Page 301 of The Evening and the Morning

“Yes. It’s easily done.”

“King Ethelred won’t like it.”

Wynstan shrugged. “What can he do? We’ve been defying him for years. All he does is impose fines that we don’t pay.”

“I’d be glad to see the back of her.”

“Then do it. And order her to leave Shiring.”

“I could marry again.”

“Not yet. Give the king time to get used to the divorce.”

Meganthryth overheard this and said to Wigelm: “Will we be able to get married?”

“We’ll see,” Wigelm prevaricated.

Wynstan said to her: “Wigelm needs more sons, and you seem to be barren.”

It was a cruel remark, and tears came to her eyes. “I might not be. And if I become the ealdorman’s wife you’ll have to treat me with respect.”

“All right,” said Wynstan. “As soon as cows lay eggs.”

Ragna was free at last.

She was sad, too. She would not have Alain, and she would not have Edgar. But she would not have Wigelm or Wynstan either.

She had been under their domination for almost nine years, and now she realized how repressed she had felt for almost all that time. In theory English women had more rights than Norman women—control over their own property being the major one—but in practice it had proved difficult to enforce the law.

She had told Wigelm that she would continue to rule the Vale of Outhen. She planned to stay in England at least until Aldred’s messengers returned from Normandy. When she knew what Edgar’s plans were she could make her own.

She would write to her father, telling him what had happened, and entrust the letter to the couriers who brought her money four times a year. Count Hubert was going to be angry, she felt sure, though she did not know what he would do about it.

Her maids packed. Cat, Gilda, and Winnie all wanted to go with Ragna.

She asked Den to lend her a couple of bodyguards for the journey. As soon as she was settled she would hire her own.

She was not allowed to say good-bye to Alain.

They loaded the horses and left early in the morning, with little fuss. Many of the women in the compound came out of their houses to say quiet good-byes. Everyone felt that Wigelm’s behavior had been shameful.

They rode out of the compound and took the road to King’s Bridge.

CHAPTER 40

Summer 1006

agna moved into Edgar’s house.

It was Aldred’s idea. She asked him, as landlord, where she might set up home in King’s Bridge, and he told her he had been keeping the house empty in the hope that Edgar would return. Neither of them doubted that Edgar would want to live with Ragna—if he came home.

The place was the same size and shape as most houses, just better built. The edge-to-edge upright planks were sealed with wool soaked in tar, as in the hull of a ship, so that rain could not enter even in the stormiest weather. There was a second door, at one end of the building, leading out into an animal pen. There were smoke holes in the gable ends that made the air in the room more pleasant.

Edgar’s spirit was here, Ragna felt, in the combination of meticulousness and invention with which the house had been built.

She had been here once before. That was the occasion on which he showed her the box he had made for the book she had given him. She remembered the neat rack of tools, the wine barrel and thecheese safe, and Brindle wagging her tail—all gone now. She also remembered how he had held her hands while she wept.

She wondered where he was living now.