Aelfwyn, heavy with her fourth child, met us in the rain just outside the Mead Hall afore we could barely start on the ride to the family's croft, so by time we reached there I knew as they were expecting us. Word had spread through the town. Leoffren and his wife had come down from the farm they was building when I left, and Leoffrey and his wife were helping ma walk out to meet us -- seems her leg is worse than ever and she keeps off her feet most the time now, and other folk have to make sure to get things done for her, like serving dinner, without making a fuss about it so she won't complain and insist she can do just fine on her own. As we approached I called out "Hello," but only on account I couldn't think what else to say. Feels like I ought to have something better. Something to fit the moment, but if there is such a thing it's beyond my feeble wits to find it.
"Hello yourself," ma answered, and I knew she was feeling testy. I didn't know yet part of that was the ache in her bones for having to walk down the path to meet us, but I reckon it would have been much the same without that. "Where in the flaming pits of the world have you been for three years? Don't go saying hello like it's nothing, we thought you were dead! We had a funeral for you!" I might have broken into tears at how angry she sounded, except I saw Aelfflaed, who is near to growed up now, holding back a laugh, and even pa was trying not to grin. That's what made me know, this was just one of ma's storms you got to ride out. "You didn't even come back to say goodbye before you left! Don't you even care about your family?"
She stared pointedly at me with that look that means I better come up with an answer. Thinking back on it I feel more than a little embarrassed that, in front of Adri, I fell right back into what it were like when I was a boy. "Ma, the Thane sent me off on an important task for the King and Prince, he didn't give me time to--"
"Don't give me that," she cut me off, "he told us all about it. Gave us a right nice draught horse to make up for it. Does more work around here than you ever did!" Some of the barely-held-back smirks broke free at that moment. Lithfrey, the youngest, laughed aloud until Aelfflaed hushed her. But the storm was passing already. Ma came up and hugged me. "But all that don't matter. You're home now." Then she turned her eyes on Adri, and the same way sometimes after the storm passes there's one more roll of thunder, ma summoned up a bit more ire. "Who in the blazes are you?"
"I'm his friend and sometimes guide through the mountains," she answered, seeming calm and even managing an amused smile. "My name's Adriellyn."
"Hmph," ma answered. "I'm Lithwyn. Good of you to look after him. Does he ever let you eat?" She looked Adri's small, slender form up and down disapprovingly. "Come in, I've got some soup going, you look like you need it."
Pa had been standing to the side waiting while ma had her say. I suppose they couldn't have kept a family long if he hadn't learned sometimes that's what he has to do, let ma have her say. Apparently this was the sign he'd been waiting for, and soon the whole family was gathered around and many warm and welcoming embraces were shared. I expect Adri got more of them than she wanted, too. "Pleased to meet you -- and soup would be good, thank you," she said agreeably, and soon we were bustled inside out of the rain and crowding around the big table to eat soup and answer questions and tell tales. I told of my journeys and what I found, and Adriellyn told some about her own travels as well. Aelfwyn came in with her family, and soon she and Adriellyn seemed to me to become fast friends, talking quietly about I don't know what. Later Leoffweard arrived and immediately set to teasing me. I'm fair sure he tried to flirt a bit with Adriellyn as well, though I'm not sure if she even noticed.
It was his teasing, about whether I'd ever met any girls that could stand the sight of me, or something like that, which finally started the bit of the conversation I'd been dreading. Used to be his teasing, and that of Leofdan and even sometimes Leoffrey and Leoffren, could cut right through me. It's not like that no more, but don't mean I don't feel it, and I got my back up and insisted I was betrothed, and that's when I realized I'd let it slip.
"What?" ma said, and the room fell into a silence. I saw her eyes go to Adriellyn and everyone else's follow; they must've thunk maybe it was her. "To what manner of girl?"
I answered quick as I could if only to draw their ire and suspicion off Adriellyn. "A farm girl named Beoda Cob. She were supposed to come with us, I wish she could so you could meet her, you'd love her, ma, she's sweet as honey-cakes on a summer morning and good-hearted as anyone I ever known, but she--"
"What kind of name is Beodacob? How can you be marrying a girl we ain't even heard of?"
There was nothing for it. Sooner started, sooner finished. "Well, her farm is in Bree, and that's where we're going to live. I have an apprenticeship there." Ma was about to express some more disbelief and I spoke quickly to head it off. "As a stable-keeper to a proper lady of the Mark who also moved to live up there, and I got promises made I mean to keep. I will be returning to the road in a few days, most like, to end up back there by summer."
Everyone was quiet. I knew Adriellyn was anxious she might end up the target of some of ma's ire, so even she kept her eyes down. I didn't know what to do to break the moment, so I just started babbling. "I'll be here a few days at least, and I'll be sure to see the other--"
"Is what he says true?" ma asked Adriellyn. "Does he have a girl and an apprenticeship and a life there?"
"Aye, I know the Eorling lady he's apprenticed to, and his betrothed," Adriellyn answered, choosing her words with care.
Ma tapped her fingers on the table a few moments. "Well," she said to me at last, "you never did find a life here, or figure out what to be. So it's good you finally did. Though why you got to go halfway to the moon just to pick the trade of being a stable-keeper of all things! It's not like we don't got horses here, you know that, boy, right? But you promise me one day you'll bring this girl of yours here to meet us, and maybe a grandchild or two!"
"I promise to try, ma. She wants to meet you, and see the Mark. But the farm needed all hands this year. Once my apprenticeship is done it'll be easier for to come visiting."
Leoffweard started it, so it's only right he was the one to finish it. "He's just afraid I'm going to steal his girl away!" he said with that big grin of his, the one that does, in fact, steal more than a few girls away. Not that I were worried as he'd catch Beoda's eye. Well, not too awful much. But he did bring a loud round of laughter, and the moment passed. And with it, a lot of what I'd been gnawing over in worry.
The hours rushed by with talk and more food -- ma seemed determined to make Adri grow three inches and three stone afore we left -- and Leoffweard set out on a fast horse to bring word to Leofdan, away on duty at the Hornburg, and Lithiva, who lived in Brockbridge with her family, so they could come to visit the next day. In all, we spent three days with the family, talking and helping out with the work of a farm during sowing time, and each day, one most extraordinary thing happened. At some point during the day, Kestrel turned up on the farm, just grazing or standing with the draught horses, as if that were the most ordinary thing. Back at the stables of the Mead Hall they didn't know how he'd gotten out, and even when they tried to close up his stall tight, he still left and found the farm, but on reaching it, didn't seem to have anything much he wanted to do there. I worried they might think I were trying to steal him, but not even I'm fool enough to steal him three times and return him each time. Still, what will the Thane think? And where is the Thane, and when will he come back?
