Page 326 of The Evening and the Morning

Wynstan began to cry. “It’s not fair,” he sobbed. “It’s not just.”

“It is, though,” said Aldred. “It’s very just.”

Ragna and Edgar got married at Shiring.

The party was hosted by Ealdorman Den. At this time of year there was little fresh food, so Den got in huge stocks of salt beef and beans and dozens of barrels of ale and cider.

Every important man in the west of England showed up, and the whole town crowded into the compound at the top of the hill. Edgar moved through the throng, welcoming guests, accepting congratulations, greeting people he had not seen for years.

All four of Ragna’s children were there. By the end of the day I’ll have a wife and four stepsons, he thought. It was strange.

The buzz of talk changed, and he heard sounds of surprise and admiration. He looked toward the source and saw Ragna, and for a moment he could not breathe.

She wore a dress in a rich dark yellow with flared sleeves finished in embroidered braid, and a sleeveless overdress of dark green wool. Her silk headdress was chestnut brown, her favorite color, the fabricinterwoven with threads of gold. Her glorious red-gold hair swept down behind like a waterfall. At that moment Edgar knew she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

She came to Edgar and took his hands in hers. He looked into Ragna’s sea-green eyes and felt unable to believe that she was his.

He said: “I, Edgar of King’s Bridge and Lordsborough, take you, Ragna of Cherbourg and Shiring, to be my wife, and I vow to love you and care for you and be true to you for the rest of my days.”

Ragna replied quietly, with a smile. “I, Ragna, daughter of Count Hubert of Cherbourg, and lord of Shiring, Combe, and the Vale of Outhen, take you, Edgar of King’s Bridge and Lordsborough, to be my husband, and I vow to love you and care for you and be true to you for the rest of my days.”

Aldred, wearing his bishop’s robes and a large silver pectoral cross, spoke a blessing in Latin on their marriage.

Next it was normal to kiss. Edgar had thought about this for years and he was not going to rush it. They had kissed before, but now for the first time they would do so as husband and wife, and it would be different, for they had promised to love each other forever.

He looked at her for a long moment. She sensed what he was feeling—something that happened often—and she waited, smiling. He leaned slowly to her and brushed her lips with his own. There was a ripple of applause from the crowd.

He put both arms around her and gently pulled her to himself, feeling her breasts against his chest. Still with his eyes open, he pressed his mouth to hers. They both parted their lips and touched tongues hesitantly, exploring as if for the first time, like adolescents. He felt her hips push toward his own. She reached around him withboth arms and pulled him harder, and he heard the crowd laugh and shout encouragement.

Edgar felt swamped with more passion than he could bear. He wanted to touch her with every inch of his body, and he could tell that she felt the same. For a moment he forgot about the audience, and kissed her as if they were alone; but that made the watchers increasingly raucous, and at last he broke the kiss.

His gaze did not leave hers. He felt moved almost to weeping. Repeating the last words of the vow, he murmured: “For the rest of my days.”

He saw tears come to her eyes, and she said: “And mine, my love, andmine.”