Leofric and Godiva Pt. 07 - Finale

Emma immediately darted out of the tent the moment he was gone, "Thorstein will be gone a while now. Take me to the King," she ordered.

"I can't. I don't know where they are. I think they're still alive, but I don't know what's happened to them," Godgifu said, unsuccessfully trying to wipe the mud off herself.

Emma wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Come in and tell me what you have to say... and, for God's sake, leave those clothes outside."

By the time Thorstein had filled a small tub with water, Godgifu finished telling Emma of the events of the last two days. To say that she was not pleased would be an understatement. "Oh, good God... why on Earth would that meathead follow me here?"

"Well... because you're his wife?" Godgifu suggested.

"A distinction that is not as unique as I had once hoped," Emma said, turning away toward her writing, looking troubled. Godgifu watched as Emma's face slowly changed as she read the scroll, her troubles disappearing as she immersed herself in the story. Her face gradually grew more and more dissatisfied as she neared the end of the document. "Ugh, I can't do anything with this. I should just kill everyone and start again," she muttered, crumpling the parchment and throwing it across the tent.

"Please tell me you mean the story, my Lady..." Godgifu murmured.

"What? Oh. Right. That. You say they were bagged?"

"Yes. Everything was looking good, they were going to be admitted to the camp, and then Leofric turned to me... then he sneezed.... and then everything just went mad. They threw bags over them and dragged them away toward the boats."

Emma sighed. "They are in quarantine. They must have thought Leofric was ill. There has been a fever going around the towns and they are very careful about anyone coming into the camp. They still want the entrance fees, so they throw the visitors into a knar until they are sure they will not spread disease throughout the camp... or until they die."

"Well, I'm almost certain Leofric's not ill. Sunlight makes him sneeze. It's the strangest thing, but it does. The sun was behind me and it was in his eyes. Do you think we can we get them out?"

"Why would you want to? The man leaves you to run off with an idiot right before your wedding, and you being heavy with his child!"

"What? I'm not pregnant!"

"Don't be ridiculous. Look at you! Those breasts! Your bottom! It is enormous!"

Wrapped in a blanket and still shivering, Godgifu took a deep breath hoping for patience... or another apple core to throw at the Queen. "Be that as it may... wouldn't it be better to go resolve our differences in a place that--"

"My Lady! There are two men here who wish to hold counsel with you," Thorstein said, slightly out of breath.

"I cannot go until the tournament is finished," Emma told Godgifu, ignoring Thorstein. "And the tournament will never be finished because these idiots cannot agree on a set of rules and--"

"My Lady, Trygve claims that the axe Magnus is fashioning is too similar to--"

"CUT OFF HIS HEAD, THEN!" Emma yelled.

"Which one?" Thorstein asked.

"I don't care! Whoever is slowest!" Emma replied. There was a scuffling sound and rapid thudding as the two men ran from the tent. "Are they still there?" Emma asked after a pause.

"No, my Lady," Thorstein replied, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

"Is the bath ready?"

"Almost, my Lady. I need to bring a few more rocks to heat it."

"Then go bring rocks, Thorstein," Emma said.

"Yes, my Lady."

Emma waited until Thorstein's footsteps could no longer be heard, then she continued. "Anyway, until these imbeciles finish their tournament, I cannot award the prize, and they won't finish the tournament until-- what is it? Why is your hand in the air?"

Godgifu blinked in surprise to see her own hand raised. "Um... I have a question. What... what was that?" she asked, pointing out the tent opening.

"What was what?"

"Thorstein with the men... the argument... the beheading..." Godgifu said, waving her hand in the air in bewilderment.

"Oh that. That's nothing. I was invited here by a friend and he let it slip out that the Queen will be awarding the prizes, hoping to draw more entrants into the tournament. Of course, now they are bringing me their idiotic arguments for some damned reason and I swear if I must hear one more grown man complaining about--"

"But don't you realize?" Godgifu stood, clutching the blanket around her. "This is the answer! They see you as an authority! They will listen to you! They've been sitting around bickering about nonsense because they don't really have a leader to decide things. But -- they are asking you what to do! You want this tournament to end -- you tell them what rules to go by! Go meet with one of the men from each group and hear how they play honfluffle--"

"Hnefatafl."

"Right. Whatever. Have each of them tell you how they play it. Then, after each one tells you, you praise them and say what a great way to play that is. After everyone has told you how they play and gotten praised for it, you tell them that how henfatawful is played in England is definitely not the best way and how you wish it could be played the way they played it. Then, you take some of the rules from each group and then tell them that this is the terrible way it is played in England, and that you will consider all their better rules for future tournaments. Then they play, you pass out the prize, and then we can all go home!"

"Home... to live with Cnut the Unfaithful and Unromantic. I guess there is nothing else to be done... and I am tired to the point of death of eating eels. Are you so certain they will accept me as an authority?"

"Well, why not first hold court a bit and decide a few of these arguments first? If they start accepting your words as wisdom, it will pave the way for deciding the rules..."

"Hm. That is... not entirely moronic," Emma said, looking at Godgifu with more interest. "I am beginning to see why your people follow you so devotedly. You know, Countess Godgifu of Mercia, I told my husband he should kill you, several times. I am glad he did not."

"Thank you, my Lady... but why would he kill me several times?" Godgifu asked.

"Ugh. Nevermind. Go have Thorstein gather the men."

*** *** ***

"Her Ladyship will now hear matters of the utmost importance first," Thorstein called out to the crowd of rough-looking men. A clamor arose as several men spoke at once, and then began pounding on each other as others in the crowd shouted encouragement. Godgifu, standing at Queen Emma's side, spoke quietly in her ear. Queen Emma beckoned Thorstein and gave him instructions. "Men with matters of utmost importance will raise their ale cups and wait to be called upon!" Thorstein amended.

Queen Emma nodded to the first man Guthrum, who stood and spoke vividly and at length about the difficulty of finding and catching eels in the marsh surrounding the camp, as well as his strong feelings that his work was under-appreciated by all. Queen Emma, who had by all accounts grown tired of eating eels, along with the rest of the camp, opened her mouth to reply when Godgifu leaned down and murmured something in her ear. Emma turned and looked at her incredulously, but after a moment, turned back to the man and paused to consider her words. "Her Highness is not a stranger to thankless tasks, Guthrum," she said, after taking a deep breath. "You must allow us to express our appreciation for your... generous efforts... by granting you the title 'Sir Guthrum, Wrestler of Eels and Feeder of All.'" At this, Guthrum's eyes grew wide, his barrel chest puffing out with pride, before he returned to his place and enduring the jealous teasing of his companions.

After several hours and numerous creative knighthoods, Thorstein announced that the Queen would hear more of their matters of utmost importance in a few days' time, but that she was now needed to preside over the Commission on Hneftafl Rules so that the tournament might commence. This was greeted by loud cheers from the gathering, who were now intent upon celebrating their new titles.

It was nearly dawn by the time Emma and Godgifu emerged from the Commission on Hneftafl Rules, triumphant but weary. After Godgifu stumbled and fell for a second time, Thorstein put her over his shoulder as he escorted the Queen back to her tent. "What about Leofric and Cnut...?" Godgifu mumbled sleepily.

"We have done enough for a day," the Queen sighed, "they will come to no harm where they are."

"He does care about you, you know..." Godgifu said. "He just doesn't know how to show it."

Emma let out a bitter bark of a laugh. "He cares about keeping his throne. I was the least expensive means to that end. He was my best hope of keeping my children alive. It doesn't matter... what's done is done. You can warm my bed tonight... this morning, I mean. We will see about freeing them when we wake." Emma then fell into bed fully clothed and promptly fell asleep.

As weary as she was, sleep would did not come to Godgifu, as long as Leofric was being held without any news of his fate. So, she crept out of the tent and through the camp to where she had been told they were being held in quarantine and knocked on the hull of the knar. "Hello? Leofric?"

She heard a muffled chuckling coming from inside the boat. "Now, I know that couldn't be my lovely bride, because I recall telling her to go back to Coventry if anything went wrong..." Leofric said. "Thank God you're safe."

"Cnut wins bet!" Cnut called out, triumphantly.

"Did you actually bet that I would go back to Coventry without you?" Godgifu scoffed.

"No, I made a bet with the King on how long it would take you to come here and show me how utterly disobedient you were. What kept you?" Leofric clarified.

"Oh... you know... the Queen and I had some matters of utmost importance to attend to," Godgifu said with a yawn. "She'll work on getting you out of there when she wakes up. You're in quarantine... because you sneezed..."

"Yes, we know. They had a guard sitting with us for a while and he told us our situation. Then, he was asked to go attend a commission of some sort," Leofric said.

"Hneftafl rules! Yes!" Cnut called out. "Is about time! Damn Swedes ruining game! Stubborn pon jumping bullshit... pons not jump. How get them to agree to rules?" he asked.

"It was Emma..." Godgifu said, leaning her tired back against the hull where she could hear Leofric's voice the clearest. "You should have seen her, Cnut... she is so clever... and so sad..." she said, her eyes too heavy to stay open anymore. Cold and weary beyond reason, she pulled the blanket around herself and slept against the side of the boat.

Godgifu awoke curled up on a soft bed, with a familiar-smelling large body wrapped around her. She was deliciously warm with the small exception of her toes, which had been exposed from under the blanket covering her and her bedmate, causing them to become tiny icicles. It occurred to her that Leofric's legs were quite warm against hers, so she adjusted her body slightly and slipped her toes in between his muscular thighs.

"AAAH! The hell?" Leofric yelled, yanked suddenly into unwilling consciousness.

"My toes are cold..." Godgifu whimpered, moving her frozen digits to a new place between his thighs that hadn't been unpleasantly cooled by her toes.

"You don't say... God's blood, woman..." Leofric grumbled, pulling her back against him and squeezing his thighs together to prevent her toes from seeking a warmer climate again. "You realize the rest of you was the temperature of your toes when Emma came to get us out of that knar? Take more care with yourself and our child, Diva, or I'll tie you to our bed when we get home," he said, brushing his lips against the back of her neck.

"Ugh! I am not pregnant! How many times do I have to tell people?" Godgifu huffed. "As if I'm not going to be in enough trouble with Sir Hulgar about going missing for days, can you imagine if I returned pregnant and unmarried?"

"I think I would bear more of his ire than you would, upon our return," Leofric mused. "That's why I sent him a message as soon as we were released. I wouldn't put it past him to take on an entire Viking camp to ensure your safe return."

"Any ideas on when that will be?" she asked.

"Hmm... hard to say," Leofric said just as the flap to the outer room of the tent opened. Through a crack between the curtains separating the large bed area from the outer room, Godgifu saw Emma enter looking tense. Cnut entered shortly after.

"There's no need for you to stay," Emma said, straightening her papers with her back to him. "I am sure you have many things waiting for you that are more important than one of your wives."

"Emma..." Cnut said, looking pained.

"No. Truly. I understand. I know how it all works. I learned that lesson early when I was married off to an old man that took my virginity and I gave him his heirs in return. You probably had no more choice in your marriage to Aelfgifu than I had to Aethelred... no more choice than you had in marrying me. We need each other too much to pretend to be lovers. Go rule your kingdoms. Take wives in each of them, for all I care. You have my loyalty. I will sit by your side. I will face the Witengamot with you. I will smile and wave and hold court. Just... do not ask for my heart, Cnut. You do not need it... and it is all I have left of myself."

"Emma..." Cnut said, heat growing in his eyes, and warning creeping into his tone.

"I mean it! Just go! You have your convenient English Queen! Now, leave me in peace!"

"You think because Cnut surround land with steel and ships that Cnut think land was his? No. Land was not Cnut's until soft places inside her yielded and watched for Cnut's return with hunger and joy. England cast Cnut out and he returned ten times stronger to claim her as his own. Cast Cnut out now, Emma... Cnut will return. He will not stop until every soft place is his. I know the Emma... she is not mine until her heart is."

"You do not know me, Cnut. Do not bother to pretend. You can barely even remember my name," Emma said, wrestling her face under control, then straightening and finally turning to face him. "We are a Queen... and Queens can afford no soft places. We wish His Majesty fine weather and safe travels on his way home."

Emma turned back to her papers and shuffled them again while Cnut drew close. Godgifu felt Leofric tense and ready behind her, though ready for what? If Cnut became violent or forced his will upon his wife, what right would either of them have to interfere? Cnut was King. Still, neither of them were of the nature to sit quietly and see a woman mishandled, regardless of the consequence. Godgifu clutched Leofric's hand in hers, frightened. Cnut took a deep breath, then released it, closing his eyes. "Cnut will go," he said quietly.

Emma's face fell slightly, then twisted and recomposed itself. Godgifu's heart broke as she watched the Queen's mouth open, then close, swallowing words she couldn't bring herself to say. Cnut fidgeted with his pack, seeming to want to say more, to tell her his feelings, but frustrated with his inability to express them in her language. "When they wake, you tell Leofric and the Pindsvin I go. Say Cnut gives thanks."

"I will," Emma said quietly.

"Queen Emma come when tournament done? Cnut will come back. Give Queen Emma escort..."

"That... that won't be necessary."

Cnut looked at Emma's back and raised a hand, almost touching her arm, then dropped it and turned to go. He had pushed the flap to the doorway aside when he paused and turned, "Cnut forget... Emma leave this at home..." he said, holding out balanced on the tip of his index finger, a delicately carved quill.

Emma turned, her stricken face transforming, "That's... you found it! My favorite one! I looked for this everywhere! Where did you find it?" Emma gasped, seizing it from Cnut with delight.

"Cnut come home. Look for the Emma. He find the quill that writes about the Eva and the Ragnar with the big cock that never goes soft," Cnut said.

Emma paled and looked like she might be sick. "You've read my stories?" Emma gasped. "I would have hidden them, if I thought... I didn't think you could... I mean, your English is so..."

"Read English easier than speak. Listen... understand... easier than speak. Speak is hardest. This is so," Cnut said, shrugging. After a pause, he frowned in confusion and looked at Emma, "Why make the Eva so small?"

Emma blinked in surprise. "Why is she... well, Eva is petite. She is the ideal woman. Delicate and small... shy and meek," she said, blushing and looking uncomfortable.

"Ideal..." Cnut scoffed, "Eva like small dog man carry around and fuck when he put down. Not interesting... not ideal. Eva should be tall... long arms and neck..."

Emma fidgeted and drew her hand up, brushing it against her long neck absentmindedly. "People... people don't want to read about a tall woman for a romantic heroine... a small woman makes a man seem bigger... more powerful... tall women aren't sexy."

Cnut turned and took a step closer to her, "No... make Eva tall... she walk into room and heads turn and follow her. Smart woman that make heart beat faster or stop with one look... like the Emma at court. Emma walk in room with poison snakes and they become like baby duck and follow her in line," he said warmly, looking up and down her long, lithe figure.

"Don't be... don't be ridiculous... they... they don't..."

"Like baby duck..." he insisted, casually brushing her body as he walked past her and lifted a paper from her desk, "This is new, yes?" he asked, reading it.

"It is... well, I mean it was, but it's... ugh. It's terrible. I just can't..." she trailed off, her eyes flickering back and forth between Cnut's face and the page. Cnut's face changed the way Emma's had when she became engrossed in her own story. After a while, Cnut smiled and nodded at a passage and she leaned in to see which part he was reading.

"This part... the Ragnar slide hand down the Eva's back... Cnut do this to the Emma..."

Emma smirked, "Yes, you did... it surprised me that first night... I thought you would... you know... be impatient to consummate the marriage... the treaty... establish your reign, but you were... well, it... it wasn't what I expected."

Cnut turned from the page, looking over her face with a slight smile. "Emma's back... at the wedding, at court, all that day... the Emma's back hard and straight, like steel. That night... I see back... I see the Emma soft... not Queen made of steel, but woman... I wanted to touch."

"Well, I... I was yours to touch... by treaty, by rights, by marriage. I just... I was grateful you were not cruel. I feared you might be. It was... it was a long war," Emma said, crossing her arms around herself and looking around the tent.

"It was long war... but war not with the Emma," Cnut said quietly, leaning slightly and smelling her hair. "Eva... she should smell like the... ah, lavendel... what is word?"

"Lavender..." Emma said, smiling.

"Yes... the hair smell like the lavender... but not the kusse... how say that? What is word?" Cnut said slyly, putting the story down and winding an arm around Emma's waist.

Emma bit her lips and shook her head, blushing. "Queens do not use this word," she murmured, reaching up to run her fingers through his finely shaped beard.

"Kusse... kusse... kusse..." Cnut whispered, running his lips across her cheek.

Emma shivered, but shook her head stubbornly, trying not to giggle. "Stop it. I am not saying it, Cnut..."

"Kusse... kusse... kusse... kusse..." he murmured, going to his knees and ducking under her skirts. Emma squeaked in surprise, quickly glancing to where Leofric and Godgifu quickly pretended to be asleep. A low, laughing growl emerged from her skirts, before wet sucking and lapping noises filled the air.