Genevieve said: “They are barbarians! Savages!”

Edgar assumed this must somehow be about their daughter. He said anxiously: “Has something happened to the lady Ragna?”

Hubert said: “She has been set aside!”

“I didn’t know that.”

“What the devil does it mean?”

“It means divorce,” Edgar said.

“For no reason?”

“Yes.” Edgar needed to be sure he had understood correctly. “So Wigelm has set Ragna aside?”

“Yes. And you tell me this is legal in England!”

“Yes.” But Edgar was thunderstruck. Ragna was single!

Hubert said: “I’ve written to King Ethelred demanding that he make recompense. How can he allow his noblemen to behave like farmyard animals?”

“I don’t know, my lord,” said Edgar. “A king can give orders, but enforcing them is another matter.”

Hubert snorted, as if he considered that a feeble excuse.

Edgar said: “I’m terribly sorry this has been done to her by my countrymen.”

But he was lying.

CHAPTER 41

September 1006

agna rebuilt her life, making her days busy so that she would not brood over the loss of both Edgar and Alain. At Michaelmas she went to Outhenham in her new barge to collect her rents.

The barge needed two strong oarsmen. Ragna took her horse, Astrid, with her so that she could ride all the way along the Vale of Outhen. She also took a new maid, Osgyth, and a young man-at-arms, a black-haired boy called Ceolwulf, both of them from King’s Bridge. They fell for each other on the journey, teasing and giggling on the barge when they thought Ragna was not looking; so both were somewhat distracted from their duties. Ragna was inclined to be indulgent: she knew what it was to be in love. She hoped that Osgyth and Ceolwulf never learned what she knew about the misery that love could bring.

Her new great hall at Outhenham was not yet finished, but Edgar’s old house in the quarry was empty, so she lodged there with Osgyth and Ceolwulf. She liked it for sentimental reasons. The only other house in the quarry belonged to Gab.

The oarsmen stayed at the alehouse.

She held court, but there was not much justice needed. This was a happy time of year, with the harvest in the barns, bellies full of bread, and red-cheeked apples lying on the ground to be picked up; and this year the Vikings had not come this far west to spoil everything. When people were happy they were slow to quarrel and committed fewer crimes. It was in the miserable depths of winter that men strangled their wives and knifed their rivals, and it was in the hungry spring that women stole from their neighbors to feed their children.

She was pleased to see that Edgar’s canal was still in good condition, its edges straight and its banks sturdy. However, she was annoyed that the villagers had got into the lazy habit of throwing rubbish into the water. There was no through flow, so the canal did not clean itself the way a river did, and in places it smelled like a privy. She instituted a strict rule.