Enchantress Mine by Bertrice Small Page B

wandering. They brought him to their master who kept the rude fellow to amuse his guests. Over and over again the tale was told. With each telling it was embroidered upon until both the lady Godiva and her husband were made to seem the fools for their actions.
    “The story was not allowed to die for years because of Godwin and his family. They were unable to understand the kindness and goodness of heart that caused the lady Godiva to make her ride. Earl Godwin made Mercia a laughingstock at court, but in the end it did him no good.
    “King Edward is a saintly man. He understood the reason behind the lady Godiva’s ride. He honored Earl Leofric, and listened to his wise counsel. Had he not, we Mercians might have totally lost our influence at court. For a time the king even banished Earl Godwin from England, but alas he returned the year before he died, and his influence was stronger than ever. It was because of the king’s kindness that your father swore his fealty first to King Edward. Earl Leofric’s wish before he died and his son, Earl Aelfgar, inherited was that to thank the king for his kindness to the lady Godiva, some of his thegns would swear their first loyalty to Edward. Then to his son.”
    Eada smiled somewhat ruefully. “That is why,” she continued, “the king knows your father and why we are now bound for Byzantium. Still, my lord, I should rather be with you than without you. How strange that in my old age I, who have never traveled in my entire lifetime, am now fated to leave my home. Do you realize, Mairin, that even you have seen more of the world in your few years than I have seen in my thirty-six years? I know that I shall be afraid of the sea.”
    “We will not travel a great distance by sea, my love,” Aldwine reassured his wife. “Most of our journey will be upon land, but it will not be an easy journey. None of the other members of the delegation will be taking their families. You must travel as we would travel. It will be necessary for you to leave your women behind for I cannot bring carts and all manner of fripperies. We must cross various mountain ranges on horseback before the snows of late autumn come. There will be a few comforts, but little danger, as we will be well protected by a contingent of young men who go to join the emperor’s personal guard in Constantinople. I am only sorry that Brand cannot be with us.”
    His words made Eada’s head reel for she could not imagine any world other than her own familiar one and Brand was like her in that he found it difficult to picture that which he could not see. Yet she knew that other worlds existed, and it occurred to her that they were as safe and familiar to their inhabitants as Aelfleah was to her.
    Contrary to his father’s sorrow at having to leave him behind, Brand was not a bit regretful. If he never left England it would not matter a whit to him. He loved his lands, his horses, his dogs, and his falcon. When a wife was chosen for him he would do his best to love her and the children they produced. Unlike his father he was a true Anglo-Saxon. Aldwine Athelsbeorn took more after his Norman grandmother. He was curious about things that did not really concern him.
    Mairin was also excited by the prospect of travel. She had only recently begun to learn Byzantium’s history, and now she badgered her tutor to teach her everything about this fabled remnant of the once mighty Roman Empire. Brother Bayhard willingly complied. He was going to miss teaching Mairin, and although Aldwine Athelsbeorn had found him another position with a family whose manor was just over the Wye, Brother Bayhard knew he would never have another pupil like Mairin. He cherished their last days together.
    Mairin had been at Aelfleah six years. In all that time she had never left the security of the manor. Her whole life it seemed was bound up in this place with its hills and fertile fields, the river, and The Forest. Her memories of Brittany had been softened