Page 317 of The Evening and the Morning

At last she laid a hand on Wigelm’s heart.

She kept it there for a long moment. The church was silent. The body was horribly cold. She felt faint.

Nothing happened.

The corpse did not move. No blood appeared. Nothing.

Feeling as if her life had been saved, she lifted her hand, and the crowd gave a collective sigh of relief.

Ragna said: “Anyone else you suspect, Bada?”

Bada shook his head.

Ragna said: “Wigelm died in the canal when drunk. That is the verdict, and this inquest is over.”

The people began to leave the church, talking among themselves. Ragna listened to the tone of the collective murmur and heard satisfied conviction.

But they were not the only people she needed to convince. The city of Shiring was much more important. She needed to make sure her version of events, as backed up by the Outhenham verdict, was the one repeated in the alehouses and brothels tomorrow.

And for that she had to get there first.

The men most likely to make trouble for her were Garulf and Bada. She thought of a way to make sure they were detained here in Outhenham.

She summoned them. “You two are responsible for the ealdorman’s body,” she said. “Go now to Edmund the carpenter and tell him I command him to make a coffin for Wigelm. He should be able to finish it by this evening or tomorrow morning. Then you are to escort the body to Shiring for burial in the cathedral graveyard. Is that clear?”

Bada looked at Garulf.

“Yes,” Garulf said. He seemed glad to have someone tell him what to do.

Bada was not so compliant.

Ragna said: “Bada, is that clear?”

He was forced to back down. “Yes, my lady.”

Ragna would leave immediately, but without warning. Quietly, she said: “Ceolwulf, find the oarsmen and bring them to the quarry.”

Ceolwulf was young enough to be cheeky. He said: “What for?”

She made her voice coldly severe. “Don’t you dare question me. Just do as you’re told.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Osgyth, come with me.”

Back at the house she told Osgyth to pack. When Ceolwulf arrived she ordered him to saddle Astrid.

One of the oarsmen said: “Are we going back to King’s Bridge?”

Ragna did not want to give anyone a chance to betray her plans. “Yes,” she said. It was half true.

When they were ready, she rode along the side of the canal with her servants accompanying her on foot. At the riverside they boarded the barge.

Then she told the oarsmen to row her to the opposite bank. Having heard Ceolwulf snapped at for insolence, they did not question her.

They tied up and she walked Astrid off the barge.

“Ceolwulf and Osgyth come with me,” she said. “You two, row the barge back to King’s Bridge and wait for me there.”