Edgar felt it was sounding too easy, too good to be true. “They may try to stop you.”

“You’re right. We’ll go before sunrise.”

“You’ll have to be discreet until then.”

“Yes.” Ragna turned to Cat and Agnes, who were both listening, wide-eyed. “You two, do nothing before supper—just carry on as normal. Then, when it’s dark, pack what we need for the children.”

Agnes said: “We should take food. Shall I get some from the kitchen?”

“No, that would give us away. Buy bread and ham in the town.” She gave Agnes three silver pennies from the purse Edgar had brought.

Edgar said: “Don’t use your own horses. Sheriff Den will lend you mounts.”

“Do I have to lose Astrid?”

“I’ll come back for her later.” He stood up. “I’ll stay at Den’s place tonight. I’ll speak to him about borrowing horses. Will you let me know, later this evening, that everything is ready for the morning?”

“Of course.” She took both his hands in hers, reminding him of their piercingly intimate conversation at his house in Dreng’s Ferry. Were there more intimate moments ahead? He hardly dared hope. “And thank you, Edgar, for everything. I’ve lost track of all you’ve done for me.”

He wanted to tell her that it was done out of love, but not in front of Cat and Agnes, so he said: “You deserve it. More.”

She smiled and released his hands, and he turned and left.

“We could just kill Ragna,” said Wigelm. “It would make everything simple.”

“I’ve thought about it, believe me,” said Wynstan. “She stands in our way.”

They were in the bishop’s residence, on the upper floor, drinking cider: it was thirsty weather.

Wynstan recalled Sheriff Den’s threat to kill him if anything happened to Ragna. But he dismissed it. Many people would have liked to kill Wynstan. If he feared them, he would never step out the door.

Wigelm said: “Without Ragna, I would have no rival for the ealdormanry.”

“No very convincing one. Who is the king going to choose? Deorman of Norwood is half blind. Thurstan of Lordsborough is a ditherer who could hardly lead a singsong, let alone an army. All the other thanes are little more than wealthy farmers. No one has your experience and connections.”

“So . . .”

Wynstan often felt exasperated that he had to explain things to Wigelm more than once, but on this occasion he was also getting the problem straight in his own mind. “We just need to keep her under control,” he said.

“How is that better than killing her? We could set it up so that someone else gets the blame, as we did with Wilf.”

Wynstan shook his head. “It’s possible, but it would be pushing our luck. Yes, we got away with it once, just about, even though plenty of people still don’t believe Carwen killed Wilf. However, a second convenient murder so soon after the first would be highly suspicious. Everyone would assume we were guilty.”