This little idea popped into my head today and I decided to just roll with it. I think this is going to be my 'just for fun' fic and I am not planning on doing any historical research and am I going to stress if a plot hole or two arises. I am just going to sit down, type (lightly edit), and publish. The story is canon divergent, but I am going to try and keep everyone in character. I hope you enjoy.
Nightfall
"Hello, my name is Duke Rollo and I am a very great and important man." He repeated back to the old man. It was the way they started every lesson with phrases he already knew and then new ones he would be expected to master. Over the last few weeks things had been going well he was picking up more Frankish phrases daily and understanding more conversation around him.
Today was different though, he knew he was stumbling over the words he had already perfected. His mind was distracted and flighty. He could not escape the feeling there was a soft buzzing behind one of his ears like a fly was trapped in the room with him.
"Rollo, Rollo do you hear me?" Abbot Lupus said, breaking into Rollo's thoughts.
Rollo shook his head trying to shake the feeling of the fly away. "Yes I heard you. Err…what is it you wanted?"
"I asked you to repeat after me 'I hail from the land of Rouen.'"
Rollo creased his eyebrows and he concentrated his thoughts before he began to speak. "I hail– from– the land of– Row-en."
Abbot Lupus shook his head, "No again. Watch my lips, 'I hail from the land of Rouen.'"
He tried once more, the words feeling heavy on his lips, "I hail from the land of Roo-en."
The old man waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss the way Rollo had said the word, "No. Watch," he said pointing to his lips, "Rou-en."
"Ro- Ro- Roo." He shook his head in frustration, "Whatever." He muttered in his own tongue and then stared down at the floor.
From the corner of his eye he could see the old man approaching, but he did not want to look up.
"Rollo, what is the matter? You were saying these words perfectly only yesterday." Abbot Lupus said.
It took Rollo a moment before answering. To a lesser man he would not have said, but the strange little priest had wormed his way into his affections. Rollo could still remember how not so long ago he had tossed the man across the floor during the first lesson. Yet, when he returned the next day the priest was standing and ready to teach. As if nothing had happened. The Franks must be made of sterner stuff than the Angles. And Rollo supposed that there was a certain kind of strength in fearlessly 'turning the other cheek' as Lupus had later gone on to tell him.
"What did the red priest want this morning?" Rollo asked still looking down at the floor.
"The red priest is called a Cardinal." Abbot Lupus chided, "And do you truly not know? Your Frankish has improved greatly. I thought you would understand."
"I- understood, but I still would like you to tell me."
"The Cardinal came to serve you the papers of divorce." Abbot Lupus answered though he was sure his pupil already understood this much.
Rollo snapped the quill in his hands in two. It was like he could feel his life falling apart again. "How can she be divorcing me? I have not beaten her. I have not even laid a hand on her."
A wry smile crossed the abbot's face, "Yes it is true you have not touched her, which is the problem. She wanted to be granted the divorce because the marriage had not been consummated."
Rollo's eyebrows creased, "What is that word, con-sum-mated? I do not know it."
"It means you have not known her, as a man knows a wife."
"Ahh, sex." Rollo said with a nod. He did not understand why they had so many strange words for things that did not even mean what they were truly thinking.
Another question crossed Rollo's mind, "Why did Gisla become so upset with the Card-i-nal?" Rollo asked trying out the new word.
"Do you remember when I revealed that you had been baptized?" The abbot asked waiting for Rollo to give him a sign he understood. "It is one thing to divorce and disgrace a heathen, it is another to do it to a Christian man. The Cardinal is now hesitant to end the marriage and wishes to return to the Vatican to seek council on this."
Rollo dismissively shook his head, "Your ways are strange," he commented, "how long?"
"How long until what?"
"How long until he returns and she is able to truly divorce me?"
"At least a month, I think. Maybe a little longer."
Rollo felt as if his heart was covered with frost. That was not a very long time. "Is there nothing to be done?" He asked. His voice giving the slightest quiver in despair.
Abbot Lupus considered his question for a moment and then answered, "You could always lie with her. She would not be able to leave you then."
"But how could that be? She will have nothing to do with me no matter what I try. She has even denied me from her chambers at night."
"Denied?" Lupus asked in curiosity.
"No…not denied, but would you like to sleep next to a screaming, sobbing girl each night? They have given me another chamber. And she posts a guard."
"Have you tried speaking with her?"
"I…no." Rollo answered as the feeling of hopelessness settled in him.
"You should try. Your Frankish has quite good. She would be able to understand you."
"I do not even know what I would say to her. Her hate for me is so great." Rollo said in resignation.
"Perhaps if she saw you conversing with someone else. You never speak to anyone other than me."
"That is because I do not wish to speak to anyone, but her! The others understand me well enough without Frankish words."
A spark of mirth entered the abbot's eye, and he asked "Is that because you strike them until they understand?"
Rollo could not help but give a soft chuckle at this, "Perhaps." A silence drifted between them and washed the light heartedness from the room.
"Is there nothing else that can be done?" Rollo asked again.
"Unless you execute your marital rights with her, I can think of nothing." Abbot Lupus answered truthfully.
"I have no desire to force myself upon her." Rollo said in resignation.
The abbot nodded, "Then I suggest you bring your thoughts to something else. Repeat after me 'Rouen…"
Historical Note: Rollo brings up not beating Gisla as point because contrary to popular belief a viking woman could not divorce her husband for any reason there were only a few, the main one being domestic abuse.
