There was one last person I needed to tell of my oath, and I knew he would not be happy. I was right. He was furious.

Sigtryggr had been my son-in-law and was now King of Northumbria. He was a Norseman, and he owed his throne to me, which meant, I thought ruefully, that I was to Sigtryggr what Æthelhelm was to Edward. I was his most powerful noble, the one man he must either placate or kill, but he was also my friend, though when I met him in the old Roman palace of Eoferwic he fell into a rage. ‘You promised to kill Æthelhelm?’ he snarled at me.

‘I took an oath.’

‘Why!’ It was not a question. ‘To protect Æthelstan?’

‘I took an oath to protect him. I took that oath years—’

‘And he wants you to go south again!’ Sigtryggr interrupted me. ‘To save Wessex from its own chaos! To save Wessex! That’s what you did last year! You saved that bastard Æthelstan. We needed him dead! But no, you had to save the miserable arsehole’s life! You won’t go, I forbid it.’

‘Æthelstan,’ I pointed out, ‘is your brother-in-law.’

Sigtryggr uttered one word to that, then kicked a table. A Roman jug of blue glass fell and shattered, causing one of his wolfhounds to whine. He pointed a finger at me. ‘You must not go. I forbid it!’

‘Do you break your oaths, lord King?’ I asked.

He snarled again, paced angrily on the tiled floor, then turned on me again. ‘When Edward dies,’ he said, ‘the Saxons will start fighting amongst themselves. True?’

‘Probably true,’ I said.

‘Then let them fight!’ Sigtryggr said. ‘Pray that the bastards kill each other! It’s none of our business. While they’re fighting each other they can’t fight us!’

‘And if Ælfweard wins,’ I pointed out, ‘he will attack us anyway.’

‘You think Æthelstan won’t? You think he won’t lead an army across our frontier?’

‘He promised not to. Not while I live.’

‘And that can’t be long,’ Sigtryggr said, making it sound like a threat.

‘And you’re married to his twin sister,’ I retorted.

‘You think that will stop him?’ Sigtryggr glared at me. He had first been married to my daughter, who had died defending Eoferwic, and after her death King Edward had forced the marriage between Sigtryggr and Eadgyth, threatening invasion if Sigtryggr refused, and Sigtryggr, assailed by other enemies, accepted. Edward claimed the marriage was a symbol of peace between the Saxon kingdoms and Norse-ruled Northumbria, but only a fool did not recognise that the real reason for the marriage was to place a Saxon Christian queen in what was enemy country. If Sigtryggr died then his son, my grandson, would be too young to rule, and the Danes and Norse would never accept the pious Eadgyth as their ruler, and in her stead they would place one of their own on Northumbria’s throne and thus give the Saxon kingdoms a reason to invade. They would claim they came to restore Eadgyth to her proper place, and so Northumbria, my country, would be swallowed by Wessex.