Ragnar the Murderer by Lily Byrne

through her duties as if watching herself from a distance.
    At last bedtime came. She lay in bed with her younger sisters as the darkness enfolded her, still thinking about him and remembering what had happened between them. Oh, how she wanted him again. The thought of Eadbald, his thinning hair, his shifty look, his rotund, flabby body made her feel sick. At last she managed to fall asleep, by thinking that one day, she could divorce Eadbald on grounds of bad treatment, take her recompense and use it to set up home with Ragnar.
    “ Wake up girl!” Cwenburg shook her from her dreams, still in the dark of night.
    “ What is it mother?”
    The little sisters were waking too, rubbing their eyes and yawning.
    “ Get dressed and come with me. Go back to sleep, little ones, it is merely wedding business for Aelfwyn and Mother.”
    Hurrying to obey, Aelfwyn dreaded hearing that Ragnar had been hurt. Had he been so upset at the thought of her marriage he had got into a fight and lost?
    She went to the hearth with her mother.
    “ Eadbald is dead,” she hissed. “Murdered most brutally.”
    Aelfwyn gasped, both in shock and relief. Ragnar had not been hurt! But poor Eadbald, he didn’t deserve death.
    “ So now, your marriage will not happen, obviously. Promise me you did not lie with that Dane. Promise me!”
    “ I- I did not mother.”
    “ So any gossiping can be refuted. Oh, my good girl, the reason for your giggling yesterday must have just been excitement about the wedding.”
    “ Yes. H- How did Eadbald die?”
    “ I don’t know, your father just said brutally. There is much unrest in the village, it doesn’t bode well.”
    In the morning, her father called her to him and they walked out of the village along the path.
    “ Eadbald’s throat was cut and a sword thrust into his buttock. It is a Danish way of humiliating an opponent.”
    “ W-what are you saying, father?”
    “ Your mother tells me you have been seen with a Dane. If he is your lover, he must be a suspect in Eadbald’s death.”
    She gasped. Ragnar surely wouldn’t- would he?
     
     

Endleofan
     
    Aldulf observed his daughter coolly.
    “ This news has spread round the village and the people are angry. Eadbald was a good man and popular. They are angry with the murderer and probably you for inciting the murder.”
    She bit her lip.
    “ Oh, leof, why did you get involved with a Dane? Is your sister’s example not enough warning?”
    “ I- I can’t help my feelings father. I am made of flesh, not stone.”
     
    *  *  *
     
    Ragnar had been called to see Jarl Thorvald in his official room. Roused from his bed in the night as mystified as Aelfwyn he went to the Jarl’s hall.
    The Jarl sat in his usual carved seat, the wood worn smooth by generations of his family using it. His room had the only window in the hall, as befitted his status, and the chair stood by it. A door led to the bedroom he shared with his wife.  The cooking smells from the hall wafted into the room, and Thorvald took a deep breath of fresh air from the window.
    Ragnar approached and stood awkwardly in front of him.
    “ My lord?”
    “ Sit.” He gestured to the small bench at the side of the room, so Ragnar obeyed.
    “ An eminent Anglian has been murdered. He was betrothed to an Anglisc woman you have been seen with. What do you know about it?”
    “ I- I don’t know anything.”
    “ Who can vouch for you being in the Huskarlr longhouse all night?”
    Ragnar paused. He hadn’t been on duty, he had been asleep. He used to share a bench with Bjarni but of course he now slept in his hut with his wife. The other Huskarlr had been coming and going, had any of them noticed him?
    “ I don’t know. Have you asked?”
    “ I wanted to ask you first. Can you swear on your sword you had nothing to do with this murder?”
    “ Of course I can! I didn’t murder Eadbald! I wouldn’t do that.” Ragnar suddenly realised he had left his sword, Hauknautr in the longhouse, as