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Author's Chapter Notes:
many many thanks to my reviewers
jo, Ariadne, cordykitten, ffyreburned, midnight girl, Dusty and Debbie. you guys rock
i hope you like the next chapter
Morning found a quiet and subdued hall. All were waiting for Faith to recover long enough to be able to tell them what had happened, to sleep off the Poppy juice she’d been given.

Inga and Earic had eaten a fine breakfast polishing off two bowls of porridge each. Their mugs had been filled time and time over with milk from the goats kept in the shed, then they’d been taken outside by Helga to go and help with the goats and cows. They were too young for proper work, not having lost any baby teeth yet, but they enjoyed stroking the gentle nannies and the milk cow was fun to ride.

William had woken early and walked the walls with Xander and Connor when they checked every part of it was secure. He looked every inch the warrior now and wondered if his mother would recognise her bookish son when he returned to Wessex. There was tension in the air: it felt like his brother’s hall, ill at ease, waiting for a battle. They were unsure of whether there had been an attack on Faith’s homestead or if this was personal. If personal, the villains could have followed her here.

‘Who is Faith?’ William asked Connor, ‘she seems important to Buffy and I wouldn’t like to make any mistakes.’

‘As if you would anyway, but Faith is Buffy’s foster sister. They were raised together, learning to manage the hall, and they were close. They fought, in fact their fights were legendary, they’re both so strong: forceful, you know. They could frighten any man who stood against them. No one faced them both though, if they gang up against you, you run. The Caliphates seem about the right distance, and a fast ship is useful as well,’ he laughed.

‘Faith was married, to Bjorn and held a hall about a day and a half from here. They divorced about a year ago, he had taken to drink and had hit her badly; she didn’t accept it and challenged him to treat her properly, with respect. He wouldn’t, so we talked divorce. Me for her family, she’s my cousin on my Mother’s side, he for his. It was announced at the Thing, but he wouldn’t hand over her share of their property, so I took that to the Thing for her, and they ordered him to pay up. He attacked us there so the Thing ordered him out of the house. It was to be hers completely. His mother still lived there though and we knew that would be a problem, and it seems it was.’

‘What, what’s a divorce? And how could the hall be hers if she was married? Surely her husband controls it?’

‘The marriage was no more, the Thing took the children and his lands away from Bjorn, no woman has to put up with being mistreated and he went for her, attacked her while she was under the protection of the Thing, then went for Buffy and for me. He didn’t pay compensation when told to, so was declared Wolf’s Head.’

William looked dumbstruck He had never heard of such a thing before. A marriage being no more? It was a holy union between man and woman, yet another difference between Saxon and Northman and again in the woman’s favour. In his world a woman was the property first of her father then her husband. She had no rights against them at all. A woman didn’t get her freedom until she’d been widowed, and only then sometimes if she’d been allowed her dower house and lands back. His mother still lived with his brother and at his brother’s pleasure. Here a woman had rights inside the marriage? How his mother would like that. She had been raised in Mercia, and had served at The Lady of Mercia’s court before her marriage twenty five years before. His father had been less understanding of intelligent women and his mother had lost so much when she had married.

‘So you are telling me that if a woman doesn’t like the way she’s treated by her husband, she can leave?’ he continued to question his new friends.

‘Well, yes, certainly.’

‘And the children?’

‘Well they normally stay with the father’s family when they are older, but little ones stay with their mother, and Bjorn was such a drunken idiot anyway that he wasn’t trusted, he couldn’t even read!! He’s wolfheaded so we cannot give him shelter, nor help; it got nasty for a while at the Thing and with him refusing to pay up the compensation, he was an idiot. This will mean bloodshed if he’s caught.’


Connor continued to look out beyond the shelter of the wall, into the forest beyond and quietened down, leaving William with his thoughts.

Faith felt like she was floating, and as she came back to her body she could feel pain. Her arm hurt as did her chest and her face, but they didn’t hurt as much as they had.

She looked around her. The side of the shut bed had been left open and she could see the Hall beyond. The smell alone told her she wasn’t at home. There was no stale beer in the air, no rotten meat. Her mother –in-law had been useless at keeping hall, and wouldn’t allow Faith to do her job. She hadn’t had the keys at all. She tried to sit up and make herself a little more comfortable, as well as being able to see where she was. Willow heard the grunt of pain from her patient and popped her head around the corner from where she’d been mixing up some more herbs: willow bark tea for pain relief and to relieve the swelling. She had ice as well in case the arm got too big.

‘Good to see you awake,’ she smiled at Faith.

‘Willow? Is that you? Where are the children?’

‘Yes and the little ones are helping Helga outside with the goats.’

‘I made it to Buffy’s hall?’

‘You did and Connor has sworn protection for you,’ Willow made her way round the bed and helped the woman to sit up. ‘Now you’re to stay there for a couple more hours,’ she instructed Faith.

‘I need to pee.’ Faith tried to get out of bed, struggling to sit up using only one hand.

Willow looked around the hall, and saw Tara, she would need two of them to support Faith as they made their way to the night soil pot. Faith didn’t dare take a deep breath, it hurt too much and she was glad the men were nowhere about.

When she’d finished Willow and Tara helped her back to the shut bed, and sat her on the side of it. They changed the linen sheets and settled her back to bed, to sleep.

‘You can eat when you wake, but you must rest properly. When you do wake Connor would like to talk to you about what happened.’

‘It was Bjorn, his mother had been keeping him, and he came back and tried to take the hall. The bitch had been feeding him and telling him what was happening in the area. She told him that Connor was back and he was talking about taking out your hall. I had to warn you, so I’d harnessed up the sleigh and was going to send one of the servants, but she, Maggie, caught me and she and Bjorn started laying into me. I grabbed the kids and ran.’

She started to fall back to sleep, the medicines and pain and relief at being safe taking their toll, but not before the tears fell onto her cheeks. It had been a harrowing few days for the poor woman.

Inga and Earic came running into the Hall: they were full of stories about the goat and how she was cuddling into them, their childish laughter bringing a smile to all about them. Connor had followed them into the Hall and sat quietly while Faith talked to Willow. He had overheard her telling Willow what had happened and who had attacked her. He had no love for the idiot ex-holder and asked Buffy and Xander to start to scribe down the facts on thin sheets of bark. The runes spelt out the problems Faith had been having and asked the local halls to be careful and keep a watch out.

William looked in surprise, he was used to seeing scribes use pen and ink, but the fact that two members of the hall could scribe fascinated him, even though the symbols were completely different from anything he’d ever seen before, and were being scratched onto wood with knives.

‘Does everyone read and write that language?’

‘What, this?’ Xander asked as he scratched a few more lines on the birch bark.

‘Yes.’

‘Yes, well most of us: these are runes, they are easy to carve into wood, Buffy can show you anytime,’ Xander answered.

He watched Buffy writing away with her knife for a while.

‘What’s so odd William?’ she asked with a smile on her face. ‘I know that look: it’s the one you get when there is a huge difference between this Hall and the one you were raised in.’

‘It’s just I think my mother is the only woman I know who can read, and no woman deals with business.’

‘Well yes, Buffy and Anya deal with all the business while we’re away,’ Xander pointed out, then added cheekily, ‘why have a dog and bark yourself?’, only to be hit on the head by both Anya and Buffy.

He grinned at them and carried on with his carving, careful not to upset either woman again, both of whom were giving him evil stares.

Jon and Andrew were putting easily eaten food on the table and going about their duties quietly and Connor had just relieved Olaf on the wall when the signal horn came in that visitors were approaching. The men in the Hall grabbed weapons and mail and headed to their allotted places on the Pale. William stood at Connor’s shoulder as part of the defence force, the woman taking shelter inside: he hoped. But Connor should have known better.

William looked over the wall to see four men below, all heavily armed and standing with flaming torches. He looked in askance at Connor.

‘It is Bjorn and his men, the ones that wouldn’t leave his side even after the Wolfshead.’ Connor answered the unasked question quietly.

‘We demand entrance!’ Bjorn shouted. ‘You have my wife and children in there!’

Inga and Earic started crying, scared by the sound of their father’s voice. William knew that feeling. He was trying to follow the conversation that was being shouted to and from the ground.

‘We don’t have a wife of yours here and any children are under my protection.’ Connor replied. ‘You were declared Wolfshead, Bjorn: you will find no succour here. Leave now whilst you still have the chance.’

There was swearing from the ground outside the walls, then a flaming arrow was sent over their heads, heading for the thatch covering the roofs of the outbuildings. Anya and Helga looked at the arrow in surprise. It had actually made it over the wall! Someone on the other side was either as good a shot as Buffy or had Loki on their side. They weren’t worried about the roof catching fire though as it was sodden from all the snow. The arrow fizzled out quietly whilst Bjorn kept on shouting.

There was no going back for either side now, but it was more likely to be a slaughter than a fight. The defenders were well protected by the thick walls and they had the advantage of greater numbers and higher ground.

William wasn’t sure what to expect next: a formal challenge perhaps? What he hadn’t expected was Buffy climbing up the steps to the platform armed with a bow and wearing a quiver full of arrows. She handed other bows to the men on the platform; Connor and Xander took one each, but before they had chance to get off a shot Buffy had put a cloth yard of ash through Bjorn’s chest. He was still shouting as he fell to his knees and then face down in the snow, the arrow breaking as he fell. The silence following the death was deafening. No-one spoke for a second or two, then the air was riven with arrows from the defenders, the attackers falling in the snow, dead before they had a chance to attack. Connor looked at Buffy and raised an eyebrow.

‘What?’ she snapped.

‘That,’ he pointed at the body.

‘Your place is on the ships. This hall is mine to defend and protect. Don’t ever forget that.’

‘Yes,’ he answered slowly, ‘but I was standing right here.’

‘I noticed that, and you’re a little slow on the loosening of your arrows, boy. I have better things to do with my time than listen to you and he shout insults at one another for half a day; besides, he was scaring the children.’

Connor started laughing and unstrung his bow. His face then sobered up. ‘You do realise,’ he added, ‘I’m going to have to go to the Thing now.’

‘Ah, what a shame,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Makes a change, you normally try and catch the tide the week before.’

‘Come on, let’s get back in the warm; anyway, I want to go skiing tomorrow.’ Connor led the way down the steps, William following and helping Buffy down. This harsh, warrior-like Buffy scared him a little. But her eyes still glowed when they looked at him. He took a deep breath and lifted her down the last step, taking her bow and quiver from her.

‘What will you do with the bodies?’ He asked quietly, he didn’t want to have her wrath turned on him.

‘Leave ‘em, there are wolves and boar that need feeding. We’ll strip them of anything we can use, it’s too hard to dig a grave and I’m not burning them with precious wood. Anyway, we’ll need proof we got them, there’ll be money in that.’ She answered with no trace of emotion in her voice.

Xander, Connor and Olaf went out to confirm that they were dead, so that they could bear witness later at the Thing. Andrew and Jon were then sent to drag the naked bodies further into the woods to stop bears and wolves sniffing around the hall. Faith looked up from where she was sitting with her arms around her children.

‘What happened?’

‘Nothing to worry about, we were just making sure your former husband will no longer be an inconvenience to you. The old bear is now wolf meat.’

The whole hall burst out laughing at the pun and Faith joined in. She felt the weight of the world lift off her shoulders. Her children were safe. William wondered what was so funny.

‘Wolf meat: Bjorn means bear, so the bear is wolf meat.’

He still looked confused. ‘Perhaps you have to be Norse to understand,’ Buffy smiled at him.





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