Read Online The Edge of Light by Joan Wolf - Free Book Online Page B

woman dressed in a cream-colored gown and blue tunic was threading her purposeful way on foot through the mounted men and the dogs. The shift in the tide had come from the efforts of the riders to draw back from her path. It took Alfred but a moment to recognize the woman as Eadburgh, wife of Ethelred Mucill, and Elswyth’s mother.
    Alfred looked back to Elswyth. She too was watching her mother draw ever closer, and she did not look happy. Before he consciously realized what he was going to do, Alfred was threading his stallion through the maze of horses and dogs, aiming in the direction of the Ealdorman of Gaini and his sister.
    Eadburgh reached them before he did. “Are you mad, Athulf, to allow your sister to make such a display of herself?” Eadburgh was saying in an imperious voice as Alfred’s chestnut came within hearing range of the small family grouping. Then, turning to her daughter, she said, “You are to take that horse back to the stable immediately, Elswyth.”
    Elswyth’s face was stormy. In the bright sun of the courtyard Alfred could see that she still had the beautiful skin of childhood: pearly, close-textured, flawless. Her eyes glittered midnight blue as she looked down at her mother. “Athulf said I might ride with the hunt,” she answered in a furious, husky voice. “I am a better rider than any man here! You know that, Mother. I am in no danger.”
    Alfred halted his horse and eavesdropped shamelessly.
    Eadburgh spoke next, her well-bred voice cold as ice. “You will be in danger from me if you do not get off that horse immediately, Elswyth,” she said.
    “Now, Mother,” Athulf put in placatingly, “I told Elswyth she might come with us. Why deprive the child of her pleasure? She will come to no hurt. I promise I will stay beside her the whole while.”
    Eadburgh s face was as cold as her voice. She started to reply to Athulf, but stopped as she saw another horse approaching. Then, “Ceolwulf!” she said to the new arrival. “Speak to your brother. He is allowing your sister to go on this hunt.”
    So this was the other brother, Alfred thought as he walked his horse forward once more. Ceolwulf’s handsome face bore a distinctly troubled expression. He looked unhappily from his mother to his brother.
    Elswyth said, “Do not seek to draw Ceolwulf into this, Mother. You know how he hates dissension.”
    Alfred’s stallion came to a perfect halt beside her, and he smiled down into her startled face and said charmingly, “Lady Elswyth! I am so pleased to see you are joining my birthday hunt.” He looked from her dark blue eyes to the lighter eyes of Athulf, and thence down to Eadburgh. He raised his brows in surprise, then frowned in concern. “My lady, what are you doing on foot in the midst of all these horses? Allow me to summon one of my men to see you to the safety of your hall.”
    There was nothing Eadburgh could do, as well he knew. He watched with a faint smile as she made him some sort of answer; then he gestured for a groomsman to come escort her from the courtyard. As soon as she was out of earshot he turned to her three children.
    Elswyth was laughing. “Thank you, Prince. I owe you a favor.”
    “You can repay me by not hurting yourself,” Alfred replied.
    Her nose elevated in a gesture that was already becoming familiar to him. Athulf said with amusement, “Small chance of that. It is probably I who will get hurt, trying to keep up with her.”
    Ceolwulf said unhappily, “Mother will be furious. Why must you always defy her, Elswyth?”
    “Mother wants me to be a replica of herself,” Elswyth replied, “but I am not made that way.” Then, with impatient exasperation, “You cannot always please everyone, Ceolwulf. There are times when you must make a choice.”
    The horns blew. Alfred saw Ethelred looking around for him, and with a nod in Elswyth’s direction he squeezed his legs gently and moved forward to rejoin his brother.

    Elswyth was gloriously happy, For