Waelden moved too, linking our arms to stand closer. He looked at me a moment. We both wanted a home, but as yet the future was uncertain.
"I didn't know we had any empty houses in the village,” Hild continued, then she paused to think further. “There has been some talk that 3 Colt Road could be up for sale, but I can’t actually see it happening yet. And there is the old Captain’s house. There are rumours he may not return from Edoras.”
“We’re staying with Northgyth for now. But it remains to be seen for how long.” Waelden turned back to give a reply, then nodded as two platters appeared at the hatch.
“Ah, Northgyth! Well she is a fine woman. She will take care of you, if you are worth taking care of.” Hild tapped at the side of her nose as she moved to take up the fresh platters. Both had thickly cut bread, sliced cheese and mutton on it. There were a handful of early berries too. I had only ordered the meat, but it seemed I got the rest in this place anyway.
“Northgyth is a fine woman from all I have heard,” said Waelden, taking up a platter and moving to take a seat at the nearby table.
I only nodded in agreement. I did not add what I knew about Northgyth. That was for her alone to grant. For now at least, Waelden didn’t need to know, though I was loathe not to tell him. And if Hild didn’t know, well that was Northgyth’s choice. I took up the second platter and moved to the table, taking out my small eating knife.
“Thank you Hild...and Brona...it’s just what I wanted.”
“Aye,” Waelden added. “Same here. That looks perfect for tonight.”
Ever helpful, Hild walked round to stand by our table. “Northgyth has been here a long time, twenty winters at least, I think. Her son was killed several years ago.” She scratched at the comb holding her hair. “An accident, it was said. Then her husband left on a mission, from Aldburg, but has never been seen since. It’s a shame. But she is so ..oh..stern looking and yet so kind to others. We say she is a widow. Her man was never reported dead, but you know, he most likely is.”
That partly tied in with what I knew! Only partly.
“There is always a chance.” Waelden looked at me a moment. Then he took a piece of meat and cheese together between two thick pieces of bread.
“My man, Rekkr, is away in Snowbourn for a couple of months. Business, unfortunately. Nothing to do with the tavern in this case, but we must do what we can to make ends meet. It’s always a worry when the men are away, eh Yllfa?”
I finished the mutton I had just cut before I replied. “Waelden has only been away from me once, so far.” I smiled warmly at him. “But aye, I was concerned. I suspect any who love another are?”
Lowering his sandwiched meat and cheese a moment, Waelden smiled back. “Only once, though it will likely be more. Don’t worry needlessly about me.”
“I don’t, if I can see you are safe, dear,” I whispered back. He grinned knowingly.
Unable to make anything of our exchange, Hild changed the topic. “Have you met our sergeant Thilwend yet?”
"Oh we have. A strong and ready woman that," Waelden exclaimed. He finished the last of his meal, and wiped his mouth, then sat back contentedly in his chair.
Hild chuckled, taking up his now empty platter. “Aye, she is that. She has run a strict camp down there, if the guards are to be believed. But she wants us all safe. We know that. There have been attacks nearby of late.”
Waelden nodded.”Yes, we’ve noticed.” He drained the rest of his mug and asked for a refill.
But Hild paused,her eyes questioning. "Ah, you are the family from that farm that was burnt recently? Orcs, was it?"
And he was no longer quite at ease. Casting a sudden glance at me, Waelden sat upright again. This was no time to make idle chat about our adversary.
Not appearing to notice the change in mood, Hild took up his mug and refilled it to the brim again, before hurrying back.
“Thank you.” Waelden started drinking his ale, but he was quieter now, he was wary.
"Orcs, then?” said Hild.
I had to divert the conversation. “You have venison and boar too?" I asked her. "Are there hunters that go out from here for fresh meat?” I cut up the last of my mutton, then wiped my plate with the remaining bread.
Sitting herself down on a chair she dragged over from an empty table, Hild nodded. “ There are several, aye. We have our own sheep and cows, though mostly they are for wool and milk, but often some of the villagers, well those that can, go on boar hunts. The Thane sometimes organises them."
“So never really a shortage of food here?”
Hild shook her head. “Not that I have known. As long as some carcasses are salted and properly stored before winter, we are fine. We sometimes send supplies through to Edoras.”
But I could see from the corner of my eye that Waelden’s mood had changed somewhat, and that he was beginning to look tired. “Perhaps finish your ale, and we go back to the house?”
“Already working on it, dear.”
I lent over to rub the tendons in his shoulder and neck a little, as much as I could through the thick woolen tunic he wore.
Hild smiled, sensing it was the end of her first ‘getting to know us’ talk. She rose to her feet. “'A couple of ales can send you to sleep if you are already tired. And there is always lots to do the next day. Look here, you are in a good place with Northgyth. And if you want to meet more neighbours, well, come to the Roaring Dragon, or take a walk around. Most folk are friendly.”
“I've gotten that impression from the whole village, so far. I quite like it here.” Waelden drained the last of his ale. “Just the way I like my villages, really.”
Finishing my attempt at easing any tension, I stopped rubbing his shoulders and got to my feet. “Thank you for being so welcoming, Hild. And thank you for the food and ale. We will speak with Ethel in the morning about meeting Brona, if that is alright?”
“Thank you for the company on my quietest night of the week,” Hild shot back, with a disarming smile. “Now get your man back home before he sleeps at the bar. We have space downstairs, but that’s used for other things…”
“Heh. Aye, some sleep is needed... in a bed preferably.” Walden also rose to his feet. It was as if the exhaustion of the previous days had suddenly struck him.
We walked slowly back to the house. His mood remained quieter, more reflective.
“Come on, Greybeard. Lets rest up, aye. We can think more clearly in the morning.”
But as we reached the short lane to Northgyth’s, house, he looked up. “What about a short walk by the water’s edge, eh, she-wolf? Let’s not go back indoors like this.”
My senses told me to get him to rest, but he sounded just a little more himself again. So we walked a bit further over the fields, till we could loudly hear the running of the river. The best way down did not lie on Northgyth’s land, but by a short walk over the aforementioned Captain’s land. We looked to the distant house. There were no candles lit. No sounds.
“No one will mind, “ Waelden said, most likely truthfully from what we had already gleaned. “We can just sit by the river a little.”
“With our feet in the water?”
He grinned. “With whatever you want in the water, there are none to speak against us.”
I chuckled in response. Tired though he was, there was still some life in him this night. I had familiar visions of us turning up in an hour or two’s time, soaking wet, and laughing, and Ethel sitting up waiting on us. What was it she had said some of those evenings when we had to lodge in Edoras, and he and I had ridden out a little to spend some time alone? “Adults! What am I to do with you? I am not a child you know. You are setting me a bad example.”
“Explore the riverbank?” I suggested, knowing we would end up in the water, and feeling just a little like a child again myself. How was it he could bring that out in me so easily?
But he was already away, a new lease of life it seemed as he climbed up over the rocks.
“Oh, this is interesting.”
I clambered up as fast as I could, but he was gone. Then his voice carried back from further up-stream. “Come on she-wolf, keep up, or I will have to put you on a leash!”
‘Unless I put a leash on you first, dear’ I muttered to myself with amusement. I jumped over the next rock, clambering up the bank in case he planned on making this some sort of game of who was the swiftest and surest of foot. He was feeling better. And that’s when we found it. A wooden door, almost rotten with age, in the rock. And behind it, what looked through the cracks to be a cave with something silver-lit and gleaming to the back. There was a soft tinkling sound. A waterfall? We looked to each other in silent agreement, opened the door, though it almost fell off its hinges, and walked in.
