Dark Under the Cover of Night (The Kingdom of the East Angles Book 1) (14 page)

There was
no one about as they trudged through the settlement towards the Great Hall. The
townsfolk were all safely indoors now, sheltering from the blizzard. Wood smoke
and the smell of roasting mutton tinged the gelid air. A tall wooden fence
ringed Raedwald’s hall and the stables below it. Two sentries, huddled within
heavy cloaks, guarded the gate. They looked upon Caelin with hostility as he
led Blackberry past. Only Raedwyn’s challenging stare prevented the guards from
blocking their path.

The stable
yard was deserted. Caelin led Blackberry into one of the stables reserved for
the royal family’s horses and helped Raedwyn dismount. Raedwyn’s teeth were
chattering and her ankle was now a dull throb.

“I should
get back to the hall,” she said between clenched jaws. “Mother will be
worrying.”

Caelin
took off his cloak and wrapped it around Raedwyn’s shoulders. Then he helped
her over to a pile of clean straw so she could sit down.

“I will
take you up,” he said, turning from her to where Blackberry stood looking
dejected, “as soon as I see to your horse.”

Raedwyn
watched as Caelin removed Blackberry’s saddle and bridle before he rubbed the
mare down with a twist of hay. Caelin worked with the ease of someone reared
around horses, although when he lifted off the saddle, Raedwyn saw him wince.

“You are
not yet healed,” Raedwyn observed.

“I’m well
enough,” Caelin replied. “Time will take care of the rest.”

Caelin fed
and watered Blackberry before going to Raedwyn and kneeling down before her.

“How is
that ankle of yours faring?”

Raedwyn
grimaced. “I should go, Caelin.”

“Let’s
take a look at it,” Caelin ignored her protest, gently took hold of her ankle
and rested her foot on his knee. He then outbound the leather lacing which
bound the fur boot to her foot and ankle before removing the boot itself.

“It’s very
swollen.” His cool finger tips softly traced the line of her ankle and prodded
around the bone. “But I think it is not broken, just bruised.”

He looked
up at her and Raedwyn felt a lump settle into the back of her throat. His face
was impassive, almost cold, but his eyes were not. He was so close, all she had
to do was reach out and touch him.

The moment
shattered as the stable door crashed open, bringing with it a gust of icy,
snow-laced wind. Raedwyn brought her hand up to shield her face from the
flurry, but saw, too late, the unmistakable outline of her father’s tall, broad
shouldered frame filling the doorway. With him, was one of the sentries they
had passed at the gate.

Raedwyn
knew that it looked incriminating – her sitting on the straw, wrapped in
Caelin’s cloak while he knelt before her, holding her bare ankle. There was an
intimacy in their manner that implicated them both. Caelin went very still as
he returned Raedwald’s stare, a dangerous and unwise thing for a slave to do.

“
Fæder
,”
Raedwyn managed finally, feeling her father’s glare shift to her. “I fell off
my horse while riding and got lost in the snow. Caelin found me and brought me
home.”

Even to
her
ears, the words sounded trite. They may have been the truth but her
father, it seemed, was ever ready to think the worst of her.

Raedwald’s
face darkened. “Caelin?” he spat out the name as if it were something foul. “He
lost the right to a name when he became my slave – yet you use it easily as if
it were familiar to you.”

This was
the sign Raedwald had been waiting for; the proof his daughter had made herself
his enemy’s whore.

Anger
erupted within Raedwyn. She pushed Caelin aside and stood up, ignoring the pain
that lanced up her leg from her injured ankle.

“Why
father?” Her voice lashed across the stable, causing Blackberry to start
nervously. “I have never given you cause to think me a slut! All you have is
the words of two men who hated you, who sought to wound you. Have you ever
asked Caelin what happened while I was Ceolwulf’s captive? Perhaps you should!
I am innocent of all you accuse me of!”

“Silence!”
Raedwald roared. His face was florid and Raedwyn realized he had been drinking.
He towered over Raedwyn menacingly and, for a moment, she was afraid he would
hit her. Instead, he turned to Caelin, who had risen to his feet and was
observing the altercation between father and daughter.

“Dog!
Don’t you dare look in my daughter’s direction again! The next time you touch
her, I will cut off your fingers and feed them to you!”

“Your
daughter is innocent,” Caelin replied, ignoring the king’s threats. “Not I, nor
my father, nor any of his men took sport with her.”

Raedwald’s
fist shot out and hit Caelin in the mouth.

Caelin had
not expected the king to strike him. Caught off-guard, he staggered backwards
and fell against the wall. He slumped forward as blood gushed from his mouth.

Raedwyn
watched her father approach his slave, towering over him so that when Caelin
looked up, wiping the blood off his chin, the King of the East Angles filled
his vision.

“Your
death will be long and painful if you ever defy me again slave,” he warned, his
voice soft. “One who has lost all honor does not have the right to speak either
to me or any member of my family. If you wish to survive you must be as
invisible as a wraith and slink around like the cur you are.”

 Caelin
looked up at the king and held his gaze defiantly.

“You do
not want to test me slave,” Raedwald said finally. “For I do not make threats
lightly.”

Then,
letting his words hang in the chilled air, Raedwald turned and left the stable
– dragging Raedwyn after him.

***

Alone in
the stable, Caelin climbed to his feet and checked to see if the king had
broken any of his teeth. The inside of his upper lip had split open; smashed
against his teeth by Raedwald’s fist. One of his top teeth was loose but he had
suffered no further injury.

Caelin
mopped up the last of the blood and, with a suddenness, which caused Blackberry
to start for the second time, smashed his fist against the wall. Wood
splintered but even the pain that lanced through his fist did not lessen the
stomach clenching rage which consumed him. It was his first strong emotion
since he had awoken to find himself Raedwald’s captive.

His anger
had been long suppressed. He had tried to ignore the part of him that ‘felt’;
the part of him that wanted freedom and would not accept this was this fate.
However, it would not be ignored. He would have to leave this place, or he
would die before the next winter. He could not be subservient. It was not in
him to grovel at another man’s feet.

Raedwald
was vastly different to the man Caelin remembered from all those years ago.
Then, Raedwald had been loud, good-natured and, although severe when crossed,
he had always been fair. That man was gone. It would not be long before
Raedwald lashed out again – and next time Caelin would hit back. After that it
would be finished for him.    

Caelin
went outside and picked up a handful of clean snow, pressing it against his
swollen mouth. A few servants moved by in the shadows, struggling through the
ever-deepening snow with heavy baskets and buckets. All of them ignored Caelin.
It was as if he were a ghost here. Caelin watched them trudge by, huddled
within their furs, and realized the fact that everyone disregarded him here
might prove advantageous one day.

He would
wait out the winter, until the spring had begun to settle into early summer and
then he would make his escape. Even if he died trying it would be preferable to
this half-life.

Caelin
thought of Raedwyn then. It was not deliberate, for an image of her came to his
mind unbidden. Nonetheless, he did not like to dwell too long on Raedwyn. When
she was in his presence she overwhelmed his senses, which was dangerous. She
brought out a protective, fool-hardy streak in him which could easily get him
killed.

Pushing
away thoughts of Raedwyn, he re-entered the stable and retrieved his cloak.
Caelin then wrapped the cloak around his shoulders and pulled up his hood,
before making his way back out into the snow.

He had a
basket of sticks to retrieve before nightfall.

Chapter Eleven

“I don’t
want you going near that piece of maggot ridden dog spawn!”  King Raedwald of
the East Angles roared out across the hall, causing his daughter who stood
before him to cringe as if he had slapped her. “He and his kin are
nithing
,
without honor and accursed. Have you not shamed your family enough without disgracing
yourself further?”

“Why won’t
you believe me father?” Tears streamed down Raedwyn’s face as she stood
shivering before the king.

Father and
daughter had a considerable audience. Seaxwyn sat upon the raised dais,
reserved for the king and queen, embroidering. Eorpwald sat at one of the long
tables nearby, where he had been playing knucklebones with his cousin, Annan.
Eni had been drinking with some of the king’s thegns, emptying mead from a huge
barrel into clay mugs. Servants were roasting a deer over the fire pit, boiling
vegetables and baking bread on a griddle. Despite the Great Hall’s cavernous
interior and high gabled roof, the air was close and rank with the smell of too
many people cooped up together in an enclosed space – a smell not even the
cloying smoke and appetizing aroma of roasting venison could mask.

Seaxwyn
had gone pale and put down her embroidery when her husband had entered,
dragging a disheveled and limping Raedwyn behind him.

“Raedwald?”
Seaxwyn stood up and stepped down off the dais, coming to Raedwyn’s side. She
gathered her daughter’s sobbing form in her arms. “What have you done to her?”

“What have
I done to her?” Raedwald roared as if his wife stood on the other-side of
Rendlaesham rather than two feet from him. “She had the stupidity to go out
riding in a snow-storm and fell off her horse. Then this slut enlisted the help
of the Exiled’s whelp to bring her back to Rendlaesham. I found them alone
together in the stables.”

Raedwald
let the incriminating words hang in the air while the others gaped at Raedwyn
as if she had been caught cavorting naked on the snow with the king’s theow.

Swallowing
her sobs, Raedwyn straightened up and pushed her hair off her face.

“You know
it was innocent! You know I am blameless! He was only making sure my ankle was
not broken. It’s only
you
father that makes it sound sordid. It’s only
you who twists things to seem foul and wrong!”

“You lie!”
Raedwald bellowed. “I saw it in your face when Hengist accused you!”

“I don’t
know what you saw,” Raedwyn parried, “but you are wrong! You have never been
more wrong!”

The
ringing sound of the slap, as the flat of Raedwald’s hand connected with
Raedwyn’s face, echoed around the hall. The force of the blow caused Raedwyn to
stagger backwards. She would have fallen if her mother had not grabbed hold of
her.

“Father!”
Eorpwald jumped to his feet.

Raedwald
ignored his son. He glared at Raedwyn, as if there was only her and him in the
Great Hall.

“You are a
disrespectful, lying slut of a girl who I should have married off years ago. I
tried to forgive you. I let you stay on here despite your shame but you could
not mend your ways. As soon as spring comes I will wed you to the first man
who’ll have you.”

“Raedwald!”
Seaxwyn cut in, her face pinched. “How dare you talk to our daughter thus! If
she says she is innocent then you should believe her, not continue to humiliate
and berate her.”

The king
turned on his wife then, and the force of his venom caused all in the hall to
grow still in shock.

“You would
say that dear wife, wouldn’t you? It’s mother like daughter I fear. I was
foolish enough to forgive you, but now my own daughter has proven to be a
deceitful whore and it will not be borne!”

Seaxwyn
stared at Raedwald as if he had not struck Raedwyn but her.

Her look
of horror caused Raedwald to check any more angry words that he might have let
forth. A dreadful hush fell across the Great Hall then, as if the king had
uttered a terrible curse.

Raedwyn
forgot her own misery and stared from her father to her mother. This had
nothing to do with her. Instead, it was some history between the king and queen
that had been long buried – one that they had kept secret from her.

Seaxwyn
did not speak. Her face was set like a stone sculpture of an ancient, wrathful
goddess. Without uttering another word, the queen turned and left the hall.

Raedwyn’s
left cheek still stung from her father’s hand, but she ignored it. She swept
her gaze across the hall, to see the reaction of the others present. Her
cousins looked as horrified as her, and so did many others. Only Eni and
Eorpwald showed something other than shock. Eni looked immeasurably sad and
careworn. He was Raedwald’s younger brother but at that moment, they seemed the
same age. There were pouches under Eni’s eyes, and he looked like a weary old
wolf that had lived long and had to hunt one time too many. He looked upon his
brother with sorrow in his eyes.

Eorpwald
had gone almost as pale as his mother; his thin face drawn. When Raedwyn looked
into his eyes, she understood that he and Eni had carried this secret for as
long as her parents.

Her world
had suddenly shifted. One moment, Raedwyn had been defending herself from a
raging father, and the next, years of smothered tensions and resentment had
exploded between her parents, uncovering something best kept hidden.

Everything
Raedwyn had ever known seemed unreal. During her infancy and girlhood, her
family had protected her from more than just the outside world – all those
years they had been protecting her from themselves.

Raedwald
still stood, staring into the mid-distance at something only he could see.
Raedwyn left him to his demons. Limping on her sore ankle, Raedwyn made her way
to her bower, pushed the tapestry aside and let it fall behind her.

Once away
from the stares, Raedwyn collapsed onto her furs and curled up into a ball. As
she lay shivering, she realized that she had felt safer as a prisoner in
Ceolwulf’s encampment than within the embrace of her family. They were her kin;
the people who were supposed to love and protect each other from the bloodshed
and violence of the world, not savage each other like wolves.

***

Eorpwald
pushed aside the tapestry and padded softly into his sister’s bower; his thin
fingers clasped around a steaming mug. Raedwyn was huddled within her furs,
sleeping. Many hours had passed since he had witnessed the altercation between
Raedwyn and her parents. Eorpwald had decided to let his sister sleep for a
while before he went to her. He sat on the edge of the furs and watched Raedwyn
for a moment. She looked far younger than her twenty-one winters in sleep, even
if awake she had long lost any vestiges of girlishness. Her pale hair was
spread out like a bird’s wing across the furs; the same color as their father’s
when he had been young.

“Raedwyn.”
Eorpwald gently shook her awake. “I’ve brought you spiced mead.”

Raedwyn’s
blue eyes flicked open and focused on Eorpwald. Her face lost its relaxed cast
and he saw her muscles tense, as if ready for yet another fight. Unsmiling,
Raedwyn sat up and rested her back against the wooden partition. She took the
cup of hot mead and wrapped her chilled fingers around it, sighing with relief
as the warmth seeped into her hands. Neither of them spoke for a moment or two.
Raedwyn then took a sip of mead before fixing her gaze on her brother.

“Why
didn’t you tell me?”

“How would
that have aided you Raedwyn?” Eorpwald replied, returning her stare. “It would
have been better if you had never known.”

“I agree,
but since there was never any guarantee of that, I’d appreciate it if you would
stop trying to protect me. I need to know the truth. Tell me what happened.”

Eorpwald
sighed and massaged a tense muscle in his shoulder, almost as if to distract
himself.

“I knew it
would fall upon me to explain this to you, if discovered.”

Raedwyn
said nothing. She waited in silence as Eorpwald gathered his thoughts, choosing
his words carefully before continuing.

“I will
tell it plainly for I cannot sweeten the truth with honeyed words,” Eorpwald
began. “I don’t know if you have already drawn your own conclusions but this
has everything to do with Ceolwulf. Father loathed that man with a passion that
will go with him to his grave. He hates him for he once seduced our mother.”

Seeing the
shock, followed by the confusion that clouded Raedwyn’s face, Eorpwald began
his story at the beginning.

  “It was
late summer and you had just had your fourth birthday. Father decided to take
Raegenhere and myself out hunting with his men. We were still boys but father
wanted us to feel the blood lust of the hunt and prepare us for the warriors we
were one day to become. We set out not long after sunrise, but we were only a
few leagues away from Rendlaesham when one of my father’s servants reached us.
His horse foamed at the mouth. He had galloped all the way from the Great Hall.
He approached father and whispered something into his ear. The king’s reaction
was terrible. I’ve never seen father like that – he looked as if he might
collapse. Then he roared like a wounded beast and turned his horse back in a
wild gallop for Rendlaesham. Thinking something terrible had befallen you or
our mother, Eni, Raegenhere and I followed him.

Father was
already pounding up the steps towards the hall when I reached the stable yard.
Although I was thin and small for my age, I could run like a rabbit, faster
than my brother and uncle. I took the steps two at a time and rushed into the
Great Hall ahead of them. I saw father yank back the tapestry to his bower.
Then he froze and so did I. Eni and Raegenhere who were close behind, nearly
collided with me – but all four of us were witness to what lay within that
bower.” Eorpwald paused then, his face pained. “They were naked: mother and
Ceolwulf. They were rutting on the floor.”

Raedwyn
winced at the crudeness of her brother's statement but Eorpwald did not notice.
He took a deep breath, as if forcing himself to continue. “To a boy’s eyes it
appeared he was attacking her, for his torso was covered in scratches and
bite-marks and she was making sounds as if she was in pain. Of course as soon
as I got older I realized the opposite was true.”

“Why
didn’t father kill Ceolwulf?” Raedwyn finally found her voice. She was gripping
the mug of cooling mead so tightly she was surprised it did not crumble in her
hands. She felt ill, and Eorpwald had gone very pale and kept swallowing hard.

“He tried,”
Eorpwald replied simply, before leaning forward and resting his face in his
hands. “It was an ugly scene Raedwyn. You are fortunate you did not bear
witness to it. Your mother had sent you into Rendlaesham to play with your new
puppy. One moment Ceolwulf was rutting, and the next he and father were
fighting on the floor. Mother screamed, jumped into the furs and covered
herself up. Her screams went on and on, echoing throughout the hall in a
terrible wail. She cried that Ceolwulf had forced her and that she had fought
him. Ceolwulf roared at her, calling her a lying whore. He said she had pursued
him like a bitch on heat. Father went mad – he hammered at Ceolwulf with the
intent of killing him. However, The Exiled was a warrior of father’s equal and
he fought to kill. Ceolwulf was ambitious. He wanted Raedwald’s queen and his
place as King of the East Angles.

It was our
father’s rage that won him the fight. He was relentless. Generally, it’s easier
to fight naked for clothes can hamper you, but Raedwald finally gained the
advantage and throttled Ceolwulf until he passed out.

Father
should have slain Ceolwulf then, while he had the chance. Instead, he wanted
vengeance – he wanted Ceolwulf to grovel at his feet and beg forgiveness before
he died. He told his warriors to take Ceolwulf to the market square and truss
him up ready for a public beheading; the king would wield the axe himself.

Father’s
warriors left him to deal with mother and dragged Ceolwulf, unconscious, from
the hall. Unbeknown to father, some of the warriors were loyal to Ceolwulf.
Instead of taking him to the market square as ordered, they slung him over the
back of a horse and galloped from Rendlaesham. They took Ceolwulf’s son and a
small band of men loyal to the ealdorman with them.”

Eorpwald
broke off his tale to take note of his sister’s reaction. Raedwyn was pale and
very still. Her face was taut and her eyes huge, but she was taking it all in.
She would hear more.

“Ignorant
of his warriors’ betrayal, father unleashed his rage on mother. He seemed to
forget that Raegenhere and I were standing witness as he pulled mother up from
the furs by her hair and threw her out of the bower. He was crying as he
shouted at her. He told her to tell him the truth or he would kill her. There
are women who may have become hysterical in such a situation, but it was
mother’s calm head that saved her life that day. I watched her plead and reason
with father. I saw her swear upon Woden and Frigg that she was innocent. She
swore that she had been working at her distaff when Ceolwulf had entered the
hall and dragged her into the bower. She showed him the welts, which would
purple into small bruises over her breasts and arms. She talked and talked
until father’s rage subsided.”