Death of Kings_ A Novel - Bernard Cornwell [79]
‘Your counsel will be wise, I am sure. Perhaps you would give it to me?’
‘That is why I am here,’ Coenwulf said.
‘And say a prayer in my chapel?’ Æthelwold gestured to a door behind him.
‘It would be a privilege,’ Coenwulf said.
‘You too, my dear,’ Æthelwold said to Æthelflaed. He sounded resigned. He beckoned a half-dozen others, his closest companions, who included the abashed Sigebriht, and they all went through the small door at the back of the dais. Æthelflaed looked quizzically at me and I nodded because I had every intention of going to the chapel with her and so she followed Sigebriht, but as soon as we started towards the dais Æthelwold raised a hand. ‘Just Father Coenwulf,’ he said.
‘Where he goes, we go,’ I said.
‘You want to pray?’ Father Coenwulf asked me sarcastically.
‘I want you safe,’ I said, ‘though only your god knows why.’
Coenwulf looked at Æthelwold. ‘I have your word that I am safe in your chapel, lord?’
‘You are my safety, father,’ Æthelwold said with surprising humility, ‘and I want your counsel, I want your prayers, and yes, you have my word that you are safe.’
‘Then wait here,’ Coenwulf snapped at me, ‘both of you.’
‘You trust the bastard?’ I asked, loud enough for Æthelwold to hear.
‘I trust in Almighty God,’ Coenwulf said grandly, and climbed nimbly onto the dais and followed Æthelwold out of the hall.
Steapa put his hand on my arm. ‘Let him go,’ he said, and so he and I waited. Two of the older men came to us and said this had not been their idea and that they had believed Æthelwold when he had assured them that the Witan of Wessex had agreed to his assumption of the throne, and I told them they had nothing to fear so long as they had not raised a weapon against their rightful king. That king, so far as I knew, was still waiting on the old chalk-walled fort to the north of the town, waiting as the long night fell and the stars appeared. And we waited too. ‘How long does a prayer take?’ I asked.
‘I’ve known them to last two hours,’ Steapa said gloomily, ‘and the sermons can take even longer.’
I turned to the steward who had tried to take our swords. ‘Where is the chapel?’ I asked him.
The man looked terrified, then stammered, ‘There is no chapel, lord.’
I swore, hurried to the door at the rear of the hall and pushed it open to see a sleeping chamber. There were fur rugs, woollen blankets, a wooden bucket and a tall unlit candle in a silver holder, beyond which was a second door that led to a smaller courtyard. It was an empty courtyard with an open gate guarded by a lone spearman. ‘Which way did they go?’ I shouted at the guard who answered by pointing west down the street outside.
We ran back to the larger courtyard where our horses were waiting. ‘Go to Edward,’ I suggested to Steapa, ‘tell him the bastard’s running.’
‘And you?’ he asked, hauling himself into the saddle.
‘I’ll go west.’
‘Not on your own,’ he said chidingly.
‘Just go,’ I said.
Steapa was right, of course. There was really little sense in riding alone into the night’s chaos, but I did not want to return to the chalk slopes of Baddan Byrig where, inevitably, the next two hours would be spent discussing what to do. I wondered what had happened to Father Coenwulf, and hoped he was alive, then I was through the gate and scattering the people in the torch-lit street as I spurred the horse down a lane that led eastwards.
Æthelwold had lost his pitiable attempt to be acknowledged King of Wessex, but he had not given up. The folk of his own county had failed to support him, he had only the smallest band of supporters, and so he was fleeing to where he could find swords, shields and spears. He wanted to go north to the Danes, and he had only two choices that I could see. He could ride overland, hoping to circle around the small army that Edward had brought to Wimburnan, or he could go south to where a boat might be waiting for him. I dismissed that last thought. The Danes had not known when Alfred would die, and no Danish boat dared linger in West Saxon waters, which made it more than unlikely that