Dwarf wives

Medieval 6: K and Y 14 And Back Again, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Kirstie

When they got to Brant’s house, Soren came running. He gave Wilam a big hug. Kirstie put her hands on her hips and huffed. “He is my son too,” Wilam said, and after a second, Kirstie nodded, and thought that thanks to Wilam, the boy had a family. That was important, and not something Kirstie could give him. She would not mind giving him a baby sister, though. She looked again at Wilam and had all sorts of thoughts.

Soren took Yrsa’s hand as they walked into the house. He wanted to introduce Yrsa to his grandma and grandpa, and his other grandma, and his three uncles, though they kept trying to tell him only two were actual uncles.

“I might as well be invisible,” Kirstie said.

“Not to me.” Wilam slipped his arm around her shoulders.

They went inside, and on sight of Wilam, his mother Wilburg began to cry for Mary Katherine. They sent word, and some of the crew that lived in Lucker certainly spread the news, but seeing her eldest son triggered some serious tears in the woman, and her lifelong friend Eadgyd cried some with her.

Kirstie left Wilam’s protective arm to hug both women. She took Soren and Yrsa out back to check on Birdie and Missus Kettle. The dwarf wives appeared content with their work, but Kirstie knew that was not exactly true.

“You know,” Birdie said. “Now, after a month, with Wilburg’s arm mostly healed, and Eadgyd’s leg healed to where she can get around, I just don’t feel needed anymore.” She sighed a great sigh and looked down at the mud that surrounded the kitchen area.

“Not me,” Missus Kettle the cook said. “I got my hands full feeding four boys and the old man. Wilburg and Eadgyd say they don’t know what they would do without me, or how I manage to cook so much so well. I will say, though, it would help if I had Buckles, my husband here. He is a most excellent hunter and could help supplement these meagre rations I have to work with.”

Kirstie counted. “Hrothgar, Ecgberht, and Godric. Four boys?”

“Soren counts,” she said. “He is getting to be a good little eater.”

Of course. How could she forget her own son? She smiled for him and turned to the dwarf wives. “So, here is what we will do.” She hugged Birdie before she clapped her hands. Birdie went back to Norway, to her husband Booturn and Buckles appeared by his wife.

Buckles shouted for a moment. Missus Kettle hit him on the head with her cooking spook and he spouted, “Oh, it’s you.”

It did not take long to explain the situation, and Buckles said he would be glad to help out. Missus Kettle banged her cooking spoon against the big kettle on the fire and all three boys showed up. She had them well trained. “Hrothgar, Ecgberht, and Godric. This is Buckles. He is an excellent hunter and trapper, and he will teach you, if you want to learn.”

“What happened to Birdie?” Ecgberht asked.

“She had to go home,” Kirstie answered.

“We didn’t even get to say goodbye?” Godric whined.

“I am sure she will miss you too,” Kirstie said. “But now, you need to listen to Buckles here. He is Missus Kettle’s husband and will help keep the food on the fire.”

“Good thing,” Hrothgar said. “With Father Espen and his bad knee, we could use the help. Our supplies are running a bit thin.”

“Buckles will also go with you when it is time to harvest the crops on Espen’s farm, maybe in a month or so. That should help see us through the winter.”

“Some for God, some for the tax, some to eat, and some to sell is what I always try to get from my farm,” Espen said as he hobbled outside to take a seat by the fire. “Don’t know how I’m going to be able to plant again in the spring. I don’t know.”

Kirstie quickly introduced Buckles, and Buckles spoke. “The lady has asked me to help and that is what I intend to do. We will work out the spring in the spring. First, we got a fall harvest to plan, and then the winter meat to feed this lot.” He sounded very reassuring and did not have a single complaint about having so much work to do. It was very un-dwarf-like. “I hope you don’t mind if I teach your sons a thing or two about the hunt.”

Espen slowly nodded as Buckles smiled. “I would appreciate that very much,” Espen said, and almost went to tears as he thought with his busted knee, he might never be able to teach his sons as a good father should. Ecgberht, at seventeen, had the basics, but Godric at fourteen hardly learned how to string his bow and properly hold his spear.

Wilam and Brant came to the back door, and Brant said, “We need to do it.”

“Do what?” Kirstie asked.

“We are packing everyone up and moving back to the farm,” Wilam said.

“Now that the immediate threat of Vikings is over, the farm has food to harvest for the winter and plenty of trees nearby for firewood and to hunt,” Brant said.

“Not to mention the farmhouse has more room, and the Barn is big and can be fixed up for living quarters,” Wilam added.

“I don’t know where the animals might be,” Espen interrupted. “Probably taken by the neighbors or stolen.”

Wilam and Kirstie both looked at Yrsa and she opened up. “I asked Lord Marsham. Lupen and Flora, a very nice couple volunteered to watch the farm over this last month. They are very good with the animals.”

“Couple of skinny doodles.” Buckles shrugged like he did not mind too much. “No offence, Princess,” he added for Yrsa.

Kirstie just stared at Yrsa until Yrsa defended herself. “Lady. Alm and I have been overseeing your farm for years now. We have gotten very good at knowing who will enjoy the work and do a good job. Lupen and Flora have even gotten a few local gnomes to help. Everything will be in good shape when we arrive.”

Kirstie nodded as Soren finally climbed up into her lap and gave her a hug. “We are going back to the farm,” she told him.

“Are we going home?” Soren asked. He sounded a little homesick, but also like he did not want to lose his grandparents and uncles. Kirstie just hugged him back.

It took three days to close up the house in Lucker and move everyone to Ellingham. The neighbors were glad to see them, and welcomed Brant, Hrothgar, and Eadgyd as family. Most already knew Brant. It took another week to get settled in, but then the routine of plain old farm work took over and kept them busy enough.

Kirstie imagined she became pregnant in September. She felt certain in October, but she did not say anything until November, after the harvest. Wilam got excited like a child at Christmas. Kirstie just smiled a lot. She figured she would deliver either June fifteenth or July fifteenth, although last time, Inga calculated her due date as March fifteenth and Soren was born on the sixth, so maybe she delivered a week early. July fifteenth was most likely, but she would not mind June. She should be home well before then, she imagined.

The fall went by fast, and the winter dragged, as winters do. As much as Soren loved his grandparents and uncles, he got terribly bored and ready to go home by his birthday on the sixth of March. Brant and Wilam set things up in the fall. Despite the Viking raid, the smithies kept their forges hot and produced some fine goods for trade. In March, they only had to collect it all and get it to Captain Olaf in Bamburgh.

Medieval 6: K and Y 10 Trouble at Home, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Kirstie

Kirstie looked at Yrsa who sat on the floor with Soren. He looked ready to take a nap.

“Go on,” Yrsa said. “Soren and I will be fine.”

Wilam and Kirstie stepped outside and saw their things piled up in front of the door. They paused long enough to take their things inside as Wilam told Yrsa. “The wagon driver abandoned us.”

“I don’t blame him,” Yrsa said. “A Viking raid can be frightening.”

“No telling who might still be around,” Wilam said as the couple turned to head into the village center.

Kirstie shook her head. “They are all on the road back to the coast with whatever they took from the town. You can be sure none of them are around where they might be caught and killed.”

Wilam understood that. He also looked at the faces of the dead, but they were mostly faces he grew up around. It appeared that roughly three locals died for every one Viking, and this was a village of former mostly Danish Vikings who settled on the land. Brant’s father was a Norseman, but it amounted to the same thing. Still, the invaders took a three to one toll. They must have surprised the village, like at dawn when people were asleep or just waking up.

“Wilam.” They were found. A young man ran to them. Kirstie guessed it was Hrothgar, Brant’s baby brother. “Father is over here,” he said and led them to the entrance of the longhouse. The man was dead, and several others died around him. Several Viking raiders died in the entrance to the longhouse as well.

“Father Sven,” Wilam touched the man, but he was gone.

“Father made me go inside,” Hrothgar said. “He said I would be the backup in case the raiders got passed him and into the building.” He paused and let out some tears. “I didn’t know what to do. It was all so frightening and sudden.”

“Come on,” Wilam said, kindly. “We must go home. Eadmund does not have long to live.”

“Eadmund?” Hrothgar said, and he took off running.

“Wilam.” an older man stopped them from following Hrothgar. “I hid behind the grocer’s shop. I heard them talking. They are going to Ellingham before they return to their ships.”

Wilam said nothing. He looked in the direction of his home, grabbed Kirstie’s hand and they ran to the house.

Wilam and Brant’s horses were still out in front of Brant’s house, saddled, and ready to ride. “Hurry,” Wilam said, but Kirstie did not know how to ride a horse. She was just thinking of getting some and learning. She had not actually done it yet, but she did have one option. The Princess was practically born on horseback.

“Ready,” Kirstie said and traded places through time with the Princess. She came in her armor, her sword at her back and her long knife across the small of her back. She leapt up on the horse, but then had to let Wilam take the lead. They rode flat out for the hour and arrived at a farm where the Vikings were just leaving. Wilam got down to run into the house. The Princess stood on her horse’s back and let an arrow fly. Her arrow was hardly a perfect shot, but she caught one of the Vikings in the leg.

Kirstie came back as soon as the Princess dismounted. She followed Wilam into the house. She saw the two boys, Ecgberht and Godric, down by the barn where they hid. Wilam’s Stepfather Espen sat in the kitchen with a deep wound in his side. His mother, Wilburg looked covered in blood. She had a broken arm and cried as she tried to stop Espen from bleeding to death.

“Look out,” Greta said. Wilam recognized her and pulled his mother aside. Greta spread an ointment to numb the pain in the man’s side, and also some ointment on the man’s knee where he had been cut. The knee looked crushed. She got her thread back out and immediately began to stitch the side closed while she spoke. “I don’t know if anything vital had been cut. All I can do is close the wound and hope that it heals.” When she finished, she looked at the knee, clicked her tongue, and looked at the man who was awake and not in too much pain because of the anesthetic ointment.

“What?” he asked.

Greta turned to Wilam’s mother. Her broken arm was easy to set, a clean break, and she found some wood to make a temporary splint and some cloth to make a sling. She spoke to Espen.

“If you are stubborn enough to survive, you will limp after this, but you must stay off your leg for a month or you will not survive.” She had a different ointment with some antibiotic properties she spread against infection, and she set what bones in his knee that she could and wrapped the leg and his side with the cleanest cloth she could find in the house, but it would be up to the man to rest and stay off his leg and not lift anything that might stress his side.

“Your wife?” Espen pointed at Greta.

“Not exactly,” Wilam said. “Sort of,” he said, which confused his mother and father. Greta thought it best to go outside before she let Kirstie come back. When she did, she called to the boys down by the barn. They were already running to the house, and when they arrived, they yelled.

“They took Mary Katherine. They took Mary Kathrine.”

Wilam wanted to mount up immediately and chase the Vikings, but Kirstie would not let him. “You will just get yourself killed,” she said. “Let the Princess track them. You and me alone will not help matters. We need an army.”

Wilam wanted to argue, though he knew she was not wrong. He turned to his brothers. “Ecgberht, get out the wagon and hitch up the mule. Godric, help. Kirstie and I will ride carefully to town to see what has transpired. If the Vikings have left, we may stop to gather some men to help. You need to get Mother and Father in the wagon with plenty of blankets to cushion their injuries and head for Lucker. Go to the Svenson house and stay there until I come for you.

“Why can’t we stay here?” Mother Wilburg asked.

“You and Father are in no condition to take care of yourselves, and neither is Brant’s mother. Brant’s father is gone. The Vikings attacked Lucker first before coming here. Hrothgar survived and with Ecgberht and Godric you will be surrounded by boys who can protect you if the Vikings return. I don’t know about supper. None of you should be cooking and such.” Wilam paused to look at Kirstie.

“Birdie and Missus Kettle,” Kirstie decided. She clapped her hands and the two dwarf wives appeared. Kirstie explained the special assignment and also explained about the wounds, then Wilam and Kirstie, or rather the Princess mounted up and went to town. The Vikings apparently stole some wagons. They piled up all their stolen loot from Lucker and Ellingham and drove the wagons toward the sea.

The trail should be easy to follow,” the Princess said. “But we need men to go with us. Just the two of us will not do any good.”