Cailin could not understand why the girl's memory had not returned. She had not been that badly injured when they had found her. In fact neither her head nor her face had been touched, it seemed. She had been treated with great kindness in the weeks she was with them. Cailin suspected that the girl knew full well who her people were and where she had come from, but would say nothing lest she be dislodged from her comfortable place at Cadda-wic, which was obviously better than anything she had ever known. Cailin realized that she did not want Aelfa at Cadda-wic much longer. If the girl could or would not remember, then a husband must be found for her in one of the villages by summer's end. Cailin was perfectly willing to supply the dowry, but Aelfa must go.
"Mama! Mama! See fire!" Aurora, who was snuggled into her mother's arms, pointed with fat little fingers at the Beltane fires leaping up across the hillsides as the sun set.
"Aye, Aurora, I see," Cailin answered her daughter.
"Pretty," Aurora said. "Look at Papa!"
Cailin smiled as Wulf leapt the fire, laughing, and then other men and women both began to follow him.
"Mama jump!" Aurora commanded her mother.
"Nay, precious, not this year," Cailin laughed. "I am too fat with the new baby. Next year," she promised.
Aelfa leapt over the flames, her pale gold hair flying. She was laughing, and Cailin had to admit, even grudgingly, that she was beautiful. The men clustered about her like bees to a honey pot. Corio had come from Braleah village just to see her, but Aelfa did not seem to favor him, to his great disappointment. Her two favorite swains were men-at-arms, Albert and Bran-hard, who vied mightily for her attention. It was just as well, Cailin thought. She was sorry to see the look of hurt on Corio's face, but she also knew he could do better than Aelfa if he really desired a wife. She watched, half amused, half annoyed, as Aelfa disappeared into the darkness, first with one of her admirers, and then returned with him to shortly go off with the other.
"She has the morals of a mink," Cailin said to Wulf. "She will have those two at each other's throats before the night is out."
"She is young, and it is Beltane," he answered mildly.
"We must find her a husband, and the sooner the better, from what I have observed here tonight, my lord," Cailin told him severely. The gods! She sounded like an old woman! What was the matter with her?
"I suspect you are right, lambkin," he answered, to her great surprise. "She is far too lovely a maid to be allowed to run freely much longer. I cannot have dissension among my men over a pretty girl. Discord is a weakness we can ill afford. Ragnar Strongspear has taken my advice and is expanding his territory to the south. He has been joined by his brother Gunnar. I have no doubt that, egged on by Antonia, he will be foolish enough to turn his eyes toward our lands sometime in the future. We must remain strong."
Aurora, half asleep, was heavy in Cailin's arms. "Nellwyn," she called to the nursemaid, "take Aurora and put her to bed." Then she turned back to her husband. "Make inquiries in Orrford to see if any young men need wives. If you make Aelfa choose between Albert and Bran-hard, there will be hard feelings between those two. She is in love with neither, but rather plays with each like a cat with a mouse. Corio is taken with her, but she is not the right woman for him. Best we send her as far from Cadda-wic and Braleah as we can. That way, none of her admirers here is apt to see her again for a long time, if ever. By summer's end, Aelfa must be wed."
"I must make a tour of all the villages soon to see how it goes with them," Wulf told his wife. "I but wait for the son you have promised me before leaving you, lambkin. I will personally seek out and find the right young man for Aelfa to wed in Orrford."
"Good!" Cailin said, but despite their agreement in the matter, her voice within nagged her yet. She remained on her guard, but for what, she was unable to tell.
Royse Wulfsone was born on the nineteenth day of May. Unlike his sister's hard birth, his entry into the world was a swift and easy one. Cailin awoke in the hour of the false dawn to realize her waters had broken. Within minutes she was being racked with labor, and in the hour that the sky began to lighten with the new day, the baby was born, howling lustily, his face red, his small arms flailing. Nellwyn had assisted her mistress with the birth, but Aelfa swooned at the sight of the blood involved and had to be carried from the solar.
Cailin and Wulf's son was strong and healthy from the moment of his birth. He suckled eagerly at his mother's breasts, and always seemed hungry. Denied her daughter's infancy, Cailin reveled in her motherhood. Sensitive, however, to Aurora's feelings, she involved the little girl in her brother's care as much as she could so that Aurora would not feel neglected. As a big sister, Aurora, who would be four in the late summer, did admirably, running to fetch her mother at her baby brother's least cry; helping to dress him; watching over him with Nellwyn.
"She is so patient with him," Cailin observed. "He is going to be very spoiled, I fear. He already recognizes her."
"Do you see how strong he is?" Wulf said proudly. "He will be a big man someday. Perhaps even bigger than I am."
When Royse was six weeks old, and Cailin fully recovered from the birth, Wulf Ironfist set off to visit his villages. Before he left, he called Aelfa into his and Cailin's presence. She came meekly, looking particularly pretty in a pale blue tunica she had made from a length of fabric Cailin had given her on Beltane.
"How may I serve you, lord?" she inquired politely.
"Has your memory returned yet, even in part, maiden?" he asked her quietly, his voice both gentle and encouraging.
Aelfa's light green eyes grew visibly misty. "Alas, my lord, no," she answered him. "I have tried to remember something of myself, but I cannot. Ohh, what will become of me?"
"It is time that you were wed," Wulf answered her.
"Wed?" Aelfa looked startled. This was obviously not something that she had even considered. "You would marry me?"
Cailin hissed angrily. The nerve of the wench!
"Not I," he said, somewhat startled himself by her words. "I go tomorrow to tour the villages belonging to my holding. Since you can remember nothing of yourself, and we have heard of no lost lasses in the time you have been with us, then it is time for you to begin a new life. As lord of this land, your welfare is my responsibility. I will therefore seek out a good husband for you, and you will be wed as soon as it is possible. Before the summer's end, I think."
"But I do not think I want a husband," Aelfa said nervously. "Perhaps I already have a husband, my lord. What if that is so?"
"Is it, Aelfa? Do you have a husband?" He pierced her with a sharp look. "Perhaps you have run away from a husband who caught you with a lover and then beat you for your faithlessness."
"I cannot remember, my lord," she stubbornly insisted.
"Then," Wulf said, smiling benignly, "I think it best we find you a good man and resettle you, maiden. Is it agreed?"
For a very long moment Aelfa was silent, and then finally she said, "Yes, my lord, but could you not marry me yourself?"
"One wife is more than enough for me," he replied with a chuckle. "Eh, lambkin?" He swept a loving look at Cailin by his side.
"You will never need another," she said quietly.
When Nellwyn learned of the other girl's fate, she complained to her mistress, "Why is it that Aelfa is to have a husband and I am not? Have I not served you well, my lady?"
"More than well, Nellwyn," Cailin assured her. "You may have a husband whenever you choose him, unless, of course, you would prefer that my lord and I select a good man for you. Aelfa is alone in the world and needs our aid; but you, Nellwyn, have always had me, and whatever you desire within reason I will give you for your faithful service."