved me…’ He glanced at the woman, waiting for a nod of recognition that would tell him that Mildryth had been here, but the woman gave nothing away. Pessimism rising, he continued, ‘But I could do nought against my foster-father. Lately, though, I have begun to see what a dreadful error I made in spurning her love. I have tried my hardest to love others but every attempt has failed. I have now realized that it is unfair, indeed cruel, of me to continue to deceive. If I could only find her I would wed her today…’

  Asketil had a more human approach than Lord Sigurd’s. Mildryth’s father took pity on the forlorn man. ‘You have come a long way for nought.’ His voice was kind. ‘There is little we can do save ask you to eat with us before your return journey.’

  This drew forth a pledge. ‘I will never return to Jorvik without her, even if it means that I must travel until the day I die, and if you have any notion of where she might be I beg you to tell me. I should be forever in your debt.’ He made no move to accept the offer to go into the house.

  Mildryth’s mother looked from Asketil’s beseeching eyes into those of her husband, which warned her not to speak. She took no notice and blurted, ‘Mildryth has been here.’

  ‘But the last occasion was many months ago!’ said her father hastily at the spark of life in Til’s eye. ‘We did not send word to Lord Sigurd because she stayed only hours before leaving again, we know not where.’

  ‘Do not be afraid of Lord Sigurd! I will tell him nought of this.’ Where Sigurd would have punished them Asketil employed charm. ‘I can see from your eye that you are a kind man and would not have me suffer…’

  Mildryth’s father cut him off. ‘Forgive me, lord, I would tell you if it were in my power, but she would not disclose her whereabouts even to us.’

  Til stared him in the eye, trying to guess if he was being truthful and eventually looked away in despair. The man was lying but it was useless to employ force. Even when Sigurd had threatened to burn their house down Mildryth’s parents had maintained their ignorance. They would protect her to the death. In a way Til admired this, but it did not help him. ‘Is she well?’ he asked lamely.

  ‘She is of good health,’ replied the mother.

  ‘And tell me, is she… yea, it is foolish to ask.’ Asketil shook his head and looked flummoxed. ‘She must be wed for many years now.’

  ‘Must be by now,’ said the man.

  ‘She wasn’t the last time she was here,’ corrected his wife to her husband’s chagrin.

  ‘Then I must hope that this is still the case.’ Asketil stood there for a moment, looking uncertain what to do. ‘Well, I will not find her standing here…’ He looked to right and left.

  Mildryth’s old mother felt compassion and touched his arm. ‘It is small help I know, but when she left us ’twas in a westerly direction.’ She chose to ignore the sharp intake of breath from her husband.

  When Til jumped up and made hasty departure the man chastised his wife. ‘You’ve betrayed our lass!’

  ‘Do not talk stupid! The young lord’s besotted with her. Anyway, I only told him the direction she took when she left.’

  ‘You might as well have told him where she bides! You know very well there’s no house on that road for miles save that one. You should not have told him ought. You promised her!’

  ‘Oh, go duck your head! You’re as daft as her. We promised not to tell Lord Sigurd where she is but it isn’t he who asks to wed her, is it? You heard him say that Mildryth loves him.’

  ‘We have only his word for it! She never mentioned ought herself.’

  ‘Well, if she doesn’t want him then she can tell him that, but I don’t think she’s going to throw away this chance he offers because it will be her last, you know! She does not get any younger.’

  ‘She may be happy enough where she is,’ he pointed out.

  His wife scoffed. ‘You know as well as I that she’s not cut out for the life she’s chosen. ’Tis a miracle she’s lasted this long. For the sake of good sense I hope he does find her!’

  Asketil travelled the westerly road for miles accosting every person he met to ask if they had seen her – she was, after all, very distinctive in her looks – but none could help him. Vowing not to give up he proceeded as far as he could before nightfall, hoping that there would be a roof over his head tonight, for so far he had not encountered one single dwelling. When he came across an abbey he pulled the bell-rope and waited in the autumnal evening until the grille in the door was slid aside, then turned to meet a pair of startled violet eyes.

  She was almost twice the age that she had been on their last encounter but if her face had altered those eyes had not, and neither had Asketil, judging by the recognition in them. Mildryth took one look at the visitor and immediately slammed the door on the grille.

  He emerged from his trance and began to kick and bang at the wood. ‘Mildryth, open up! Open the door or I’ll smash it down!’

  The young woman leaned against it as if her featherweight would prevent his violent entry, then exasperated at his noise she slid the grille open once more and hissed at him, ‘Shut your damned noise or you’ll bring the Abbess out!’

  ‘Then open up and let me in!’

  ‘I cannot! We are all female here, ’tis barred to menfolk – oh, hush then! I will come out to you!’ Ensuring that she was unobserved she unbolted the gate and stepped into the road where she demanded, ‘What business have you here?’

  ‘Hah! I should ask that of you.’ He made a stabbing gesture at her austere robes. ‘What right has an unvirtuous wench like you to wear nun’s garb?’

  ‘Unvirtuous? Hah! Little chance I had to be unvirtuous with you! You treated me like a nun so I decided I might as well be one.’

  ‘I’ll warrant the sisters do not know what is in their midst! Maybe I should tell them.’

  During the altercation Mildryth had edged closer so that now her nose was mere inches away from his. ‘Why would you do that? You made it clear that you do not want me for any other purpose.’

  He said the first idiotic thing that came into his head. ‘But Lord Sigurd does and I am to take you back!’

  He grabbed her, she struggled and brought her knee up to his groin. Yelling in agony he fell to the dust. Mildryth ran. When the nausea lifted she was gone. The next fifteen minutes were spent intermittently cursing her and rubbing at his injured parts. Blinking to clear his vision, he hoisted his throbbing body and looked around. ‘I will not chase after thee! If you do not come back I shall bang on this door until all the sisters come out and inform them what you are!’

  When she did not materialize, Til flopped back to the ground, rolling upon it, both angry and sore. Finally, when he had given up hope of ever seeing her again she came out of the sun, her long shadow falling across him, wary of eye and prepared for flight.

  Til was sulking. ‘Do not panic, my hands are occupied with my bruised plums.’

  She laughed, ripped off her veil and sat beside him on a tussock. ‘I shall soothe them.’

  ‘Nay, be damned!’ He careened away. ‘You have done enough damage in one way or another.’

  Mildryth was unrepentant, raking her fingers over her itching head. ‘And I will do some more if you intend to drag me back to wed old Goatbeard.’

  The man was quiet for a while, watching her rearrange her blonde hair, then admitted, ‘I did not really come here to do that. I do not know w
hat made me say it.’ When Mildryth trained her eyes on him his stomach lurched. ‘I miss you, Mildryth, and come to see if you will have me.’

  She could not have been more surprised and consequently allowed him to hold the stage for the moment.

  ‘I am grown sick of fostri’s games with Earl Tostig. He drives the people away from him, not only the common folk but his friends too.’

  ‘And you?’ Those magnificent eyes held his face.

  He nodded. ‘I regret to say he has lost much of my loyalty. He has always been harsh but never unjust to his followers; now he watches Tostig commit murder, rob his thegns of their land and does nought about it. At the beginning he said it was his plan to give Tostig the rope to hang himself, but for pity’s sake that was ten years ago and by condoning these deeds he brings guilt upon himself. I have warned him that there are mutterings against him but he seems to care for nought these days… that is what you did when you left him.’

  ‘Oh, ’tis all my fault!’ riposted Mildryth, then after an angry interval mumbled, ‘Is he over his infatuation?’

  ‘Yea, but he is not the same.’

  ‘So now that he no longer lusts after me you decide it is fair for you to try your hand.’

  Til frowned. ‘Twas not like that!’

  Mildryth guessed how he had found her. ‘I will have harsh words for my kin when next I see them.’

  Til defended them. ‘They did not tell me your whereabouts. ’Twas pure luck that I arrived here.’

  She was subdued. ‘Luck for whom?’

  ‘For me, if you will forgive the cruel words I flung at you. I did not mean them. I was young then, thought I was acting nobly – towards Lord Sigurd, that is. But I am older now. I am halfway through my life and yet I do not seem to be alive. When you left you took my heart with you.’

  Mildryth re-experienced her own pain. ‘How long it has taken you to realize it.’

  Asketil looked suitably rebuked. ‘Yea, I admit I was a fool, but I come now to see if you will have me.’

  She turned her nose to the sky. ‘I do not know. I have grown used to this life.’

  When he cocked a disbelieving eye she had to laugh and put an affectionate arm through his, totally forgiving. ‘How are your privities?’

  He looked rueful. ‘No good for your purposes.’

  She gave a mocking scold. ‘Then why should I waste my time lingering with thee?’

  He did not answer, just smiled into her eyes.

  She returned his fondness for a while, studying him. He was more certain of himself now. ‘You have changed,’ she told him, and brushed the dust from his hair that still held its summer gold whilst the beard was dark.

  He showed amusement. ‘At one score years and seven? I should hope that I have. You yourself have not.’

  ‘Oh, I have, Til, I have.’ A wistful look came to her eye. ‘When I said I had grown used to this life I was serious. Ten years is a long time…’

  ‘It is a long time in a place like this for one such as you.’ He nodded to indicate the abbey.

  ‘Nay, it has been no hardship. Indeed, after the torment I suffered over you…’

  ‘Oh, don’t.’ He cringed.

  ‘Nay, I am saying nought against you, just telling you that I needed a peaceful place where I could put my life to some good use. I have enjoyed helping folk…’

  ‘There is another here whom you could help, Mildryth,’ he said quietly.

  She gave no answer but, after a further period of inspection she bade him stand. ‘Come, we cannot sit here. I shall be discovered. Let us walk awhile if you can manage it.’

  Wincing, he stood, banged his hat against his dusty clothes and after a few pained steps took on a more natural gait. As they walked with his horse tagging behind she asked him to tell her all that had happened since she had left; this took some time. They had walked a good few miles and it was growing dark. Asketil paused by a field where kine grazed on the stubble left behind after harvest, their dark shapes outlined in the disappearing sun. The pain was gone and so were all thoughts of loyalty to Sigurd. Without leave, he threw his arms round her, pressing the length of his body against hers. Released, the horse bent its head to graze whilst the lovers fell upon each other with searching tongues. Asketil gave freely of himself for the first time in his life, and in the final throes Mildryth gasped, ‘Stay with me, Til, I beg you, stay!’

  Til’s chest rose and fell several times before he had breath to answer. Burying his face in her neck he swore, ‘I will never leave you, dear one! We will be man and wife and never be parted again.’

  Mildryth did not return to the abbey. Scorning wild animals, she and Asketil made a fire and passed a night of love that outmatched its flame. In the morning after Til had supplied breakfast he rolled up his blanket and tied it to his saddle.

  Mildryth was puffy-eyed from lack of sleep and remained by the fire, for the morning was cool. ‘Whither do you go now?’

  ‘Jork.’ He and others had started to abbreviate the name.

  She jumped up, alarmed. ‘You swore that you would never leave me!’

  Til laughed, quick to allay her fears. ‘But you shall come too, my wife.’

  ‘Art thou mad! I shall never go back there!’

  He took her in his arms. ‘We have to go and face him, Mildryth; at least I do, for he will fret if he returns to discover me gone.’

  Mildryth tried to restrain him by gripping his brown beard. ‘In his anger he could kill you!’

  ‘Ow! Mayhap…’ He disentangled her fingers. ‘But I must face him. I cannot live like an outlaw. Besides, he is an old man of three score years. Passions die.’

  She was unconvinced. ‘He was an old man ten years ago, and that did not stop him lusting after me.’

  Til made soft reproach, brushing away a strand of blonde hair that obscured her eye. ‘I do not think you realize how strongly he did feel for you, Mildryth. It was not mere lust. He genuinely intended to wed you. When you left he was like one demented, insisting on searching for you himself.’

  ‘I know.’ She nodded and reseated herself on the dry patch she had inhabited all night, for there was a heavy dew elsewhere.

  Til rested on his heels. ‘You saw him?’

  ‘I hid and watched. My heart hoped that you would be the one to come after me.’ Her eyes reflected sorrow. ‘When you did not, I knew that all was lost and devoted my life to caring for the sick and unfortunate.’

  Feeling responsible, he tried to tease a smile from her. ‘I wager the nuns wondered what they had amongst them.’

  Mildryth was slow to grasp that he jested. ‘I did not take kindly to the restrictions, ’tis true, but I gave myself wholeheartedly to the life and was good at…’

  ‘There was none more goodly than you, Mildryth.’ He stopped her words of defence with his fingers. Like her own, his eyes were bleary but full of affection. ‘I remember how you treated poor Murtagh and…’

  ‘Oh, you have changed your opinion of me since last we met! Calling me slut or other vile insults.’

  He was earnest. ‘I meant none of it!’

  Mildryth chuckled to show that she had only been getting her own back. ‘Well, you may have been right. I could never boast chastity… but if slut I be, Til, then ’tis your slut and no one else’s. Only with you.’ She leaned forward to instigate a passionate kiss.

  When they drew apart, she referred to the slave again. ‘I often wonder if Murtagh got away.’

  ‘So do I,’ admitted Asketil. ‘’Twould be nice to think that he did – I feel no disloyalty in saying that now.’

  ‘Oh, Lord Sigurd must really have lost your love!’

  ‘Nay, I still love him as a father.’ His voice was sincere. Then he noticed a shadow of doubt cloud her eye, asked immediately, ‘What is it, my dear?’ and cupped the point of her chin in his hands.

  She rubbed her cheek against his fingers. ‘’Tis nought.’

  ‘No lies.’ He was stern. ‘If we are to spend our live
s together we must be honest with each other.’

  Mildryth held back. ‘You may be angry.’

  ‘Never mind. I would have the truth all the same.’

  Her violet eyes blinked as if to discourage tears. ‘Then tell me true and I will ask no more: do you take me back to Jorvik only to hand me over to the father you adore? Was this all a ploy to lure me back?’ There was no need for answer. She could tell by the look on his face that she had grossly insulted him. ‘Nay! I wish I had not asked and I beg you to forgive me.’ She gripped the hands that had fallen from her cheeks.

  ‘I have treated you badly in the past but I would ne’er do ought so shameful as that!’ He tried to rise but she pulled him back to the wet grass.

  ‘Yea, I know that! I was a fool to even think it. Come, rip out my tongue for its wicked slur on your character.’ She thrust her pink tongue under his nose and wiggled it.

  He pushed her, unamused – ‘You still act the child!’ – and lifted one buttock to feel at his damp leggings.

  She came back, petting and pawing her way back to favour, just like the twelve year old he had met in Norway. ‘Til, dear Til, ’twas only that I know how much you love the man and are willing to forego your own happiness for him. That was the only worry I had and you have dispelled it.’

  Til had grown out of his boyhood tendency to act the martyr. He soon gave in to her persuasion and hugged her. ‘Forsooth, I do love him, but he is headed down a dangerous road. Whatever I say I cannot deter him and besides, I have wasted enough of my youth. He will go mad when he hears of my love for you…’

  ‘And mine for you,’ Mildryth butted in.

  ‘…but I owe him explanation and must go back.’