A midwife.
As the word crossed her mind, a thought suddenly struck her. What if…?
Eahlswith tightened her hold on the little girl asleep in her arms. If Sven’s seed had taken root in her womb that second night in her bed, she would be even now?—
No. She refused to think of the possibility. Refused to hope that their night of ill-advised passion would have consequences. Refused to?—
“Excuse me. Can I have a word?”
Jolted out of her thoughts, Eahlswith came to an abrupt halt. Freydis was standing by the well, looking at her expectantly. Cwenthryth, having realized that this time, the woman didn’t mean to talk to her, reached out to her daughter. Then she nodded and veered toward her parents-in-law’s hut without a word, leaving the two women alone.
Eahlswith waited.
“Forgive me, I just wanted to tell you…” Freydis swallowed and started, her speech halted. “To tell you that Sven came to see me today and he explained everything. He was furious at me for going to find him in his bed but it wasn’t the first time I had done that, you see, and he had always quite liked the surprise… I didn’t know that this time he would not… I thought he would b-be available for—” By now she was stammering dreadfully and unable to finish a single sentence. “I guess I’m trying to say I’m sorry. I had no idea he was involved with someone else.”
Eahlswith didn’t know whether to be angry, horrified or simply incredulous. Sven had told the woman they were a couple? How dare he, when she had made her opinion clear and asked for more time?
“He told you the two of us were involved?”
“No. Not in so many words. But I saw how he reacted when you saw us and thought… what you thought.” Freydis shook her head. “He was horrified because he feared you would neverforgive him for betraying you. He would never have reacted that way if you meant nothing to him. I’m sure he already told you as much, but I swear nothing happened. And I’m the only one responsible for the mishap. I slipped into his hut, thinking I could just slip into his bed uninvited , even after all this time. Silly of me, I know.”
No, not so silly. Eahlswith had tried to do exactly the same.
“He did tell me you had taken him unawares,” she eventually said, though it was hard to talk past the ball lodged in her throat. Another woman might have thought it a convenient story, but she had believed him. She now congratulated herself for it because she had the proof that he’d been telling the truth. But how could she have doubted him when there had been such sincerity in his voice, in his eyes?
“Well, anyway, I came here to say that I will not stand in your way.” As if to illustrate the point. Freydis took a step back and shook her head again. She seemed full of regret at her behavior. “Take care of Sven. He’s a good man. I was a fool for leaving when he wanted me and go after a dream that only brought me disillusion because now he doesn’t want me anymore. He wants you and I see what I have lost.”
Dumbfounded, Eahlswith watched the woman walk away. It was safe to say that this conversation had taken her completely by surprise. And the more she thought about it, the more she found herself feeling sorry for the Norsewoman. Her only crime had been to want a man any woman would want.
Eahlswith took in a deep inhale. Would she one day reflect back on this period of her life and think, like Freydis, that she had been a fool for leaving a man who wanted her, and this to chase something that only brought her disillusion?
She could only hope not.
13
“Good morning, Sven.”
Sven bit back a groan of relief when Eahlswith’s voice reached him from the corner of the smoke house. Busy filleting fish, he hadn’t seen or heard her draw near. But it seemed that she had finally decided to come to see him. It had been two days since she had walked in on Freydis exiting his hut and they had not met once. She’d been helping Cwenthryth with the children, of course, but he guessed that she wouldn’t have made any effort to see him. Well, she was here now, and he wouldn’t let her go until they had spent at least a moment together.
He turned around and saw her standing by the door in her fur-trimmed cloak. She wasn’t carrying any basket, wood, buckets or anything. Why was she here? Had she come to get smoked meat for their meal and thought she might as well say hello when she’d seen she could not avoid him or had she come specifically to speak to him? It mattered not. Now that she was here, he would make sure they did speak.
“Eahlswith, good morning. Do you have a moment?”
“I… Yes. I-I suppose I do.”
“Let me just put the fish into the smoke room and I’m all yours,” he said, already lifting the wooden sticks over which the fillets were draped. His mind was no longer on the task at hand, however, and he placed the sticks rather more haphazardly than he usually liked to. No problem. There would be other fish, but he didn’t want Eahlswith to disappear if he took too long, as she was wont to do.
To his relief, she was still here when he exited the door again.
“Come. I need to wash my hands.”
She followed as he led the way to the river. It was one of those rare sunny winter days, crisp with cold and glittering with ice, beautiful and pure. On such a day it was easy to believe that everything would be all right. He dipped his hands into the water, relishing the bite of cold, and straightened back up. When Eahlswith looked up at him expectantly, he realized that he didn’t know what to say to her. He’d only wanted to secure a moment with her.
Then, as if to help smooth over the awkwardness, Torsten and his wife appeared on the other side of the bridge. His brother was holding their newborn daughter in the crook of his left arm and his right was wrapped around Aife’s waist. Though the two of them had been married for over a year now, seeing his brother with their childhood friend and their baby was still something of a novelty for Sven, one he wasn’t sure how to handle. Perhaps because it hammered the point home that he was now the only one of his siblings without a family.
“Good afternoon,” Aife said, looking at Eahlswith as if expecting an introduction. When none came she added, “forgive me, but you look familiar. Have we met?”
“I don’t think so,” Eahlswith replied, smiling at the baby, who was yawning in the most adorable manner. “But I have been in the village for a few days, helping my friend Cwenthryth, which might explain you having seen me?”
