“Huzzy!” she screamed, “who are you that would burn us in our beds?” and then she walked to the door and cried “Fire!” and in a moment men came running with vessels filled with water, and they tore the hangings down and in ten minutes, so well they wrought, that they had quenched all the flames.
Then Torfrida, dizzy and sick with the blows she had received, stole out of the door unnoticed in the smoke and confusion, and turned along the corridor, thinking to throw herself from the battlements. She passed swiftly along a maze of narrow passages till she found a stair; up this she ran and presently felt a breath of wind, and turned to face it thinking it might come from the battlements. She sped along, staggering much from the blows she had received, till she saw a door and pushed it open and, lo! she found herself in a large hall and before her stood the big red-faced stout woman who had struck her. Torfrida screamed and begged for mercy.
“Ha, huzzy! thou wert thinking to escape. My son wed thee, forsooth! Thou imp of evil! thou witch! Wouldst burn us in our beds! I will teach thee better manners,” and she seized her by the wrist with one hand and beat her with the other till the blood flowed from her nose and mouth and she sank down in a swoon. Then the woman got water and threw it over her and picked her up like an infant, and taking her into another room laid her upon a bed and left her, locking the door as she went. And presently the old tire-woman came in and when she saw her she wept. “Then she hath beaten thee, poor child. No wonder the king cannot live with so great a brute!” And she washed the blood from Torfrida’s nose and mouth and kissed her and put cold bandages round her head. “Ah, thou wert foolish not to give way as I told thee and wed the prince without ado, for he will defend thee from her, and I will wait upon thee and love thee, for I have nothing else to love.”
Knowing she could not move her, Torfrida thanked the woman and bid her go and return in an hour, and she said, “I charge ye, good woman, tell no one of the usage I have received at this dame’s hands, for it puts shame upon me.”
In an hour the wife returned and found Torfrida calm and white and bland, with a smile upon her face, and her manner was decided and she no longer craved for help.
“Go, good wife,” she said, “and tell the prince, thy master, that an he loves me he must leave me to-night. I am ill and sore and weary with the rough handling and rough riding, for tell him women have not the strength of men; but I know thy master is a soldier and brave, they say, and would not needlessly distress a maiden even if he loved her not. Now I charge you, my woman, speak him fair as I speak,” added she, “for an thou dost not thou shalt be no woman of mine when I am queen of thy master’s hearth.”
“Now thou speakest, my lady, and I will do thy bidding, as I would be thy tire-woman, for well I know thou art a great lady and a king’s daughter.”
Then she went below and entered the hall where sat the prince at the board, fierce, impatient, and flushed. At his side were his companions, wild, loose sots, half soldiers, half forest robbers. Among them were many of the native Britons of Lothian of the race of Gwynedd, who had entered the service of the conqueror that they might keep their lands, even though below them was a sturdy race of clansmen full of the spirit of nationality and true to the nation of the Southern Albanich or Picts to which their land of Gododin had been joined, and friendly also to the stronger nation of the Northern Picts. These men, deserted by their natural chiefs, were waiting only for the leadership of a few strong men to take up arms against the Anglian settlers. In the Pentland and Muirfoot hills, and indeed in all the hill country, the Britons and Picts had been able to hold their own. At the prince’s board were also one or two soldiers of fortune or outlaws of the nation of the South Picts and the rest Northumbrians, Mercians, Lindeseymen, and men from other quarters, a motley throng. At the side of the prince stood a priest of unpleasant feature and shifty eye. At the other end of the table opposite the prince was a vacant chair, richly embroidered and draped with crimson and cloth of gold; to right and left of this sat the ladies of the chiefs. When he saw that the tire-woman had not Torfrida with her, the prince looked angry, but when she delivered her message his wrath was mollified for, be it said, he had great fear of his father’s captain and of his father, who loved only the fair fight, and within him was a foreboding of evil; but if the lady were going to prove willing what could her lover or the king have to complain of if they married? He could then spread it abroad that the lady had fled with him to escape from her squire. And was it not easy to believe that she should choose him instead of a beggarly captain! And so he smiled and sent back a message to her that she must be of good cheer, for nothing should she lack that gold might buy. So the wife returned and Torfrida retired to her bedchamber and tried to sleep. In the morning the woman entered.
“How doth my lady this morning?”
“Nay, I am weary and will not rise to-day.”