Warwolfe (de Wolfe Pack Book 0)(47)

In all, it was a bustling place. Chaotic, even. Gunnora and a man the presumed to be her majordomo indicated for the knights to sit at a table near the door and they did. As the knights settled down, they were followed by their squires who removed weaponry and anything else that made it difficult to sit. From that moment forward, it was a meal unlike anything Ghislaine had ever seen before.

The men were weary; she knew that. They were all weary from battles and travel. Gunnora and her servants brought out drinking vessels which were, in some cases, hollowed-out horns from cattle. Those went to most of the men while Gaetan and Téo received glass bowls to drink from, evidently quite an honor. Gaetan thanked Lady Gunnora in her own tongue as she and her servants filled their cups to the rim with sweet beer, literally beer sweetened with honey. It was fermented for quite a long time and had quite a bite to it, but the knights drank it gratefully as food was brought to the table.

It was simple fare for the most part but it was plentiful – cabbage potage flavored with garlic, onions, white carrots, butter, and copious amounts of bread. The knights dug in to the food as Gunnora and her servants catered to them, delivering the first of the roast pig before anyone else was served. There was an entire leg on the table that the knights began cutting from with their daggers, pulling off big slabs of roasted pork. It was a feast fit for a king.

Only when they had sliced off their fill did Ghislaine even try to take any food. She was on the end of the table where Jathan was, both of them seated far down the table from the knights. For Jathan, that was where he usually ate and for Ghislaine, she didn’t want to put herself in the middle of feasting knights who only days before had been her enemy. Perhaps the still were. She assumed they would want to sup without her seated amongst them. In any case, she sat at the opposite end of the table with Gunnora and enjoyed her meal.

In fact, she was enjoying it immensely. It was more food than she’d had in several days but Camulos had followed her into the hall and she found herself sharing her meal with the dog because she couldn’t avoid his pathetic doggy stare. As she stuffed herself with the succulent pork, Gunnora seemed to be paying more attention to the Norman knights.

“My dear, they are quite attractive, aren’t they?” Gunnora hissed at her giddily. “Are they all married?”

Ghislaine glanced down the table at the group. “I would not know,” she said. “I do not know that much about them.”

“Then why are you with them? Are you a liaison on behalf of Edwin?”

Ghislaine shook her head. “Nay,” she said, not wanting to tell Gunnora about their missing man because the woman, as kind as she was, had a big mouth. Ghislaine didn’t think that was the type of thing Gaetan would want spread around. “I… I am their guide. They do not know Mercia as I do, so I am helping them find their way.”

“But where are they going?”

“North.”

Gunnora’s curiosity wasn’t satisfied but she could sense that Ghislaine didn’t wish to speak of why she was accompanying the Normans. She leaned into the woman and whispered.

“Are you their prisoner?” she asked. “Are they forcing you to do this?”

They were, in fact, but Ghislaine didn’t tell her so. Gunnora wouldn’t understand why, exactly, she was being forced, so it wouldn’t do to upset the woman. Therefore, Ghislaine simply shook her head.

“Of course not,” she said. “Have you been well, Gunnora? I have not seen you in a very long time.”

She was deliberately trying to change the subject but Gunnora, who didn’t have much female company, was glad to tell her of her life since the two last saw one another.

“I have been well,” she said. “Papa has a man he wishes for me to marry but nothing can come of it until he returns from the north. I believe he said that he was going to fight with Edwin. They were to hold off the Danes.”

Ghislaine nodded. “That is true,” she said. “But that was some time ago. Your father should be returning very soon.”

Gunnora shrugged, turning to her food. “I wish it would be soon. Why did you not go north with Edwin, Ghislaine? You always fight with your brother.”

Ghislaine was focused on her food as well, hearing the soft laughter of the knights down the table and wondering what they were laughing about. Glancing at them, she could see their camaraderie, the warmth in their expressions when they looked at each other. She wondered what it was like to know such companionship, for it was something she’d never experienced.

Certainly, she had men she commanded and family around her, but she’d lived a rather lonely life as the youngest child of a powerful family. Both of her parents were dead and her siblings had lives and families of their own. Hakon had been the one she’d been closest to and his death had not only left a hole in her heart, but it had left her with mind-numbing loneliness. She was alone, unwanted, and unloved. Listening to the knights down the table as they laughed and conversed, she wondered if she would ever know companionship like that.

To belong.

“I have not felt like fighting for my brother since my husband’s death,” she said quietly. “When Edwin left for the north, I did not want to go with him.”

Gunnora’s mouth was full of pork. “Yet you went with Alary to fight off the Normans?”

Ghislaine looked at her queerly. “Who said anything about fighting with Alary?”