Gytha made the disapproving noise again.

“Of course I won’t,” Wigelm said in a tone of indignation, as if he would never dream of such a thing.

“That’s the kind of promise a woman longs to hear.”

Gytha said: “Don’t you want to be part of our family?”

Ragna stared at her in astonishment. “No!”

“Why not?”

“How can you even ask me that question?”

Wigelm said: “Why do you have to be so sarcastic?”

Ragna took a breath. “Because I don’t love you, you don’t love me, and talk of us getting married is so ludicrous that I can’t even pretend to take you seriously.”

Wigelm frowned, figuring out what she meant: he was not quick to grasp long sentences, she had noticed. Eventually he said: “So that’s your answer.”

“My answer is no.”

Gytha stood up. “We tried,” she said.

Then she and Wigelm left.

Ragna frowned. That was an unexpected exit line.

Alain was asleep at Ragna’s breast. She put him in his cradle and refastened the front of her dress. The material was milk-stained, but she did not worry: at this point it suited her not to be too alluring.

She puzzled over the words We tried. Why had Gytha said that? It sounded like a veiled threat, as if she was saying Don’t blame us for what will happen next. But what could happen next?

She did not know, and it troubled her.

Wynstan and Gytha went to see King Ethelred, who was living in the great hall. Wynstan did not feel his usual self-confidence. The king was not predictable. Wynstan could normally foresee his neighbors’ responses to problems: it was not difficult to figure out what they were going to do in order to get what they wanted. But the king’s challenges were much more complex.

He touched his pectoral cross in the hope of divine assistance.

When they entered the great hall, Ethelred was deep in conversation with one of his clerks. Queen Emma was not present. Ethelred held up a hand to tell Wynstan and Gytha to wait. They stood a few paces away while the king finished his conversation. Then the clerk left and Ethelred beckoned.

Wynstan began: “The child of my brother Wigelm and the lady Ragna is a healthy boy who seems likely to live, my lord king.”

“Good!” said Ethelred.

“It is indeed good news, though it threatens to destabilize the ealdormanry of Shiring.”

“How so?”

“First, you have given Ragna permission to go to the nunnery at Dreng’s Ferry. There, of course, she will be away from the influence of the ealdorman. Second, she has the ealdorman’s only child. Third, even if the baby should die, Ragna also has Wilwulf’s three young sons.”

“I see what you’re getting at,” said the king. “You think she could easily become the figurehead of a rebellion against Wigelm. People might say that her children were the true heirs.”

Wynstan was pleased that the king saw the point so quickly. “Yes, my lord king.”