Page 132 of The Evening and the Morning

His brothers would have swallowed the bait. They would have stolen the money and been found out. But Edgar had simply given it back.

All the same, Erman and Eadbald had been right about one thing. They had said that Edgar would get no thanks from Dreng. And no thanks was just what he had got.

CHAPTER 18

March 998

t should have been a simple matter for Ragna to go to the Vale of Outhen.

She had mentioned it to Wilf the day before he left for Wales, and he had nodded agreement without hesitation. But after the army had left, Wynstan had come to her house. “This is not a good moment for you to visit Outhen,” he said, using the soft voice and insincere smile he deployed when pretending to be reasonable. “It’s the time of spring ploughing. We don’t want to distract the peasants.”

Ragna was wary. Wynstan had never before shown an interest in agricultural matters. “Naturally I don’t want to do anything that would interfere with their work,” she said, temporizing.

“Good. Postpone your visit. Meanwhile, I’ll collect your rents and hand the proceeds over to you, as I did at Christmas.”

It was true that Wynstan had given her a large sum of money a few days after Christmas, but he had offered no accounting, so she had no way of knowing whether she had received what was due to her. At the time she had been too distraught about Inge to care, butshe did not intend to let this laxness continue. As he turned to leave, she put a hand on his arm. “When would you suggest?”

“Let me think about that.”

Ragna suspected she knew more about the farming cycle than he did. “You see, there’s always something urgent to be done in the fields.”

“Yes, but—”

“After the ploughing comes the sowing.”

“Yes—”

“Then the weeding, then the reaping, then the threshing, then the grinding.”

“I know.”

“And then it’s time for winter ploughing.”

He looked irritated. “I’ll let you know when the time is right.”

Ragna shook her head firmly. “I have a better idea. I’ll visit Outhen on Lady Day. It’s a holiday, so they won’t be working anyway.”

He hesitated, but apparently could not think of a rejoinder. “Very well,” he said tersely, and as he walked away, Ragna knew she had not heard the last of this.

But she was not intimidated. On Lady Day she would receive her rents in Outhenham. And there she would ambush Gab the quarrymaster.

She wanted to take Edgar with her for the confrontation. She sent a messenger to summon him from Dreng’s Ferry, pretending she needed him to do more carpentry.

An extra reason for her wanting to go away was that there was a tiresome atmosphere in the compound with the husbands away. The only males left were either too young to fight or too old. Ragnafound that the women behaved badly when their men could not see them. They squabbled, shrieked, and ran one another down in ways that their husbands would have derided. No doubt men, too, misbehaved when the opposite sex was not there to be disdainful. She would have to ask Wilf about that.

She decided she would stay in the Vale of Outhen for a week or so after Lady Day. She was determined to make a personal tour of her property and find out in detail what she owned. She would show herself to her tenants and her subjects, getting to know them. She would hold court in each village and begin to establish a reputation as a fair judge.

When she spoke to the head groom, Wignoth, he shook his head and sucked in the air between his brown teeth. “We haven’t got enough horses,” he pointed out. “Every spare mount has been commandeered for the harrying of the Welsh.”

Ragna could not possibly arrive on foot. People judged by appearances, and a noble who did not have a horse would be seen as lacking authority. “But Astrid is still here,” she said. She had brought her favorite horse from Cherbourg.

“You’ll have several people with you on your visit, of course,” said Wignoth.

“Yes.”

“Apart from Astrid, all we have is an elderly mare, a pony with one eye, and a packhorse that’s never been ridden.”

There were other horses in the town: both the bishop and the abbot had several mounts, and the sheriff had a large stable. But they needed them for their own purposes. “What we have here must suffice,” Ragna said firmly. “It’s not ideal, but I’ll manage.”