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The Thing had been dismissed for the day and Gram had taken Maggie away in fetters. The family were still terrified that action would be taken against them, and were trying to get the gold together to pay the blood price. 5 gold marks. Profit for a whole year: they weren’t as wealthy or successful as Connor’s hall and it would bite deep into their savings. Five marks of gold, or sixty marks of silver, that was the equivalent of six pounds of silver in weight, nearly the same a the ransom for a nobleman.

Connor looked at William. The saxon had become more than a hostage in the five months he had been with them, and now he earned his ransom, near enough, in gold, just by saving Connor from a nasty injury. Connor thought about the money.

‘William,’ he called.

William looked round. Buffy had been leading him back to their booth, having sent Faith off for the healer, and was in no mood for nonsense. Before William could speak she said, ‘Whatever it is, it can wait ‘til we get him sat down and attended to.’

Connor nodded. With all the blood it was hard to see if his eye had been affected. He hoped not.

The inside of the booth was warm from where the fire had been kept in all day, the front awning thrown back to allow light into the room. Buffy sat William down on the edge of a pallet and went and collected a small soapstone bowl. She filled it with sour wine and put it to the fire to heat. She then collected together good clean linen and honey.

By the time the wine was heated a healer had appeared. A woman of advanced years, from the whiteness of her hair, she was accompanied by a slave who carried a basket with him.

‘Aldis, you are welcome.’ Buffy stood up and curtsied to the woman as she came in.

‘Buffy my dear, it has been too long, but we will sit and talk later. I have to see Maggie after this: her family need her sedated.’

‘Good.’ Buffy’s voice was hard, and fierce, then she looked at William.

‘Aldis, this is William, he was injured protecting Connor from Maggie. Could you check out his eye, please?’

The woman approached William, who looked up into sparkling blue eyes that had a twinkle in them. She poked and prodded his face and eye, causing the wound to bleed again.

‘He’ll be fine. Wash it well and a good honey dressing to stop the wound from festering. I will put a couple of stitches in it to prevent it opening more.’ She signalled to Connor and Xander who were waiting outside to come in and grab William, but Buffy put her hand up. ‘I will stop him moving…’

They had been talking too quickly for William and Aldis’ accent was strange. ‘What is she going to do?’ He asked, a little fearfully.

‘She needs to sew up the wound. It will take but a minute. You have a choice. You mustn’t move, but either Xander and Connor can hold you down or I can hold your hand. Which would you prefer?’ She asked softly.

William didn’t answer, he put his hand gently in Buffy’s and tilted his head so that Aldis could easily reach the wound as it was lighted from the sun streaming in at the doorway.
She got out a fine needle threaded with some sort of gut and cleaned it in the sour wine that was heating on the fire. Then she started sewing. William winced, on top of his hangover the pain from the needle entering his flesh was intense, but nothing that he couldn’t handle with Buffy looking at him with her amazing green eyes. The love that shone from them made him invulnerable to anything the witch could do to him. She seemed to be stabbing him with a spear not a needle, but he tolerated her actions. Buffy trusted this Aldis and he trusted Buffy. He had to: she was his world.

It was the work of moments to bring the edges of the wound together and put the three stitches in. Aldis sat back and studied her handiwork.

‘That will be fine. Just cover it in honey for three days and then cut the stitches out in five. The wound may open a little after that but it’s better to get the gut out before the skin grows around it. Willow-bark tea if he has a headache, but not too much, and not too much beer or mead today either, they make the blood flow more freely.’

Buffy nodded her acceptance of the instructions and went to the bag hanging over her bed. She brought out a length of the dark red silk they had brought with them to sell and handed it to Aldis.

‘A gift for your time and trouble.’

‘A great gift, Lady Elizabeth,’ Aldis bowed. She was heading out of the booth with her slave in tow when she turned and looked at Buffy. ‘All things will be well child, and your mother would be proud of you. Your father however, would be scared - and that would be good as well.’

‘She never did like my father,’ Buffy laughed as she watched the woman head towards Gram’s camp and the trouble that was there.

William was tenderly touching the wound. It felt strange having gut to keep the edges of the wound together. He watched as Buffy poured a little honey onto a pad of linen and bandaged it in place on his head. He hadn’t caught one word in four of what the woman was saying to him, but Buffy appeared to be listening.

‘You’re to keep a honey dressing on it for three days, then we will take the stitches out in five,’ she repeated the healer’s instructions.

‘Why did you give her the silk? It was worth far more than her fee for her work.’ William was curious.

‘I didn’t pay the healer for her work, you just don’t, she does it because she has to, it’s her calling, but you can give her a gift. The greater the gift, the more you value what she has done and the higher status your hall is. A penny from a peasant may be worth more in her eyes than that silk from me, but silk from us for the care she gave you will reinforce how high our hall is in the eyes of others. Aldis is a great healer, she treats many who can’t afford to give her a gift; she teaches all who ask. She taught Willow her craft.’ Buffy explained as she put away the pots they had been using. The stone one fascinated William. He had never seen anything quite like it.

Buffy saw his interest and handed him the pot.

‘It’s soapstone, when it’s fresh from the ground it’s easy to carve, but when it’s been in the fire it goes hard.’ She explained.

‘I have heard of it: they sell it at some of the markets at home, but I have never seen it before.’

‘You should tell Connor about the market for it, we are always looking for somewhere new to sell our goods, and for new goods to trade. Talking of which, I want to go shopping, and so does Faith.’

Buffy exited the booth to see Gram talking quietly with Faith and Connor. Skapti was standing off to one side, listening in but not saying anything. She and William made their way quietly across, and joined the group.

Skapti looked up at William. ‘A fine wound there. Has Aldis seen it?’

William grimaced. ‘Yes, and sewn it up.’

‘She says it will be fine.’ Buffy added.

‘Well that’s some good news then. I was just telling Faith that Maggie is to go east to family in Vaster-Gotland. Gram has said he will take her, and she will never be allowed back.’

Faith looked relieved. ‘It has been hard the last couple of years. I think her mind has been going for a while, and her son didn’t help matters. He was never there to see the damage his mother was doing.’

‘Well it’s over now.’

Connor looked at Faith. ‘I will give you one quarter of the gold we get, for you to use getting the hall back on its feet.’

Faith looked relieved at that: she had to keep the hall for her son, it was his inheritance.

‘I’m going to need male help as well,’ she added.

‘I can help there.’ Buffy spoke up. ‘My man, Robin, he has cared for my estates since my mother died. His deputy can keep running my land for a while and I will ask Robin if he will go with you and help you get the place working again.’

Faith nodded her acceptance and Skapti nodded.
‘It’s good to see a family working together to keep itself strong.’ He looked deliberately at Gram.

‘I have a woodsman who is hoping to set up on his own,’ Gram suggested. ‘He could go with you as well and supervise the repairs you say are needed. After all, your children are my cousins…’

‘Excellent. Faith’s hall will be made stronger for the help she gets, you both will have a neighbour who owes you favours and all will see that the bad blood has only come from a mad woman who will be taken well care of.’ The law speaker bowed his head and moved off. Gram went over to Connor.

‘Five marks of gold is a huge amount, we don’t have it here at the Thing. I only brought enough for our needs. It may take me some time to get it together.’

Connor looked at Gram with hard narrow eyes. ‘By midsummer, could you have it then?’

Gram nodded. ‘Do you want it in gold, silver or trade goods? My second cousin is due in from Rus with furs and silks from the Silk Road. I have heard he has sable rugs with him, at least he was hoping to.’

Buffy tugged hard at Connor’s arm and pulled him away from the main talking area.

‘Sable rug! I would love one, they are worth a fortune. If we are sweet to Gram now, his cousin could be a useful contact in the future. Think about it, silk at a cheap rate, we would make five times the amount we’re owed just selling that in Jorvik’

‘You sound like Anya,’ he laughed.

‘Well maybe some of her good sense is rubbing off on me.’

Connor went back to Gram.

‘My mother here has a fancy for a large sable throw for her sleeping area, and I know where I could sell good silk at a profit. Rather than gold, perhaps we could deal in a more appropriate way?’ he suggested.


‘The finest sable will be yours as soon as it arrives. And then you and I will sit down and talk about business.’ Gram spat into his hand and held it out to Connor, who copied the action and the deal was made.

William turned his head away. Five marks, the cost of Harmony near enough, and a fur throw was worth more to these people. He tried to shrug it off but couldn’t.

Buffy saw from the way he held his body that something was obviously wrong. ‘William, are you in pain?’ She asked him.

‘No,’ he snapped.

‘Then what is it? Something is obviously wrong and you’re angry; don’t you like the idea of the money helping Faith get her Hall back up and running?’

‘It’s not that, it’s all that money for such a small cut, and it would have been enough to buy Harmony free: she was raped by a friend of Connor’s and sold off to some other ship and I couldn’t protect her.’

‘And now, if that happened?’

‘I think I would have knocked her out before her mouth dug my grave as well as her own.’

‘That’s a fair comment. We don’t weave another man’s or woman’s wyrd. That was her path. If she’d stayed in Northumbria, what would have happened?’

‘Well, if she’d been as stupid as she was on the boat her father would have killed her himself.’

‘And this way?’

‘She lives longer. But all that money for this?’ He pointed at the cut on his face.

‘And for breaking the peace of the Thing, and for generally not controlling his own family, and for allowing Maggie to call it murder when it was obvious it wasn’t. Now come on,’ Buffy said, dragging him to the market, ‘I’ve got shopping to do.’

Faith was hurrying up behind them dragging Connor with her. ‘I have the promise of money and I need cloth by the ell and bolt to restock my hall. Come on!’

William had to laugh to see her smiling so much. The bruises had faded, the only thing left to remind them of the hard time the woman had had was her arm in a sling, but she was going shopping.





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