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Author's Chapter Notes:
The amazing banner is by Ariadne. Many many thanks, its wonderful
many thanks as always to my wonderful reviewers.cordykitten, I'm bloody english, dusty and spacelord, gdo, darkrivertempest, djonie, midnight girl, and mrs P. they mean a lot and make my day.


History lesson. The word Pink did not appear in english until the late 17th early 18 century. the colour was named for the flower:)
William knew he was alive. He had to be: if he were dead his head wouldn’t hurt quite so much. It felt like someone was driving nails into it and they weren’t doing it gently either; they must be using an enormous hammer. The sun through the open door of the booth burnt his eyes and every small noise echoed through his skull. Connor looked no better. They had staggered home late into the night and collapsed onto the benches, pulling their cloaks around them and slept the sleep of the truly drunk. But it had been worth it. They had talked all night and he had been treated well, not as an equal, that wasn’t to be expected, but his poetry had been cheered and his singing toasted with the horn that had gone round. Leif and Skapti had really enjoyed him speaking part of Beowulf, in fact they had asked for the next part at the feast the following night. William had spent one of the most enjoyable nights he’d ever had, except the ones he spent with Buffy of course, in the company of men who were supposed to be his enemies. However, this morning William knew even moving was a mistake.

Buffy looked at both Connor and William. They looked dreadful, their eyes were rimmed in red and their skin was white. William was actually shaking. If he’d been in a monastery for a few years and then with her people, she supposed that it was the first time he’d drunk his fill in quite a long time. He would be suffering, but they would have to be up shortly as the Thing was due to start at noon, and Connor was supposed to be there to speak. She made pine needle tea for them both and left it to steep as she looked for the breakfast Xander had prepared. Two plates of food were being kept warm by the low fire.

Picking them up she noticed that William’s eyes were on her; she gave a half smile and showed him the food. William took one look at the bacon and eggs that were on the plate and ran for the door. Just the smell made him feel unwell and anyway he needed the midden.

Buffy made her way over to where Connor was still asleep and gently shook his shoulder.

‘Connor, time to wake up,’ she spoke quietly. Although a part of her playful nature wanted to make a loud noise, she would not be so bad mannered as to disturb the Thing, or show up Connor in front of the other man gathered.

‘Evil step mother…’

‘Well my Lord Connor, you have a meeting to attend to, and I thought you might like to actually eat before you went before the Thing.’ She presented him with a plate of bacon with eggs and he looked at it suspiciously.

‘Did you cook? Am I being poisoned?’ But he accepted both that and the tea gladly.

‘No you’re not being poisoned, and Xander cooked. Now hurry up, we left you for as long as we could.’

William came back into the booth and smiled at Buffy, at least it was meant to be a smile, but with his head still hurting it was more of a grimace. He also accepted the plate and mug from Buffy, sipping warily at the unfamiliar tea. It tasted fresh and helped clear his head and mouth.

Faith watched quietly as both men dressed. She would have to attend with them, but that would be later. The business for today was minor land arguments and petty stuff. It allowed latecomers to still hear the important decisions. The main business would start in the morning.

Connor strapped on his sword and picked up his cloak. William wrapped his cloak around him and gratefully drank the tea that Buffy had brought him. He grabbed the bacon in bread that was waiting and he and Connor headed across the grounds towards the area that had been set aside. Skapti, Hafdan and Leif were also cursing the sun this morning. They, too, had swords strapped to their hips. And they greeted Connor and William as they walked towards where all the men were gathered.

Xander and Olaf were walking up from the direction of the market, having had a look around. Their arms were full of pale red linen. Their smiles were wide as they showed off their purchases to Connor. They had broken their fast just after sun-up and had hurried off to look around the opening market before they collected the hungover souls and headed off for the Thing.

‘Pale red,’ William asked. ‘It’s a colour my mother would wear.’

‘I’d hate to face your mother then, it’s a warrior’s colour, blue for girls and red for boys,’ Xander explained. ‘We got this before Buffy and the others got to the merchant’s stall and cleaned him out. He’s got some wonderful English woollens as well. I bet Buffy and the girls will find them soon enough,’ he added laughing.

Olaf took the linen off of Xander and made his way back to the booth. He had been volunteered to escort the ladies around the market. It took a brave man to carry the purse for Buffy, but he was up to the job. He did feel that it was a slight punishment for not having a hangover, but as purse carrier at least he could stay armed.


Connor and his men made their way into a large open clearing. It was a huge space, semi circular in shape with a stone big enough for three men to stand on comfortably set in the centre of the straight side. The crowd was gathering already, men from all over, maybe a hundred or so of them, all armed and all talking at once. They looked dangerous. William was no coward but he made sure that he stayed close to Connor.

Skapti hopped up onto a stone that was about knee high and signalled the horn blowers to call the Thing to order. All the men turned to face him and when the noise settled he started to speak.

‘I call this Thing to order:
‘All are under the peace of the Thing.
‘If a man argues with another it shall be as if he hit the man,
‘If he hits a man, it shall be as if he struck him;
‘If he strikes a man it shall be as if he cut a man,
‘If he causes blood to flow it should be as if he seriously injured him.
‘If he injures him it shall be as if he killed a man,
‘And if a man kills another it shall be counted as murder and he will be dealt with accordingly.

‘Peace knot your swords.’ He ordered.

Connor and Xander, in fact all the men tied cords around the hilt of their swords, tying them securely into their scabbards. Leif and Hafdan then joined Skapti on the speaking stone and looked around.

‘First to speak?’ Leif asked. A man stepped forward.

‘I wish to speak,’ he called.

‘We will hear Thorbjorn of Snelsetter talk.’

‘I have a problem with my neighbour Sven.’ He shot a dark look at another man who shot an equally black look back.

‘Five cows have gone missing, and I know they are on his farm, I have seen them, and he refuses to give them back.’

‘And what do you say Sven?’ Skapti asked.

‘They are my cows, I bought them from him last summer and paid for them with good silver.’

‘No you didn’t! There was no agreement to sell, no agreement to buy and no silver changed hands!’

‘I gave Hal, your man, 6 silver pennies for those cows, good milk cows in calf.’

‘I didn’t get anything, no silver, nothing and I wouldn’t have sold those cows anyway. They were my best.’

William leaned towards Connor. ‘Do you not have a kings witness who oversees such agreements?’

‘What’s one of those?’ Connor asked, keeping his voice low so he didn’t disturb the people around him.

‘A man who witnesses all agreements so there are no arguments. Otherwise how do you know which man is in the right?’

‘The strongest one, or the one who argues his case the best will win.’ Connor explained. ‘We have no place for fools who can’t argue their own case, or lose the support of their own men. And these two always find something to argue about, last year it was the ownership of some woodland, this year it’s cows, who knows what they’ll invent for next year?’

‘Why do you listen to them, then?’

‘Because it ensures they don’t come to blows: they are related to powerful families, and if they dragged their kin into the battle, we’d have bloodshed and war.’

‘Skapti controls them,’ Xander added. ‘He will bargain with them and give one man or the other what he wants. He speaks the law. For the last three years Sven has been shown to be a liar. His words are holding less and less weight. And the trick of making his man do the deal so that he can deny it is an old one.’

It wasn’t long before William watched as Sven’s words were pulled to pieces by Thorbjorn. And the matter was decided in favour of the man from Snelsetter.

William watched with fascination as case after case was heard. The men were intelligent and quick witted, and big. It suddenly struck him how tall the men around him were. At near 5 foot 9 he had been thought tall by his people, but these Norsemen all towered over him. It hadn’t occurred to him before, but here he was short.

There was a noise and disturbance to one side and a small dirty-looking woman shoved her way to the front. ‘I would speak next!’ her nasally voice sounded harsh and coarse to William’s ears.

‘Maggie of the Welsh, we know of your case,’ Skapti started, ‘and we will hear it tomorrow, when all Thing members are here.’

‘All the important ones are here now, and I demand to be heard.’


‘Maggie, have you family with you, to talk for you?’

‘I have family,’ she glared at some people standing over to one side, ‘but they’re all cowards and idiots.’

William looked over at the group she’d pointed out. They seemed embarrassed by the attention and there weren’t as many of them as there were in Connor’s party. Connor’s seemed better armed and armoured, their clothes seemed richer and better made. It was obvious where the power was held.

‘And what’s he doing here,’ she continued her rant, ‘he’s a stranger to us all, and a slave, he carries no blade.’

Connor spoke up ‘This is William of Wessex, he stays at my hall until his ransom is paid, and he’s here because he helped man the pale the day your son came calling.’

At that Maggie started howling and wailing.

‘My baby boy, you murdered my baby boy!’’ One of the men from the group she had pointed to came across and tried to talk to her.

‘Come on Maggie, you know the truth of it, leave this be.’

‘Gram you are a coward now and you always will be, if we don’t fight for our rights, who will?’ she said, shaking off the hand on her arm.


‘Murder is a serious charge Maggie, are you sure that’s what you want to call it?’ Skapti asked.

‘Yes I do. They killed him with no warning, he only went to see his children!’

‘Is that so Connor?’ Skapti asked, but the smile on his face told William that he was just going through the formalities of the Thing.

‘Well he turned up, at night with no warning, and tried to set fire to my hall. Then we realised who it was. Bjorn, who had been declared wolf’s head last year. He was disturbing the peace of my hall, so after he sent an arrow to us, we shot him and his men. We stripped the bodies and brought the proof to the Thing.’

‘That seems fair to me. Is there any that would speak against Connor’s actions?’

No one spoke up, in fact looking around the men gathered, all William could see were smiles and grins.

‘Will no one speak for my son?’ Maggie yelled. ‘Well if you won’t I will,’ she grabbed her eating knife and lunged at Connor. William was the closer and put himself between the wildly swinging knife and Connor.

Maggie looked mad, completely insane: she lunged again, cutting William above the left eye. Xander managed to grab her arm and twisted it, making Maggie release the knife.

Leif and Hafdan leapt down from the stone and men were running towards them. William couldn’t see properly, the blood was dripping into his eye, blinding him on that side. He felt someone pull him back from the action and guide him towards the stone, making him sit down.

He tried to look around, glimpsing shapes through the red haze. He could just make out Xander kneeling on Maggie’s back, holding both her arms behind her. Leif signalled a couple of his own guards to take the woman and bind her: they were far from gentle. When she started wailing again it was obvious that her mind was completely gone. She sounded like a wounded animal.

‘She will never survive on her own,’ the jarl said quietly, ‘but she has broken the peace of the Thing and must be dealt with. The family will have to pay were-geld.’

Maggie’s family were running around, desperate to distance themselves from her actions. Her stupidity could cause them all to be outlawed and her cousin was terrified. He should have killed the stupid bitch years ago, he thought ruefully.

The man, Gram, made his way over towards Connor. Xander came over to William and was attending to his cut. The blood flow was slowing, but it looked like the man would carry a scar for the rest of his life. Scarred at the Thing: it would be a high were-geld, if they were allowed to pay. Gods, he hoped so. Gram held his hands open and clear of his body, showing that he meant no harm.

‘We will deal with her…’

‘Yes you will,’ growled Leif and Skapti together. Skapti stood again as Lawspeaker.

‘Your family have broken the peace of the Thing, and you will pay. There will be were-geld to Connor for the harm that came to a man of his hall; you WILL take that woman far away from here. I will set the were geld at 5 golden marks, which will be paid to Connor and next year you will give half a tithe of your excess to Jarl Leif, and that’s over and above your normal tithe for breaking the peace of the Thing. And you had better show friendship to Connor’s Hall. He took in Faith, his cousin and her children and protected them against those who were wolf’s head. Friendship and goodwill would go quite a way towards wiping out the stain on your family.’

Gram looked shaken, it was a huge fine, but his family were in many ways lucky. They were not being outlawed, they were not being denied the protection of their Lord, they were being allowed to make amends. The threat of what would happen if there were to be another incident was left unspoken, but Gram wasn’t stupid.

Faith and Buffy were in the market looking at the spice stall when the first rumours hit that there had been blood spilt at the Thing. Rumour also had it that someone from Connor’s hall had been killed. Buffy went white: she dropped the cinnamon she had been looking at and turned and ran towards the meeting ground, her feet flying over the mud and stones. Faith followed quickly behind; Helga followed at a more sedate pace, but was as worried as the two women in front of her. She had ensured that the servants they had taken shopping with them would collect all their purchases and get them back to the booth. Olaf followed on making sure that all their money and goods were safe.

The sight that greeted them was reasonable calm. Buffy and Faith hurried over to Connor and William, they were talking quietly with Leif. Faith gasped when she saw Maggie tied and held captive by the Jarl’s guards but she was more worried about her blood kin. Xander looked unharmed, angry but all right. Connor was standing with his back to her, but when William looked up she saw the blood on his face and Buffy felt the tears well up.

She knelt at his feet, looking up into his wonderful blue eyes. Her fingers reached out and traced the rest of his face from his soft curls to the chiselled chin. Then she reached out gently and brushed her finger against the cut. It was deep and through his eyebrow; the blood marred his face but the cut would heal. Buffy wrapped her arms around William and held on tight. Hafdan and Robin both turned away. Any dreams they had of having Buffy for their own were over, killed by the way she looked at the Saxon. William buried his head in her hair and breathed in the scent. It calmed him quicker than any drug.





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