“A Christian devil is too good for you, Merrik,” his wife said, standing toe to toe with him, even though she reached only to his chin.
Suddenly Old Alna cackled. “I think we shouldn’t cook for them anymore. No more porridge from Utta. No more ale. No more roasted boar steaks. What say you, Amma?”
Amma, a strong woman, a large woman, grinned up at her huge husband, Sculla. “What say you, husband? Do you want your belly to shrink just because you’ve been an ass?”
Cleve interrupted in his best diplomat’s low, calm, smooth voice, “We are getting far afield. I will ask the women just one question. Choose from amongst you who will give me your answer.”
“What is the question?” Utta asked.
“Who should Princess Chessa wed?”
The women withdrew, drawing together into a tight circle, speaking, all talking at once, until Mirana held up her hand. “Let us go outside. I do not wish the men to hear this. Doubtless they argued and insulted each other and yelled and carried on, but they will deny it and make us feel like fools when we do the same.”
When all the women had left the longhouse, Rorik clapped Cleve on the back. “That was well done of you.”
“Aye,” Merrik said, grinning like a Viking who’s just plundered a rich town, “what else can they decide? They must decide exactly what we decided. There is no other way to settle things.”
“They are women,” Cleve said. “Women aren’t like men. They don’t think like we do.” He shook his head, sat on the bench, his hands between his legs, and just stared down between his shoes.
The other men drank ale, sharpened their axes, their swords, played with the children, pulled Kerzog’s ears. The three wounded men lay in the corner, watching, but saying nothing. They wondered what would become of Lord Ragnor. All three hoped he would magically drop dead in his tracks before the fool managed to get all of them killed.
“Papa, what’s happening?”
Aglida climbed onto her father’s lap. “Mama isn’t pleased with you, is she? What did you do?”
“Nothing, sweeting. It’s just a thing that happens between men and women. Where is Kiri?”
“She followed Aunt Laren outside with the women.”
“It won’t be good,” Cleve said, shaking his head back and forth. “I was stupid to suggest it.”
“There is nothing else they can decide,” Merrik said.
“What if she doesn’t begin her monthly flow?” Rorik said.
“She could begin it and not tell us,” Hafter said. “I will order Entti to tell me the truth.”
The men stared at Hafter as if he’d grown another head. “You willorderEntti to spy for you?” Rorik said, then he laughed, low, deep laughter, and soon all the men were jesting and laughing and drinking more ale.
The women came back into the longhouse, Mirana at their head. “We have decided what will happen.” Slowly the men rose. They didn’t say anything.
Mirana smiled at her husband. “My lord, we agree that Ragnor, Kerek, and Torric must be returned to York. It’s unfortunate that we can’t kill them since they richly deserve it, but there it is. We’ll return the other three men as well.”
“You see,” Rorik said to Cleve, “I told you there was no other way for them to decide.”
“As to Chessa marrying William. She doesn’t wish to and we agree with her. She wishes to marry Cleve.”
Cleve stared at Mirana, just stared, knowing he was turning pale, knowing that he’d been a fool to ever give the women the chance to add their agreement to the men’s.
He said finally, breaking the thick silence, “I won’t marry the princess. For that reason. She’s a princess. I am nothing, less than nothing.”
“You are the son of the Lord of Kinloch,” Laren said. “That’s what you told us.”
“I don’t even know what this Kinloch is. It could be a bloody rock in the middle of Loch Ness. It could have been overthrown and the Scots could now control it, or the Picts, or the Britons. I could have dreamed it all in my dream. I could have made myself another boy who was captured. It isn’t possible.”
Laren cleared her throat. “Cleve, we know that two times now you have attacked Lord Ragnor when he was hurting Chessa. It is obvious to all of us that you want her.”
“Aye, I want her, she’s a woman and she’s beautiful and I haven’t had a woman in far too many weeks. By Thor’s axe, what does that have to do with anything? I am a man. All men need to have a woman to see to them.”
