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Away -- Wistan's farm - Dunstede
‘Who is that, Mother Cwen?’ Mayda had come in to get a pitcher of cool tea to bring out to the garden where she and Ardith were working. She stood in the doorway to the Hall, wiping her hands, wet from washing at the well, on the towel tucked into her apron. Cwen, she could see, was brewing up a large pot of tea and had set some sweet biscuits on a plate.
‘Why that’s some fellow from the new Eorl. Eodwine, isn’t that it?’ She nodded her head at her remembering, turning her bright blue eyes to Aesc’s wife. ‘And Mayda, dear, he seems pleasant enough and of an age, too. And here he is in a good position already with the Eorl.’ Cwen hummed a little to herself as she placed a bowl of sugared nuts in a little bowl. ‘He’s a man with prospects, I’m thinking.’ She got down a dark wooden tray and handed it to Mayda, putting atop it the tea pot, mugs, a little crock of honey, and the sweets. ‘Let’s just set up under the oak out front. The trestle table is still out there from yesterday’s lunch and so are the benches.’
Mayda raised a brow at all this fuss. It was more hospitality than one generally offered to someone one didn’t know. A cool dipper of water from the well perhaps . . . Cwen’s next comment set it all into place for her.
‘And he doesn’t have the married look about him, now does he? But we shall need to find out somehow if he is spoken for.’
When she’d got the tea and such to the table and Mother Cwen seated to her satisfaction on a comfortable cushion, Mayda ran back to the garden to give her news to Willim’s wife, Ardith. ‘Wash up,’ she finished with. ‘Mother Cwen would like us present. I’ll send little Alfrid to fetch Father Wistan and Aesc from the far field.’ She grinned at Ardith. ‘And I’ll tell him to ride slowly.’
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Across the yard, Rose noted the bustle of activity from hall to oak tree. She frowned, wondering what her mother and Mayda were doing. Her eyes fell back to the paper Thornden had given her. It seemed well enough in order, though she wondered at the fact that the new Eorl had not put his seal on it. Her father always used his old ring that had passed down from father to son in Wistan’s family.
‘. . . but he being a new Eorl needs the coin now rather than later. He is building the Mead Hall, and he hopes to see many of his freeholders in time there. You, and your mother and father, are welcome, of course. He also, to show his thanks for receiving the coin due, wants to know anything you would ask of him, in favor or as some judgment of law, as is necessary.’
She smiled at him, raising her brow slightly at his little speech. ‘And a fair enough man seems this Lord Eodwine, if he offers such a boon. However, Master Thornden, I think we, or that is you, will have to wait a little for my father to come in from the field to transact your Eorl’s business. I’m sure mother has sent for him. But come, I see mother has set up a little tea and sweets most likely for you while you wait.’
The Hall’s well was on their way to the oak tree. She offered him the opportunity to freshen up from the dusty road, then laved her own hands, wiping them on the length of toweling that hung from the well’s little roof.
Rose could see Mayda just coming back from some errand as she and Thornden approached the table. And Ardith was with her. The women smiled as they saw her in a most satisfied way.
‘Have a seat, good sir!’ Cwen called out to Thornden as he drew near. ‘Mayda’s just sent her son to fetch my husband for the business you have with him. I thought we’d just have a little refreshment here out under the oak on this nice spring day.’ She signaled for Rose to pour the tea and passed the plate of sugared biscuits to Thornden herself.
‘It’s a rare treat for someone from round the King’s Hall to come our way. So welcome, welcome, I say.’ She pushed the little bowl of nuts toward him. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I don’t know much of this new Eorl. Though I’m sure he must be a fine man for the King to have raised him up so. What is he like? Can you tell us? And his wife, would I know her?’
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