He turned to leave, but as he did so she spoke again.
“Or you could do something clever,” she said.
“What?”
There was no reply.
“What clever thing could I do?” he said.
But she did not answer him.
Ealdorman Wilwulf paid a call on Shiring Abbey.
Aldred was summoned from the scriptorium by a breathless novice. “The ealdorman is here!” he said.
Aldred suffered a moment of fear.
“And he’s asking for Abbot Osmund and you!” the novice added.
Aldred had been at the abbey since Wilwulf’s father was ealdorman, and he could not remember either man ever entering the monastery. This was serious. He took a moment to calm his breathing and let his heartbeat return to normal.
He could guess what had brought about this unprecedented visit. The sheriff’s raid on the minster at Dreng’s Ferry was all anyone was talking about throughout the shire, and perhaps all over the west of England. And an attack on Wynstan was a personal affront to Wilwulf, his brother.
In Wilwulf’s eyes, Aldred was probably the one who had caused the trouble.
Like all powerful men, Wilwulf would go to great lengths to keep his power. But would he go so far as to threaten a monk?
An ealdorman needed to be seen as a fair judge. Otherwise he lost moral authority. Then he might have trouble enforcing his decisions. Enforcement could be difficult for an ealdorman. He could use his small personal bodyguard of men-at-arms to punish occasional minor disobedience, and he could raise an army—albeit with considerable trouble and expense—to fight the Vikings or harry the Welsh, but it was hard for him to deal with a persistent undercurrent of disobedience among people who lost faith in their overlords. He needed to be looked up to. Was Wilwulf now prepared to attack Aldred regardless?
Aldred felt a bit nauseated, and swallowed hard. He had known, when he began to investigate Wynstan, that he was going up against ruthless people, and he had told himself it was his duty. But it was easy to take risks in a theoretical way. Now the reality was on him.
He limped up the stairs. His leg still hurt, especially when he walked. Molten metal was worse than a knife in the flesh.
Wilwulf was not a man to be kept waiting outside the door, and he had already gone into Osmund’s room. In his yellow cloak he was a garish worldly presence in the gray-and-white monastery. He stood at the end of the bed with his legs apart and his hands on his hips in a classic stance of aggression.
The abbot was still bedridden. He was sitting up, wearing a nightcap, looking scared.
Aldred acted more confident than he felt. “Good day to you, ealdorman,” he said briskly.
“Come in, monk,” said Wilwulf, as if he were at home and they were the visitors. With a note of complacency he added: “I believe my brother gave you that black eye.”
“Don’t worry,” Aldred said with a deliberate note of condescension. “If Bishop Wynstan confesses and begs forgiveness, God will have mercy on him for his unpriestly violence.”
“He was provoked!”
“God doesn’t accept that excuse, ealdorman. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.”
Wilwulf grunted with exasperation and shifted his ground. “I’m highly displeased by what happened at Dreng’s Ferry.”
“So am I,” said Aldred, going on the offensive. “Such a wicked crime against the king! Not to mention the murder of the sheriff’s man, Godwine.”
Osmund said timorously: “Be quiet, Aldred, let the ealdorman speak.”
The door opened and Hildred came in.
Wilwulf was irritated by both interruptions. “I didn’t summon you,” he said to Hildred. “Who are you?”
Osmund answered the question: “This is Treasurer Hildred, whom I have made acting abbot during my illness. He should hear whatever you have to say.”
