We went down to the waterside where the boatmen waited, Hrype and Edild walking together ahead, Rollo and I following. They, I guessed, would return to Aelf Fen. Edild had been away from her patients for too long, and, with me absent too, the villagers who’d had the misfortune to fall sick over the past few days would have had to see to themselves. Hrype, I knew, would be anxious about Froya. Even though he must have longed to disappear with Edild somewhere out in the wilds where nobody knew them, it just wasn’t possible.
We asked around and soon found a ferryman who was bound for Ely and then on to Wicken, and he said he was willing to take passengers.
My aunt spoke quietly to me. ‘You’re not coming with us,’ she said.
‘No,’ I agreed.
She smiled, very sweetly. ‘Your sister is very impressed,’ she said, nodding in Rollo’s direction.
I felt myself flush. I just said, ‘Oh.’
Edild gave me a quick, hard hug. ‘Go and enjoy it,’ she whispered.
‘I don’t think Hrype likes him much,’ I said glumly.
‘Hrype thinks a lot better of him than he did at first,’ she countered quickly, ‘and it’s early days yet. There’s no hurry.’
Rollo came to stand beside me, and we watched as Edild and Hrype got into the boat and it slowly pulled away from the shore. ‘Give my love to the family,’ I called, and she waved a hand in acknowledgement.
When they were almost out of sight, Rollo took my hand. ‘Come on.’
I looked up at him. ‘Where are we going?’
He grinned. ‘Does it matter?’
We, too, took a ferry, and ours went just the short distance from Chatteris island to the mainland. There we wandered off into the warm late spring countryside, stopping in a small village to purchase some provisions. Then we walked further into the isolation of quiet fields, woods and little streams, until there was nobody about but us. Then we stopped.
I hadn’t really thought that he would stay.
We had a magical two days together and one even more magical night. We said so many things to each other, told tales out of our pasts, made promises, much as all new lovers do. We exchanged tokens, I giving him a wristband crafted of fine strips of plaited leather that I’d made one dark night in winter; it was not much, for I had little. I fastened it round his wrist, and he touched it as reverently as if it had been encrusted with jewels. He gave me a ring. It was gold, rather heavy, and depicted a serpent with its mouth open devouring its own tail. He said it had belonged to his grandmother, who, like his mother, was a strega.
It was magic, he added nonchalantly.
‘You know I have to go, don’t you?’ he said on our last morning together. He was holding my face between his two hands, staring down at me, his dark-brown eyes intent on mine.
‘Yes,’ I whispered.
‘I have to tell him what we discovered, for he sent me to find out if a rumour was true, and now we know that it was.’
‘Yes,’ I repeated.
‘He needs to know that the man who raised the storm is dead.’
‘Yes.’
‘He will be impressed when I tell him I couldn’t have done it without a simple-looking village healer girl,’ he added. ‘He’ll probably think I’m joking. He likes a joke.’
‘Yes.’
‘Is that all you’re going to say to me?’
‘Yes.’
He paused, his smile deepening. ‘So what if I said let’s make love again? What would you say to that?’
‘Yes.’
Parting from him wasn’t so funny. It wasn’t funny at all.
I went back to Gurdyman’s house, where I now am. I don’t know how much he knows about me and my Norman, as Hrype still insists on calling him, but when I get sad, Gurdyman is kind, and you can’t ask more than that.
I am kept busy, for Gurdyman drives me hard and there is so much to learn. Sometimes I go and visit my family and friends in Aelf Fen, and I shall be going for a longer stay soon. The bad weather is coming, and Edild will need another pair of hands to deal with the sicknesses that invariably follow.
I shall miss Gurdyman, and the twisty-turny house, and my lessons, and the excitement of living in a big, busy, bustling place like Cambridge. But I’ll be back here before too long, and in the meantime it’ll be lovely to be home again. Zarina and Haward’s baby was born back in May, and so far I’ve hardly seen him — his name’s Ailsi — so that’s something to look forward to. There are also my other niece and nephew, my sister Goda’s children, and it’s high time I got to know them better. And my parents will be happy to see me, for I’m sure they miss me.
I know that it doesn’t matter where I am, because, as soon as he can, Rollo will find me. I just wish I knew when that might be.
Maybe I’ll have to ask the runes.