Gab was panicking now. “An innocent mistake, then, my lady, I swear it.”

Ragna made her voice cold. “There are no innocent mistakes.”

“But my lady—”

“Be silent.” Ragna would have liked to get rid of Gab, but she needed a quarryman and did not have a replacement ready. She decided to make a virtue of necessity. “I’m not going to punish you,” she said. “I’m going to say to you what our Lord said to the adulteress: Go thy way, and sin no more.”

The crowd was surprised at that, but they seemed to approve. Ragna hoped she had shown herself to be a ruler who could not be fooled but might be merciful.

She turned to Dudda. “However, I don’t forgive you. Your duty was to make sure your lord was not cheated, and you failed. You are no longer headman.”

Once again she listened to the crowd. They sounded shocked, but she heard no note of protest, and she concluded that they did not much regret the dismissal of Dudda.

“Let Seric step forward.”

A man of about fifty with an alert look came out of the crowd and bowed to her.

She looked at the villagers and said: “I’m told that Seric is an honest man.”

She had not asked them a question—that might have given the impression that the choice was theirs. But she paid attention to their reactions. Several people made approving noises, and others nodded assent. Edgar’s instinct about Seric had been right, it seemed.

“Seric, you are now headman.”

“Thank you, my lady,” said Seric. “I will be honest and true.”

“Good.” She looked at Wynstan’s assistant. “Ithamar, you are no longer required. Father Draca, you can take his place.”

Draca looked nervous, but he sat at the table, and Seric stood beside him.

Wynstan stalked off, and his men began to hurry after him.

Ragna looked around. The villagers were quiet, watching her, waiting to see what she would do next. She had their rapt attention, and they were ready to do her bidding. She had taken leadership. She was satisfied.

“Very well,” she said. “Let us continue.”

CHAPTER 19

June 998

ldred left Shiring on the pony Dismas, heading for Combe. There was safety in numbers, and he traveled with Offa the reeve, who was going to Mudeford. Aldred was carrying a letter from Abbott Osmund to Prior Ulfric. The letter was about a routine matter of business having to do with some land that, awkwardly, was jointly owned by the two monasteries. In Aldred’s saddlebag, carefully wrapped in linen, was a precious volume of the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great, copied and illuminated in Aldred’s scriptorium, a gift to Combe Priory. Aldred was hoping to receive a reciprocal present, another book that would enlarge the library at Shiring. Books were sometimes bought and sold, though exchange of gifts was more usual. But Aldred’s real reason for going to Combe was neither the letter nor the book. He was investigating Bishop Wynstan.