Tonight he suddenly saw it: She was a proud and beautiful woman. With her broad, pale forehead beneath the linen wimple, the even gaze of her steel-gray eyes under the calm arch of her brows, with her heavy bosom and her long, slender limbs. She held her tall figure as erect as a sword. But he could not speak of this; blushing and silent, he walked beside her, with her hand on the nape of his neck.
Gaute followed along behind. Bj?rgulf was also gripping the back of his mother’s belt, and the older boy began grumbling because his brother was treading on his heels. They started shoving and pushing at each other. Their mother told them to hush and put an end to their quarreling—but her somber expression softened into a smile. They were still just children, her sons.
She lay awake that night; she had Munan sleeping at her breast and Lavrans lay between her and the wall.
Kristin tried to take stock of her husband’s case.
She couldn’t believe that it was truly dangerous. Erling Vidkuns s?n and the king’s cousins at Sudrheim had been charged with treason against their king and country—but they were still here in Norway, as secure and rich as ever, although they might not stand as high in the king’s favor as before.
No doubt Erlend had become involved in some unlawful activities in the service of Lady Ingebj?rg. Over all these years he had maintained his friendship with his highborn kinswoman. Kristin knew that five years back, when he visited her in Denmark, he had done her some unlawful service that had to be kept secret. Now that Erling Vidkunss?n had taken up Lady Ingebj?rg’s cause and was trying to acquire for her control of the property she owned in Norway—it was conceivable that Erling had sent her to Erlend, or that she herself had turned to the son of her father’s cousin after the friendship had cooled between Erling and the king. And then Erlend had handled the matter recklessly.
Yet if that was true, it was hard to understand how her kinsmen at Sundbu could have been involved in this.
It could only end with Erlend coming to a full reconciliation with the king, if he had done nothing more than act overzealously in service of the king’s mother.
High treason. She had heard about the downfall of Audun Hugleikss?n; it had happened during her father’s youth. But they were terrifying misdeeds that Audun had been charged with. Her father said it was all a lie. The maiden Margret Eiriksdatter had died in the arms of the bishop of Bj?rgvin, but Audun took no part in the crusade, so he could not have sold her to the heathens. Maiden Isabel was thirteen years old, but Audun was more than fifty when he brought her home to be King Eirik’s bride. It was shameful for a Christian to pay any heed at all to such rumors as there were about that bridal procession. Her father refused to allow the ballads about Audun to be sung at home on his manor. And yet there were unheard-of things said about Audun Hestakorn. He had supposedly sold all of King Haakon’s military power to the French king and promised to sail to his aid with twelve hundred warships—and for that he had received seven barrels of gold in payment. But it had never been fully explained to the peasants of the country why Audun Hugleikss?n had to die on the gallows at Nordnes.
His son fled the country; people said he had taken service in the army of the French king. The granddaughters of the Aalhus knight, Gyrid and Signe, had left their grandfather’s execution site with his stable boy. They were to live like poor peasant wives somewhere in a mountain village in Haddingjadal.
It was a good thing, after all, that she and Erlend did not have daughters. No, she was not going to think about such matters. It was so unlikely that Erlend’s case should have a worse outcome than . . . than that of Erling Vidkunss?n and the Haftorss?ns.
Nikulaus Erlendss?n of Husaby. Oh, now she too felt that Husaby was the most beautiful manor in all of Norway.
She would go to Sir Baard and find out all she could. The royal treasurer had always been her friend. Judge Olav, as well—in the past. But Erlend had gone too far, that time when the judge decided against him in the case of his estate in town. And Olav had taken to heart the misfortune with his goddaughter’s husband.
They had no close kinsmen, neither she nor Erlend—no matter how extensive their lineage might be. Munan Baards?n no longer had great influence. He had been charged with unlawful deeds when he was sheriff of Ringerike; he was too eager in his attempts to further the position of his many children in the world—he had four from his marriage and five outside of it. And he had apparently declined greatly since Fru Katrin had died. Inge of Ry county, Julitta and her husband, Ragnrid who was married to a Swede—Erlend knew little of them. They were the remaining children of Herr Baard and Fru Aashild. There had never been friendship between Erlend and the Hestnes people since the death of Sir Baard Peters?n; Tormod of Raasvold had grown senile; and his children with Fru Gunna were all dead and his grandchildren underage.