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Updated: May 24, 2025
Then the light from the taper which a page was holding behind Norman of Baddeby fell upon the gemmed collar that was his principal ornament, and the sight wrought a subtle change in her mood. The collar had been her father's; she could not look at it without seeing again his ruddy old face with its grim mouth and faded kindly eyes.
"I am no less able than the Lord of Baddeby to restrain him," the Etheling said with some warmth. "If it be your pleasure, King Edmund, I will keep him under my hand until the end of the war, and answer for his silence with my life." Then Norman's eagerness got the better of his discretion. "Now, by Saint Dunstan," he cried, "you take too much upon you, Lord of Ivarsdale!
Norman of Baddeby bent in a second reverence. "Your expectations are to this degree fulfilled, my royal lord," he made answer. "Behold the enemy!" Stooping, he raised the red-cloaked figure by its collar and held it up in the firelight. As a murmur of laughter went around, he lowered it again and spoke more gravely. "A hand needs not be large to get a hilt under its gripe, however.
The swine!" The monarch was a soldier now, shooting his questions like arrows. "After I bade them at Gillingham come straight to me! How many were they? Where is the Jarl?" "He was not with them. It was Norman of Baddeby who led, and he had no more than five-and-fifty men. It was spoken among them that they would join you at sunset to-day " Canute's hand shot out and gripped her arm and shook it.
Though he has got Baddeby, Norman was covetous of Avalcomb. When his lord, Edric Jarl, was still King Edmund's man, he twice beset the castle, and my father twice held it against him. And his greed was such that he could not stay away even after Edric had become the man of Canute." It was the nun's turn for bewilderment. "The man of Canute? Edric of Mercia, who is married to the King's sister?
"Norman of Baddeby" her father's slayer! Memory entered like poison to spread burning through every vein. Her father Fridtjof the Jotun the battle Her ears were dinned with terrible noises; her eyes were seared by terrible pictures. She crushed her hands against her head, but the sound came from within and would not be stilled.
It had not taken a moment; the instant Norman finished his explanation, the Etheling was speaking quietly: "As the Lord of Baddeby says, King Edmund, it was I who stayed the boy's hand, and it was I also who fetched him into camp. I found him after the battle, bleeding his life out in the bushes, and I brought him in my arms, like a kitten, and dropped him down by my fire.
"You forget the law of the battle-field, Norman of Baddeby," he said swiftly. "The life of my captive is mine, and I am the last man to permit it to be taken because he sought a just revenge. I know too well how it feels to hate a father's murderer." He shot a baleful glance toward a half-seen figure that all this time had stood motionless in the shadow behind the King.
"Norman of Baddeby!" the name leaped out of the rest to bite at her like a dog, worrying deeper and deeper through the wrappings of her stupor. Her eyes widened in troubled questioning. She heard the angry voices rise, and she saw the Etheling leap to his feet and shake his clenched hand above his head. Then she lost sight of everything, for the fang had pierced her torpor and touched her.
A momentary cordiality came into the King's manner; as though recognizing it for the first time, he turned to the figure across the fire with a courteous gesture. "My lord of Ivarsdale! I am much beholden to you. Had any chance wrought evil to the Lord of Baddeby while under my safeguard, my honor would have been as deeply wounded as my feelings."
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