Leofric and Godiva Pt. 05

"Leofric! What's wrong with you? Stop it! Let go of me!"

"Ohhh no, little hypocrite, we're going to see how wet you are, first. I'll probably die before I get a chance at the prize, but maybe if I can get you to be honest with yourself, you won't have to work so hard to replace me. You can just hold a fucking beauty contest," he hissed, thrusting his fingers roughly inside her.

Several things happened at a speed too great for Leofric to comprehend, but in the next instant he found himself on the floor wheezing for breath, cupping his genitals and feeling like his left eye might fall out. Godgifu stood over him panting and rubbing her elbow with tears of betrayal brimming in her large eyes.

Angry, and still unable to see beyond being right, Leofric lifted up his hand and showed her his fingers, glistening and dripping with the honey of her arousal. Her face twisted, and she nodded her head, her lower lip trembling. "Yeah. I get excited... and when I'm excited, I want to fuck..." she choked, tears rolling down her cheeks, "but the only one I wanted to fuck was you... because I was yours. You made me feel safe," she said brokenly, before turning on her heel and disappearing in a flash of skirts.

Leofric stared down the empty passage. She was gone. As the realization of what he had just done settled on him, Leofric felt ill. He had acted in such a way that made her use force to run from him. Back in the hall, he really hadn't even been angry about Godgifu's reaction to Cnut, finding it more humorous than anything else. He had never really doubted her loyalty or love for him, but in his fear and anger over his forced mission, he had jealously lashed out at her in the ugliest possible way. "I was yours... you made me feel safe" her voice coming back to him as pure torture, declaring his greatest accomplishments as things existing only in the past. Coughing, he used the wall to push himself up and wobble on toward the armory. Perhaps, she would allow him to beg her forgiveness before he left... if he could even find her.

*** *** ***

Near nightfall, after his search for Godgifu through the great house came up fruitless, Leofric returned to the hall to find King Cnut and Sir Hulgar engrossed in a game of dice. Alongside them, the betting pot consisting of some coins, a knife, a decorative pin, and what looked like a strangely large molar, awaited the winner. Sir Hulgar scowled over the dice as he shook them in his enormous hand, murmuring an incantation and closing his eyes as he released them. With a roar of triumph from Hulgar and an exaggerated howl of pain from Cnut, Sir Hulgar scraped the pot to himself, rubbed the tooth on his tunic, and wiggled it into his mouth.

Standing with his winnings, Sir Hulgar clapped Cnut on the shoulder in hearty approval, despite horrifying the town with stories of his conquest not hours ago. Then Godgifu's knight protector noticed Leofric and grinned, taking in his black eye, swollen nose and ungainly walk with a degree of pride. "The fighting I could teach her, but not the speed... she was born with that. You never see it coming," he said, nodding, then turning back to Cnut, "It has been an honor to lighten your load, Your Highness," he said, bowing low and leaving the room.

"How is it that *everybody* likes you, Sire?" Leofric grudgingly wondered aloud, shaking his head as he watched Sir Hulgar leave.

"I am Cnut," he said simply, shrugging. Then, turning to Leofric with a look of annoyance, "I tell you 'fuck not-wife first, *then* tell her that you go,' you do not listen. Now, handsome face not handsome and everything more work. Stubborn! You are Swedish?"

"No, Sire. I made an ass of myself, left her unsatisfied, and with any luck, I'll be apologizing to her for the rest of my life. I am definitely English," Leofric sighed. "Will you please tell me why we are going to Torskey?"

Cnut looked at Leofric for a long moment, then nodded as he led him out of the hall, and began walking toward the stables. "This story the Hulgar tells of my father Sweyn Forkbeard... it begins earlier. It started on the day of the St. Brice. You know this day?"

Leofric nodded, growing solemn, "That was the day King Aethelred, upon being told that they would rise up against him, ordered that all Danes in England be killed. Many innocents were murdered. It was... senseless... a terrible act."

"My father's sister Gunhild, my aunt... she was a Dane in England that day. After that day, she was not. Her husband also dead."

"I'm very sorry, Sire."

"Men... kings... we are told things... we get ideas... what we think right... then we do things and cannot change them. It is too late. My father come to England for revenge. And for more. Denmark, she is small. Not enough. England has more. When I was old enough, I join my father. In Northumbria, my father want to make stronger... what is word... bond? Want bond with leaders. A dead ealdorman had a daughter unmarried..."

Leofric caught on from Cnut's earlier kinship inquiry. "Aelfgifu of Northampton..." Leofric said, "And so you married her so your father could build a northern alliance."

"I did. She give me sons Swein and Harold," Cnut said, proudly.

"Harold, like my horse... a good name," Leofric said, grinning.

"This 'Harold' name for kings, not name for horse. You change name for horse," Cnut declared, with mild disgust. "When father die, I leave England. Aelfgifu go to Denmark to be safe. The English, they kill her, if she stay. When the Aethelred die, I return with more men and take London. Then, the Emma good wife to have. Sister of Norman Duke. Knows how to queen the English, already. Witengamot like her. Good wife. So then, I ask Emma to wife. I promise be good, not kill her Aethelred children, all the good husband things. She say 'yes,' and I win the Emma," Cnut explained.

Leofric suppressed a laugh, "The handsome face, helped there too, I suppose."

"With the ladies, the handsome face always help. And the good fuck. When there is lady problem Cnut say 'Send handsome face.' No one listen. Ladies. Why work so hard? Spend so much?" Cnut grumbled in exasperation.

"And Aelfgifu? Did she take the divorce well?" Leofric asked.

Cnut made a non-committal noise as he looked around the stables.

"You... you did divorce her, right?" Leofric prompted.

Cnut ran his fingers through his impossibly thick wavy red-gold hair, and shrugged, "Aelfgifu in Denmark. Good wife. Do nothing wrong. Give good sons..." he equivocated.

Leofric bit his lips before responding, "You... didn't divorce her, did you, Sire?" he asked gingerly, coming to Harold's stall. "So that's what's going on. You didn't divorce Aelfgifu and Emma found out somehow, she got mad, and now for some reason, she's with the Vikings at Torksey?" Leofric said with realization.

Cnut met Leofric's eyes at this, a grim sobriety settling on the king's annoyingly perfect features, and Leofric needed no further confirmation. As Leofric sorted things in his mind, he remembered that most of the Vikings in Torskey were from Normandy, Emma's homeland. She might even know some of the Vikings, for all he knew. Queen Emma wasn't in danger or being held hostage... she was punishing Cnut.

What was more, Cnut had a serious weakness in his position. He had sent back the Viking forces he used to conquer England, a mercenary army being far too expensive to keep at his disposal. Cnut needed to rely upon the loyalty of the English people and the Witengamot to keep the throne, in other words, he needed political power. Since Queen Emma was the key to Cnut's political power, and any rifts between them would surely be exploited by the power-hungry Witengamot, Cnut's mission to retrieve her was critical to his reign, and the secrecy of it was paramount. Without Emma, Cnut was as good as gone. Men had lost the throne of England over far less.

In this desperate state, apparently unable to trust even his own translator, Cnut had come alone to Coventry to seek his help. Leofric looked at the king, the man responsible for his brother's death, the man who had committed atrocities in war, who had ruined his family's name, and whose reign began with more vicious bloodletting in the Witengamot than had ever been seen in history. Leofric knew that he had only to drop a word in the wrong ear, and Cnut's reign would be at an end... and from the look in his eyes, Cnut knew this as well. He was betting his life on Leofric's honor. "I am honored by your faith in me, Sire," Leofric said, the charisma of the King now a little less of a mystery to him. "We will bring your Queen home."

Cnut clasped Leofric's shoulder in gratitude, and nodded. "Ah! This a fine beast!" he said, changing the subject and taking an exaggerated interest in Leofric's horse. "This 'not-Harold?'" he asked.

"This is he," said Leofric, smiling and patting Harold in greeting. "Not a few months in town, and he already has half the mares pregnant. Maybe I should call him 'Cnut,'" Leofric said, as he laid a blanket on the huge black horse.

Cnut laughed heartily. "This good name for horse! 'Godgifu ride the Cnut hard all day, now she cannot walk!'" he roared. Leofric shook his head, his face and spirits falling as he thought again of his last meeting with her. Cnut looked closely at him, concerned, "Leofric, this funny because it make sound like I fuck your not-wife," Cnut explained, unnecessarily. "This joke, yes? You not laugh?" he asked, as he handed Leofric the packs for Harold.

"Yeah, I got it. Very funny, Sire. It's just... Godgifu. After I left you, we argued... and I was wrong. I hate leaving her like this. It makes me sick that our last words were... what they were," he said, leading Harold from the stall. "I love her. She is everything I would wish a lady to be, but would never think to ask. Every day, my first and last thoughts are of her, and I have never felt more whole. You sent me here to marry her, but I never expected how completely she would capture my heart..." Leofric said, almost to himself.

Cnut's piercing blue eyes took in his companion thoughtfully. "These good words... maybe you not need handsome face. Come. We go to Torskey, you say you are kin and make promise to Emma 'no more Aelfgifu,' and we go home. Everything fine."

"So, you're really going to divorce Aelfgifu, this time, then?" Leofric asked, mounting Harold. "I'm a knight. You can't have me promise something to the Queen of England and then--"

Cnut made another non-committal noise, "Not real English marriage with Aelfgifu, alligevel, no church... just hold hands, say 'married.' Two good sons. 'Divorce' bad, very expensive... I send her to Norway. Norway is as good as divorce. Fjords very nice. Everything fine," Cnut concluded, casually mounting his horse and following Leofric to the road out of town heading north. The two rode out into the darkness, neither of them taking note of the dark figure that followed them at a distance.

After putting a few miles of road behind them, the two men stopped to sleep for a few hours, hidden in the trees near a creek. Each made themselves comfortable after tethering their horses nearby and kindling a small fire between them.

Leofric leaned back and sighed, his hands clasped behind his head. The sky was filled with stars, and the chilly night air made him wish for happier times, and the small warm body of his love curled against him. Noticing his companion's lingering melancholy, Cnut nudged him with an elbow, "Leofric... they say the English... they have the 'prima nocta,' yes?" he asked.

"No," Leofric said, tersely.

"This is certain? I read about the 'prima nocta' in--"

"No!" Leofric said, turning to scowl at the king. "No! No, no, no, no! It's just a myth. A story. No one has ever practiced 'prima nocta' in England. Not ever. It's only something terrible they accuse bad leaders of enforcing, so they can stir the people into bloody revolt against them. Because the people would revolt. Everybody hates a leader that thinks they should get to fuck any bride on the first night of her marriage, and no leader ever tries to do it, because they would lose their kingdom if they did. There is not, and has never been 'prima nocta' in England... Sire."

"Ah. Just... asking question..." Cnut demurred, smirking.

Leofric grunted in annoyance and shifted against the ground trying to get comfortable again.

"Because under the veils, the Godgifu is very good," Cnut said, his laughter barely suppressed.

Leofric chuckled, growing to like the Dane despite himself. "Yes, she is. Good night, Your Highness," he said.

Leofric and Godiva -- Part 5