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say the timbers came from a Viking boat. When my ancestors rowed here, upriver from the open sea, they made their first fort where they had beached their long -ship. And when they built a stone keep to take the place of their wooden fort they used those same wood beams to roof their hall. Those Viking lords were thrifty men, wasting nothing, taking all.'
    His words conjured up a day when that quiet landscape below had been rent by war and death. So might yet Henry's men come after us. He clasped his good hand on my shoulder.
    ‘That was centuries ago,' he said, comforting. 'And Henry's men too are long since gone. You must not fear Henry, Ann. There is a rhyme that all know here. Remember it when you feel afraid.'
    He pursed his lips, whistled the tune as Walter, my squire, might have done, than sang:

    No love ever has been due
Betwixt the Counts of Sieux 
And bastards of Anjou.

    Except the word he used for 'love' was a soldier's phrase. And he had an even coarser term for 'bastard.' I had to laugh.
    'There,' he said, 'I have made you smile after all. Your father, Falk, taught me that tune.'
    He hesitated. I think he searched for words. To bring a wife back to Sieux was a new experience for him. I have not yet had wife or children to my bed, once he told me,  but if you will, I shall lie with you until it is you who cries cease. But that was lust, not love. Two-Handed Raoul, who could have any woman in the land, also had to learn that paramour and wife are not quite the same; he too had to become used to me.
    He said, 'I have told you, Lady Ann, of all my grandfather's friends, the man he trusted most was your father, Falk. When I was sent for safety to Sieux as a child, Falk brought me here. Falk took me hunting for the first time. We rode together on his gray Cambray horse. And he cuffed me soundly afterward for spoiling his aim. He taught me the value of keeping quiet; he taught me how to use my eyes and ears. He taught me too how to fight.'
    He said, almost formally, 'Sieux was Falk's home for many years. He loved it well. So may it be his daughter's home, safe for her and her child.'
    Well, long ago, ten years ago, when I had lost all that I loved at one time, brother, father, friends, Cambray, I had never thought to have love given back to me. Yet so it was, and Raoul the man that God had given me to love. Out of all hope had Raoul escaped from certain death and been restored to lands and titles. Out of all hope had he married me. Yet I was a bride he had been forced to take, a wife he had not looked to have. A king had ordered him to wed. Out of loyalty to me who had been loyal to him, he had married me to give my child a name. A courteous man, he would show me courtesy. You will never know if he loves you —so had the lady of the moors warned. Perhaps she was right. Love in marriage is much to hope for. But where love is, it is a gift that is freely bestowed. It cannot demand a similar love in return. Scarce three months ago I did not know if Raoul still lived. If God had given us each other back, if God had made us man and wife, surely, I thought, that too was for a cause? What I looked for at Sieux was not rank or fame. All I wanted was an interlude, a time of peace, a respite from other men's wars, and a chance to show Raoul my love. I did not think then, nor do I now, that was overmuch of happiness to ask.
    Perhaps Raoul hoped as much himself. Releasing me, he picked up an old horn beaker and filled it full. Behind us, his men raised their goblets in silent toast. In silence we drank the bitter wine. Safely home. Was not that also something the lady of the moors had promised?
    Pray God, I thought as we mounted for the last ride down to the river plains. Pray God for safety for my noble lord; pray God for safety for my child.

2

    I suppose, as I rode along those last miles, thinking on these things, my pace had slackened. But when I noticed it did not matter, for Lord Raoul was not