The Earl of Mercia

by M J Porter

  “The king has many enemies,” Estrid said, reproach in her voice. “Even in my damn fucking bed.” She sounded angry, if not angrier than Cnut and Leofric was unsurprised. It seemed that she’d truly been sleeping with the enemy.

  “I’m sorry my lady,” he offered formally but she shook her head, denying the tears that had appeared at the corner of her eyes. How had he not known about this?

  She lapsed into silence and Leofric allowed her the time she needed to compose herself. Was this just something else that Godwine had failed to share with the Witan in England or had the king kept it to himself? Was it possible that there was even more strife in Denmark than he would at first thought?

  “You’re a good man,” she said, long moments later when her eyes were clear from her grief. “Cnut will reward you, remember that,” and she too stood and walked away from him, no doubt to think about her own personal grief.

  Leofric stayed where he was, even when tiredness swamped him, and he slept there, in the middle of the hall, searching for an oblivion he doubted he’d find.

  Chapter 18

  AD1028

  Hedeby

  It was during the evening feast that Cnut took the time to speak to him in confidence. He’d slept the afternoon away and woken groggily with a small child asleep in his lap. It had reminded him so much of his son’s childhood, when he’d rested best with the heat and weight of his small son in his lap, that he’d stayed silent until the child woke and slid from him without so much of a thank you.

  He’d smirked and then realized that he was no longer alone and that the hall was a seething mass of men and women, servants and food, and more, Cnut was back beside him, while Estrid spoke to two young boys he assumed were her sons.

  The melancholy of earlier seemed to have disappeared and Estrid was smiling sweetly while Cnut grinned at him.

  “Sleepyhead,” Cnut muttered without rancor as Leofric struggled to sit upright, apologies already half on his tongue. Cnut waved him back down.

  “Sleep should be taken when you can get it. Sea voyages can be taxing on those unused to them. I wished to apologize for earlier and for what’s happened to your friend. I should have acted with more thought two years ago and realized that Olaf and Anund Jakob would set a trap. It all seemed too easy at the time, and it was. But I would speak to you of England,” Cnut said hurriedly before Leofric could interrupt.

  “You must see that I’m surrounded by enemies everywhere, that everyone wants me to fail in my efforts to rebuild by father’s empire.” Again, Cnut carried on speaking without leaving any room for Leofric to agree or not. “I realized this when I left England, and before I went I spoke to the Lady Ælfgifu. You know, as I do, that I have three sons, not just the one, and I fear I’ll need to use all of my children to keep my kingdoms peaceful.”

  Leofric listened to the words with surprise. Although Ælfgifu had assured him that she’d spoken with the king’s words, he’d not believed her. Perhaps he should have been more open-minded.

  “I asked Ælfgifu to do something that was almost impossible, and I realize that once more, I relied on your family when perhaps I shouldn’t have done. I asked her to speak with you, I was sure that you’d be able to help her. I wondered, did she speak with you? Does the Queen know what’s happening?”

  Uneasy, Leofric considered his best response, and in the end he decided the truth was better. What more could the king do to his family? He’d ignored them for this long, if he realized that he’d doubted Ælfgifu’s words and decided to punish him because of it, there was little more that he could do. He could take away his sheriff’s position if he wanted to, but he didn’t so much rely on that for wealth as for prestige. Without the backing of the king, prestige would mean nothing unless he decided to meddle in the affairs of the kingdom, and right now, he was so tired of the intrigue that he doubted he’d be roused to do so.

  “Lady Ælfgifu acted quickly on your words, and visited my wife. I confess, I was surprised by her words and was less than forthcoming with pledging my allegiance to her. I feared that it was some trick, my apologies my lord,” he met the king’s eyes and instead of censure he saw something like respect.

  “You doubted the words of my first wife? You doubted that I’d commanded her to act as she was?”

  “I did my lord, after all, you’d made no mention of it to me, and I’d only recently seen you. I thought it was a test of my loyalty to you and Harthacnut.”

  “I understand,” Cnut said, nodding slowly and running his hand over his beard and moustache. “I appreciate your honesty and your loyalty,” he half joked, clearly worried that his careful plans had gone even more awry than he’d thought.

  “The Lady Ælfgifu didn’t take my words as any sort of discouragement. In fact, even now she has allies throughout Mercia and within Northumbria. I’m fearful that she might have been too good at the task you assigned her.”

  Cnut stilled at the words, his hand sliding downwards to rest in his lap as he considered what he was being told.

  “What of Earl Godwine?”

  “He stands firmly as Emma’s ally. He’s made a special friend of Harthacnut.” Leofric was pleased that the question was an innocent one that he could answer in good conscious, although Cnut still looked unhappy.

  “So, I think you’re trying to tell me that when I return to England, it might be just as divided as my other realms?” he asked, his voice angry once more.

  “It’s possible, although, well, the Queen still has Harthacnut at her side and he’s well liked by the Danes within England.”

  “And what of my other boys?”

  “They, to be honest My Lord, what I’ve seen of them tells me that they could do with your guidance. They’re rough and entitled. They could do with a godfather such as you had.”

  Cnut’s eyes were distant as he gazed into the fire, seeing Leofric knew not what. There was a hive of activity around them all and yet it was as though he and Cnut sat alone. No one tried to interrupt and no one tried to intervene. They’d been offered food and drink when he’d first woken but now they were alone, and yet surrounded by people.

  “Fuck,” Cnut finally said, although his voice was soft and anguished. “I’ve cocked everything up,” he sighed and Leofric, unsure what to say, because at heart he agreed, stayed silent. He’d not even mentioned Godwine’s treachery, although he’d hinted at it, but he doubted that Cnut would be able to absorb any more information that was so detrimental to his cause.

  “Leofric, I’ve asked too much of you already, and I’ve been less than straight forward in my expectations of you. I wanted. I don’t know. I wanted Ælfgifu to have an ally, someone to trust in the event of .. anything happening to me. I should have told you of my wishes and then none of this would have escalated as much as it has. Neither have I finished with my demands on you. I promise to search for Orkning when I travel to Norway, but first I must take my daughter to the border with Germany. And in the meantime, I need you to return to England, do all you can to rein Ælfgifu in. Tell her I don’t want an uprising against my kingship, and that I’ll adhere to my promises to her. Tell her… fuck, tell her I’m sorry and that I’ll do all I can to make it up to her, if she just gives me the time I need.”

  “I will try My Lord. Shall I speak to the House of Bamburgh? To the people of York?”

  “No,” Cnut shook his head. “No, we can’t undermine her. That’ll make her weak in the eyes of the men she’s spoken to. No, you must try and moderate her, have her consider her actions.” Leofric thought it pointless to say that he’d already done so, and merely nodded. He could feel himself being dragged further into the king’s problems against his will, but if it meant he got Orkning back, then he was prepared to take the risk.

  “And the queen?” he pressed, hoping that Cnut wouldn’t want him to speak with her as well.

  “Speak with the Lady Ælfgifu, not the queen, unless the queen specifically seeks you out. Believe it or not, Ælfgifu is the easier of th
e two to reason with.” Cnut spoke ruefully, and Leofric would have liked to ask him about his two wives, but thought it was inappropriate. He and the king had never had that sort of close relationship.

  “I will my lord, and my own apologies for failing you in this.”

  “Ah, you did nothing wrong. I should be grateful to you for your loyalty. It seems there are precious few other men and women I can rely on in such matters. Tell Queen Emma that I’ll return soon, when I have my victory, and that she must prepare Harthacnut to return to Denmark. I’ll send for him when I can. Ensure she knows that this is my express wish and it’s not to be denied. Tell her that I love her as well, and that I’ll be home soon, and thank her for all she does and for her raising of our daughter and son in my absence. Assure her that I’ll be escorting Gunnhilda to the Emperor, and that she has nothing to fear from the marriage, nothing at all. It won’t take place for many years yet, but Gunnhilda will learn the ways of her husband’s people while she’s still a child.”

  Leofric listened carefully, surprised to hear tenderness in his voice despite the comments he’d just made. He’d not mentioned love when he spoke of his first wife. Perhaps after all it had been the second marriage that had been for love, not the first. Maybe Ælfgifu had been his marriage for political means.

  Or perhaps it was merely that he knew that Emma would need to hear such words. Her first marriage had been filled with little love, and much conflict. Leofric knew that for her second marriage she’d expected the same but it wasn’t what she’d received. He stored the information away. One day it might prove useful.

  Long into the night he sat by his king, watching his keen eyes as he tried to weave a path forward that would enable him to gain all that he wanted to, and to do it by only relying on people that he trusted. Leofric was struck by just how young his king was and how much he’d accomplished in such a short space of time. He’d been fighting since he was a child, first in his father’s household troops and then in Thorkell’s. For only brief periods of time had he known anything like peace, and yet it was precisely that peace that Leofric had been so bored with in England.

  Leofric could only assume that the next few months and years would be anything but dull, and that he’d have a great deal to accomplish in order to keep on the good side of his king. He’s been forgiven for his distrust of Ælfgifu on this occasion, but he doubted he’d be treated so leniently in the future. He desperately needed to determine just what it was his king wanted him to do, before he wanted him to do it.

  It was a skill his father had always possessed, and one he wished he had as well.

  Chapter 19

  AD1028

  Northampton

  Lady Ælfgifu watched him with her usual haughty air, despite his words of apology and attempts to reconcile. Leofric, keen to make amends for his mistreatment of her in the king’s absence had decided to seek her out as soon as he returned from Denmark. Yet he was quickly being reminded of why he’d struggled to follow her logic the first time she’d approached him with her husband’s words.

  She was simply too consumed with herself, too full of her own self-worth and it seemed that her sons shared her preoccupation. Not only had she not heeded his words the last time they’d met, despite thinking that she might, it also seemed that she’d taken it even further, her efforts to out-do her husband’s second wife ensuring that the rift he’d foreseen was becoming almost a reality.

  Leofric thought that she could still pull back her demands on the men and women of Northumbria and Mercia, but he was equally convinced that Ælfgifu had no intention of doing so, despite her husband’s words.

  Leofric felt impatient and out of sorts. Perhaps he should have gone to the queen first after all, and left Ælfgifu to her own ways. It would certainly be better than if news of his meeting with her became common knowledge and certainly far better than Emma finding out.

  The king had made it very clear to him that it was Lady Ælfgifu who needed to stop her allies from acting irrationally and without due consideration, but it seemed she was unwilling to even contemplate asking them to stop their hard work.

  He thought back over the history of their brief conversation and wondered if he should have adopted a different strategy with her. Perhaps he shouldn’t have apologized.

  “My lady,” he’d said, as soon as she’d turned to speak with him. Once more she’d taken herself away to a quiet place when she’d realized he was there to speak to her, clearly fearing that they’d be overheard.

  “Sheriff Leofric,” had been her cool response, and yet he’d also sensed a need in her to hear how her husband fared.

  “I’ve been to Denmark,” he’d said, “for personal reasons but also to take the Lady Gunnhilda to her father.”

  “I hear she’s to be married to the Emperor’s son,” had been her acerbic response and Leofric had thought he’d heard reproach in her voice. Had she expected him to inform her of the development? If so, he’d failed because only two days later he’d been on his way to Denmark and had given little or no thought to how Lady Ælfgifu might have felt about the news, if he’d bothered to inform her.

  “She is yes, and her father is to escort her to the Emperor’s lands.”

  “So the little girl gets to see her father, but not his sons?” she’d pounced on him and he’d found himself wondering how the beginning of the conversation had gone so very wrong.

  “I spoke with Cnut,” Leofric had thought to interject hoping to cut off her tirade, but all he’d done was make it worse.

  “So even the little sheriff gets to speak to the great king, but not his poor, abandoned wife?” Her words had been spat angrily from her tight mouth and Leofric had spared a thought for his king. Cnut had said that Ælfgifu was the more reasonable of the two women. He didn’t see it himself, but then, he’d not angered Emma. Not yet.

  “My lady,” Leofric had tried to interrupt, but he’d noticed hot tears spilling from her eyes, and from there everything that he’d done to try and sooth her had simply made her angrier.

  “I spoke with the king, about your ambitions for your sons and I fear I must offer you an apology.”

  “Oh, so now that my husband,” and she stressed those two words, “has confirmed that I speak the truth you’ve come to grovel before me and ask for my forgiveness, have you? Well you shan’t get it,” she’d continued and Leofric had watched her in amazement.

  Her face had flushed and she’d sputtered so vehemently when she spoke that he’d seen pieces of spittle flowing from her mouth. She’d seemed neither rational nor reasonable and he’d wondered what had happened in his absence. He’d been gone from England for no more than two weeks but he’d had to assume that something had upset the careful balance she’d been toying with. That it was probably something to do with Earl Godwine had stayed his hand because he’d been powerless to act until Ælfgifu had calmed down enough to speak to him about it.

  He’d berated himself. He’d thought she be pleased to hear that he’d spoken to the king, but that just seemed to make her even more antagonistic.

  He’d decided that silence might be the best solution to his problem, and had stood and waited patiently. He’d been hopeful that given a small amount of time, she’d realize how unreasonable she was being, and that she’d have to accept his offer of remorse.

  “What exactly did the king say to you,” she’d muttered after a long time had passed in which Leofric had looked anywhere but at her and her angry and tormented face.

  “He informed me of his intentions and asked me to return to England, assure you of his affection for you, and ask you to consider the fact that he’ll soon return to England and will seek you out then.”

  Her eyes had been narrowed slits as he’d spoken, little of the true colour showing but the black rage that seemed to pulse at their center.

  “So he essentially wants me to stop what I’m doing and wait for him to finally fulfill his promises to his sons. He wants me to stop playing at kings, does
he?”

  Leofric had thought he’d phrased his request far more politely than that, but then, Cnut and she had been married and she’d of course know her husband well, even if they’d spent little time together for the last decade. She had, after all, been his queen the last time he’d been trying to claim a kingdom through conquest and not inheritance.

  “The king is keen for his sons to have allies,” he’d tried again, cursing the king for putting him in such a tricky situation and wishing that he’d actually listened to what the king was asking him to do rather than simply heard it. That way he might have been able to say no to his request to speak on his behalf, and he wouldn’t have had a snarling woman trying to flay him alive just with her tongue.

  “Yet, the bloody Earl Godwine has been here telling me exactly the opposite. Telling me that the king is unhappy with me and that he wishes to punish me but that for now he’ll be content if I force all my followers to support Harthacnut instead. What am I to believe Sheriff Leofric?” she’d spoke angrily still, her flushed face turning even redder as she spoken what had truly been plaguing her.

  “On whose authority did Earl Godwine speak to you?” Leofric had asked, feeling his own anger rising, but not with Ælfgifu, rather with Godwine and his meddlesome ways.

  “He said he’d received instructions from the king?”

  “How would he have done so?” Leofric had pressed. “I’ve been to visit with the king, Godwine hasn’t. Whose word do you think you should believe?”

  He been outraged that Godwine had managed to turn affairs so much to his advantage. He’d passed on his duties toward the Lady Gunnhilda to himself, and in his absence, it seemed that he’d sought out the Lady Ælfgifu and told her to behave herself. Just whom did he think he was serving with his actions, because it certainly wasn’t the king.