Each morning the work began anew, until several days later the hall was reroofed. Winefrith arrived with Nuala and began to repair the furniture that had been smashed.
Cailin sat outside the hall on a bench with her cousin. “Your father likes your new husband, and he seems a fair man,” she remarked.
“He is not Bodvoc,” Nuala admitted, “but then there will never be another like Bodvoc. Winefrith loves me totally, and he is so good. If there is no longer excitement in my life, at least I am not unhappy, Cailin. Do you remember the old fortune-teller at the Beltane fair back long ago who said I would have two husbands and many children? Well, she was right. Bodvoc and I spawned two bairns before he died.” Her hand went protectively to her belly. “Winefrith and I married last December at the solstice. I am already well gone with our first child.”
“You are fortunate,” Cailin told her. “I do not know what happened to the child I bore Wulf before I was kidnapped into slavery. I do not even know if it was a son or a daughter.”
“You will have others,” Nuala said reassuringly.
“Not unless Wulf and I can find some privacy,” Cailin admitted with a wry smile. “Our reunion was so swift, and then we escaped Byzantium. We sailed for forty days upon a tiny trading vessel, with no possible opportunity to be alone. Then we traveled through Gaul with Nellwyn always by our side, and all those merchants with us. It has been the three of us on the road here in Britain until we reached home. We have been so busy repairing the damaged caused by that damned Ragnar … There is just no time for us, Nuala! I know that there will be, but when? As for the child lost to us, if it lives, we want it. It is our flesh, and has a heritage to be proud of that we would share.”
“I can understand exactly how you feel,” Nuala replied. “I love little Commius and Morna dearly. If they were stolen from me, I should want to get them back. I would not just let them go.”
“Who is that on the hillside?” Cailin suddenly asked her cousin.
Nuala looked hard, then said, “I do not know, but it could be one of Ragnar’s men. Yes, I think it may be, for he is turning away and riding off. We had best tell your husband.”
Wulf and the others were just refitting new oak doors to the hall when Cailin and Nuala told him of the horseman on the hillside.
“Since we have not yet had time to build the wall, it is good we can at least close off the hall,” Wulf said grimly. He turned to Winefrith. “What do you think? Will he come with a large armed party?”
“This man was probably out hunting and just rode past by chance,” Winefrith said. “There are enough of us here to make it a standoff for now, I think, my lord. I will warn the men to be on their guard until we see what is to happen. Nuala, go into the hall. I do not want you outside should there be any kind of attack.”
“He called you ‘my lord,’ ” Cailin said in a low tone to her husband after Nuala had obeyed her husband’s order.
“Several of the men are beginning to do so,” Wulf said. “It is only natural. I am their leader, lambkin. I intend to be overlord of these lands, and all the lands to the north and east encompassing the Dobunni territory that once was, if I can hold them. I have the right to do it. The first challenge I face is Ragnar Strongspear. He may have the territory to the south and west, if he chooses, but these lands are mine, and I will fight for them.”
“I will be by your side, my lord husband,” Cailin said quietly.
He put an arm about her shoulder. “We will survive this new age, lambkin, and we will leave a great holding for our sons and our daughters. We will not be moved from our lands again.”
“And we will make Antonia Porcius tell us what happened to our child. I did not deliver a son so large that I was torn apart. There is something I am striving to remember about those last moments, Wulf. I distinctly recall hearing the cry of a healthy infant, but there is