“I’ll go,” offered Aife, who had come out of the hut in turn. “I won’t be long.”
“Thank you.”
Relieved everything was in hand, Haakon brought Gytha inside his hut and straight to the pallet. There she started shaking her head this way and that, moaning.
“I feel odd,” she repeated.
“Yes, I know,” he said, stroking her forehead lightly, removing a strand of hair from her brow. She felt hot to the touch, too hot, and he hated to see her so weak, nothing like her usual brave, bold self. “But it will be better soon, Aife has gone to get Helga, the healer. She will give you what you need to feel better.”
She nodded and closed her eyes.
Feeling at a loss, Haakon went to pour her a drink, and then had one himself. Though there was nothing wrong with him, he, too felt odd. What would he do with Gytha? Should he send her to someone who could look after her, like her friend Eadhild? As soon as the idea crossed his mind, he rejected it. She would stayhere, with him. No one else would take care of her. He brought her the drink he’d prepared, which she emptied in a few gulps.
A moment later the door opened on Aife, followed by Cwenthryth.
“I went to find Helga, as you asked but the hut was empty so I decided to go to Cwenthryth instead,” his friend told him.
Haakon nodded. Though she was a midwife rather than a healer, Steinar’s wife would know what to do better than he did.
“Thank you.”
He and Aife left the hut while Cwenthryth examined Gytha.
“How did it go?” his friend asked cautiously. She would have seen that they had come without the little girl, of course. But perhaps they had found valuable information?
They had not.
“No one has seen Osberga. Worse, no one seems to care,” he told her, running a hand through his hair. “And that Gundulf has to be one of the vilest individuals I’ve ever seen.”
He kept to himself the encounter with the troop of musicians. It was not worth worrying her for nothing. He did not talk about the night in the shepherd’s hut either. That was for him and Gytha only.
“So it was all for nothing.”
Well. No. Precisely because of that night in the shepherd’s shed. He would treasure the memory forever.
“I don’t know how to face Matilda,” he said instead, looking at his feet. “She will be devastated.”
“Yes. Poor woman.” Aife sounded just as devastated. Of course, mother to a daughter herself, she would feel the whole horror of the situation in her gut.
“Thank you for getting Cwenthryth for me. It’s late, go back home your daughter and give her a kiss from me.”
It wasn’t long after Aife’s departure that Cwenthryth joined him.
“How is she?” he asked, more nervous than he had been in a while.
“She’s fallen asleep after taking the willow bark infusion I gave her. We can only let nature run its course and try to make her more comfortable by lowering her body temperature. Don’t cover her too much and bathe her regularly with cool water.”
Haakon nodded slowly. She was assuming Gytha would stay under his roof and he would be capable of tending to her half naked body without going mad with need. Which he would, because that was what she needed. He would just have to forget his doubts and urges.
“I will do whatever needs doing.”
Cwenthryth led him back into the hut to show him the herbs she had brought and explained what he should do with them.
He threw a glance to the pallet, where Gytha was sleeping, looking flushed. Should he send someone to town to tell her father they were back? No, not yet, he decided. It was already nighttime and Elstan would not expect them to be back until the morrow at the very least, so he wouldn’t be worrying. Better to wait and see how Gytha spent the night first. There was little point in telling him his daughter was back, only to add that she was not able to travel anyway.
“All right, I will leave you now, if that’s ok.”
“Of course. Thank you for coming. And, Cwenthryth, before you leave…” Haakon started, doing his best not to reduce the bag of dried herbs he was holding to powder. “There’s something I never told you… That is… I never apologized for what I told you the night Rowena and Thorfinn got married.”
