‘I—’

‘Leave us!’ I snarled. He irritated me.

He went to join Eadgifu and her ladies at the stern, and I drew the short knife from my belt. ‘I don’t have time to persuade you to answer my questions,’ I told the two men, ‘so if either of you don’t answer straightaway I’ll blind you both. When did the king die?’

‘A week ago?’ the priest, shivering with fright, answered quickly. ‘Maybe six days. I’ve lost count, lord.’

‘You were with him at the end?’

‘We were in Ferentone,’ the Dane said stiffly.

‘Where he died,’ the priest added quickly.

‘And Æthelhelm was there?’

‘Lord Æthelhelm was with the king to the end,’ Halldor said.

‘And Æthelhelm sent you south?’ The priest nodded. The poor man still looked terrified, and no wonder. I was holding the short knife near his left cheekbone and he was imagining the blade slicing into his eye. I twitched it. ‘He sent you south to do what?’ I demanded.

The priest whimpered, but Halldor answered. ‘To remove the Lady Eadgifu and her children to a place of safety.’

I left that lie unchallenged. Eadgifu might have been safely walled up in a convent, but the two boys would be lucky to see another autumn. The girl, who had no claim to the throne, might have lived, but I doubted it. Æthelhelm would probably wish to cull the whole brood. ‘And the king,’ I said, ‘divided the kingdom?’

‘Yes, lord,’ the priest muttered.

‘Æthelstan is king in Mercia?’ I asked. ‘And that piece of weasel shit, Ælfweard, rules in Wessex?’

‘King Ælfweard rules in Wessex and East Anglia,’ the priest confirmed, ‘and Æthelstan is named King of Mercia.’

‘But only if the Witan confirms the king’s dying wishes,’ Halldor said, ‘which they will not.’

‘They won’t?’

‘Why would they consent to the bastard being King of Mercia? Ælfweard must be made king of all three kingdoms.’

And that, I thought, was probably true. The West Saxon and East Anglian Witans, both firmly under Æthelhelm’s influence, would never vote to accept Æthelstan as a rival king in Mercia. They would claim all three kingdoms for Ælfweard.

‘So you don’t feel bound by the king’s last wishes?’ I asked.

‘Do you?’ Halldor asked belligerently.

‘He wasn’t my king,’ I said.

‘It is my belief,’ Halldor said, ‘that King Edward was of unsound mind when he dictated his will. So no, I do not feel bound by his final wishes.’

I agreed with Halldor that Edward had been a lackwit when he divided his kingdoms, but I was not going to admit that. ‘Where was King Æthelstan when his father died?’ I asked instead.

Halldor bridled at my calling Æthelstan a king, but managed to suppress his indignation. ‘I believe that Faeger Cnapa was still in Ceaster,’ he said coldly, ‘or maybe in Gleawecestre.’

‘Faeger Cnapa?’ I asked. He had said it as a name, but it means ‘pretty boy’. Faege, though, also means ‘doomed’. Whatever he meant it was plainly an insult.