December 937, Bebbanburg

It had not been the easiest few weeks.

Uhtred lay in bed in and out of consciousness and Osthryth had made herself scarce, busying herself with anything that would keep her from thinking about her brother's death, Finan never far away. Benedetta had done the nursing, much to the chagrain of the lady of Bebbanburg.

Young Aelswith.

She was young Uhtred's wife, daughter of Aethelhelm of Wessex, had fallen for young Uhtred when her father campaigned on behalf of Wessex to bring Northumbria under the control of the Wessex crown. She had been the intended wife of Osthryth's cousin, Wihtgar.

Now she was the lady of Bebbanburg and, after Uhtred's fall, was tense and on edge, snapping and screaming at anyone who got in her path. Anyone, most of the time, was Benedetta, Uhtred's lover, whom he had rescued as an ex-slave of Queen Eadgifu, Edward's second wife, and Alaina, a young Saxon girl who had got mixed up in the fighting when Aethelstan tore London to pieces to quell the factions that had supported his half brother, Aelfweard.

Both women were beside themselves with misery and that merely inflamed young Aelswith, who bossed around the servants and demanded that Benedetta and Alaina go out of her sight.

Alaina had found Osthryth one morning, sitting in the secret hatch above Bebbanburg's hall, having been screamed at for arising too early. Osthryth had left Finan sitting beside Uhtred, and come for some peace and quiet.

But she wasn't to get it. A scream had been heard above her, and then another. Alaina had come to find her, to tell Osthryth that Eldrida, the noble girl from the Saxon Cumbraland family which claimed western Northumbria, the old Cymric lands, had thrown herself out of the tower window.

"Show me," Osthryth demanded, and Alaina had climbed down, Osthryth just behind her, and took her over to the rocky promintory, the steepest part of Bebbanburg's cliffs. Osthryth climbed through the rampart foundations and found herself onto a thin strip of land, before sheer cliffs covered in shag and cormorant and shearwater nests.

"What can you see?" Alaina asked, concern in her young voice. She was in her late teens and as precocious as she had been when Uhtred had brought her, with the other freed slaves from London, at the time of Aethelstan's coronation.

"Little," she told the girl. "I can't get her." Or the parts of her she could see. The girl must have been dreadfully unhappy to have ended her life in that way, and Osthryth sympathised - she at least had had the opportunity to flee Bebbanburg. This girl had been sent to a marriage with an old man to secure a land treaty, having been widowed at Bebbanburg, her husband fighting for Aethelstan.

And Aethelstan had been clever to send her, to imply that Cumbraland was Saxon, and not part of Strathclyde. And certainly not part of the Cymric Briton lands that Osthryth had been made aware that they were, hers and now her adopted daughter, Aedre's.

For if they had been, then Anlaf Guthfrithson, Aethelstan's enemy at Brunanburh, was acknowledged to now be their ruler. So Aethelstan had to be seen to show that a marriage alliance cemented the whole of the Northumbrian lands.

"She can not be recovered; I must go to young Uhtred," Osthryth told Alaina. Who was to be found in the upper rooms of Bebbanburg and, in fact, knew about the whole thing.

"Aelswith had gone to speak to her about wedding clothes," young Uhtred told his aunt when she had got to the upper storey. "She threatened to throw herself from the window, and got as far as sitting on the edge." Young Uhtred had then took his wife's hand, all anger gone from the woman now.

"And then she said - " he looked warily to his wife, who picked up her lovely face and turned it to Osthryth.

"She said she knew why she had been sent and she would not allow Uhtred to consummate the marriage. She would not be part of this deal. Before I could say anything, she had gone."

"She could have fled," Osthryth suggested. "She could have left - the gates are not barred, the village is not cut off."

"And go where?" Aelswith asked, her face one of outraged indignation, which made Osthryth remember that ?, like Aelswith, did not have the resourcefulness she had had when fleeing here. This was a different kind of woman, used to peace, used to finer things. Not used to Norse raids, general upheaval and inherent disruption to life. Maybe Osthryth expected more of ? than she could give.

"I will write to Aethelstan, and her father," young Uhtred said. "Tell them of the tragedy. Tell them that she will be buried with care." Osthryth looked doubtfully out of the window and down to the cliffs. Already the corpse was being recycled into seabird food.

"Not that my brother could consummate any marriage as it is," Osthryth said to Finan that night. He looked at Osthryth with sadness as they sat together outside on the ramparts of Bebbanburg. Osthryth found it peaceful there, a habit borne of years and years of watch duties. Even now, with Finan breathing close beside her, his breath making cold puffs of air in the night, she expected to be close to her warriors from Mercia, looking north for Norse and Dane attacks, or west for the Cymric, or south to see whether Wessex was their friend or their foe that night.

Or else the Alba warriors, the mormaers, and her friend, Aeswi, giving her advice, keeping her spirits up, making her think of home and Berric. It was he who had come to give her notice, ahead of the official guard, that Constantine was requisitioning the land and she and Finan were to be refugees.

"You know Aethelstan will likely blame me," she told Finan. "You know he will think I would have ended my brother's chance to marry into Cumbraland and secure it for this country of Englaland?"

"I believe Aethelstan has it called England," Finan told her. "As long as I don't have to be English," he added, vaguely. "And he will have young Uhtred's written testimony, in place of his father, incapacitated as he is."

Incapacitated, Osthryth thought. Unable to make decisions on behalf of his land and his people, unable to be the lord of Bebbanburg. Unable to stand to use a chamber pot or speak more than a few words together, and of these, many were incomprehensible. When they could be discerned, his mind was clearly on the deep past, names came to the fore: Hild, Asser and Leofric- these were ones familiar to Osthryth, but also Eanflaed, Wulfstan and Aelfhere which were familiar to no-one.

"I would have him have the funeral he would wish," Osthryth told Finan. "Keep his sword close to hand, have Benedetta curl his hand around it. He must go to where he believes warriors go."

And us, Finan did not say to Osthryth. What do we believe? Will we turn from ColmCille and to Augustine, and be reconciled before God? Be married?

But Finan did not say this that night, and whether he was going to, Osthryth could not tell. He held her hand and kept hold of it when young Uhtred came to find them, just before dawnbreak, to tell them that his father, Osthryth's brother, Finan's best friend, was dead.