Lora drew level with her as they passed through the gate and clattered over a wooden bridge. The road beyond led through the midst of fields filled with winter crops: kale, cabbage, garlic, and onions. Skeleton trees rose like supplicating hands into a pale sky.
“So you know where we’re headed?” Lora asked, her blonde curls bouncing, cheeks flushed with cold.
Osana exhaled sharply, meeting her gaze.
“The only kin who’d have me lives to the north … an aunt in Jedworth.”
Lora’s blue eyes narrowed. “You have no one else?”
Osana shook her head. “My sisters would all turn me away if I went to them.”
Lora’s frown deepened. “God’s bones—why?”
“I’m the eldest of four girls … there was a lot of competition between us growing up … something our parents encouraged. None of my sisters could wed until I did, and they resented me for marrying so well. The rest of them wed thegns, but I ensnared an ealdorman.” Osana did not bother to temper the irony in her voice.
“But surely they won’t still resent you?”
Osana sighed. “None of them came to Raedwulf’s funeral. None sent word to me afterward. No … I will not darken any of their doors.”
“And you’re sure your aunt will welcome you? Jedworth is a long way to travel if you aren’t sure …”
Silence fell between them then, broken only by the rhythmic clump of their horses’ hooves and the caw of a raven sitting in a nearby yew tree.
You will always be welcome at Bebbanburg.
Aldfrith’s voice taunted her. How many times had she thought over his offer in the past months? How often had she dismissed it?
Osana swallowed, wetting her lips. “At Raedwulf’s funeral, the king … made me an offer.”
Lora’s eyes went as big as moons. “What kind of offer?”
The naked suspicion in her friend’s voice made Osana smile. “It’s not like that. Or I don’t think he meant it that way … he saw how isolated I would be in Hagustaldes without Raedwulf. He took pity on me and said that if I wished to reside at Bebbanburg, he would offer me his protection.”
Lora stared at her, stunned. “And you’ve waited till now to tell me?”
Osana sighed. “I’ve not truly contemplated his offer … not till today.” She broke off here, pushing aside a lock of hair that had escaped her braid and kept blowing into her eyes. “What do you think, Lora? Should we make new lives for ourselves in Bebbanburg?”
Lora watched her a moment longer before her cheek dimpled in a smile. “I think you’ll receive a warmer welcome there than in Jedworth.”
Dusk settled early that evening, windy and cold. The two women made camp a furlong from the road, in a hazel thicket.
Lora, who had brought flint and tinder with her, lit a fire in a narrow clearing while Osana went in search of wood. She returned, her arms full, to see that Lora had seen to the horses and was getting their supper ready. Osana squatted next to the fire and fed the tender flames some twigs. The fire was a beacon of warmth in the grey gloaming. The thicket protected them a little from the biting wind, but they would spend the night wrapped in their fur cloaks.
“Edlyn wasn’t generous with her stores, but we’ve enough food to last us the journey to Bebbanburg,” Lora announced, handing Osana a slab of bread with a peeled hard-boiled egg and a wedge of cheese.
Osana favored her with a wry smile in response. “Given how she feels about me, we’re lucky she let us take any food.”
Lora raised a sandy eyebrow. “I’ll not miss that woman. Even before Raedwulf died, she made life difficult.”
Osana swallowed a mouthful of bread. Over the past months, she had learned that Lora too was widowed, although her marriage had been a much happier one than Osana’s. “It must have been hard for you, to go from being a wife to a servant?”
Lora shrugged, but Osana saw the tension on her face.
“I had a good life with Broga. He was a big man with an even bigger heart. We had a hut by the river, and when he was not out fighting for the king, he would fish for eels and trout, and help me tend our garden.”
Lora paused, her gaze turning unfocused, for she was staring back into a past only she could see. “I knew when he marched north with King Ecgfrith that I’d never see him again.”
Osana frowned. “How?”
