How long would she be separated from Alain? Surely not forever?

Someone else caught the attention of the royal couple, and Ragna turned aside. She tried not to cry. Her position seemed hopeless. If the king would not help her get her son back, who would?

Wigelm and Wynstan had all the power, that was the curse. They could get away with just about anything. Wynstan was clever, Wigelm was thuggish, and both of them were willing to defy the king and the law. If she could have done something to weaken them, she would have. But it seemed nothing could stop them.

Aldred approached her. She said: “Are your messengers back from Normandy yet?”

“No,” he said.

“They’ve been away months.”

“They must be having trouble finding him. Builders often move around. They have to go where the work is.”

He looked worried and distracted, she now saw. She said: “How are you?”

“I understand that kings avoid conflict whenever they can,” he said angrily. “But sometimes a king should rule!”

Ragna had exactly the same complaint, but such things should be said privately. She looked around uneasily. However, no one seemed to have heard. “What’s brought that on?”

“Wynstan has stirred up everyone at Canterbury so that there’s now an anti-Alphage faction, and Ethelred is hesitating because he doesn’t want trouble with the monks.”

“You want the king to put his foot down, announce that Wynstan is unfit to be archbishop, and impose Alphage regardless of the monks’ opinion.”

“It strikes me that a king should take a moral stand!”

“Those monks, living so far away from Shiring, simply don’t know what we all know about Wynstan.”

“True.”

Ragna suddenly recalled something that could damage Wynstan. She had almost forgotten it in her anguish about Alain. “What if . . .”

She hesitated. She had decided to keep this secret, for fear of reprisals. But Wigelm had already done his worst. He had carried out the threat he had hinted at for so long. He had taken away Ragna’s child. And his cruelty had a consequence that undoubtedly he had not foreseen: he no longer had a hold over her.

As she drank in this realization she felt liberated. From now on, she would do anything in her power to undermine Wigelm and Wynstan. It would still be dangerous, but she was prepared for risk. It was worth it to undermine the brothers.

She said: “What if you could prove to the monks that Wynstan is unfit?”

Aldred looked suddenly alert. “What do you mean?”

Ragna hesitated again. She was eager to weaken Wynstan but at the same time afraid of him. She took her courage in both hands. “Wynstan has Whore’s Leprosy.”

Aldred’s mouth fell open. “God save us! Really?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“Hildi has seen a growth on his neck that is characteristic of the disease. And Agnes, his mistress, had the same kind of growth, and died.”

“But this changes everything!” Aldred said eagerly. “Does the king know?”