Born of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

her since his return. He had not come to the queen’s hall all day.
    “No.” She forced herself to smile at him. “I am too excited, my lord, to have you home.”
    He grunted.
    She bit her lip. “Who is the girl you captured?” she asked after a minute.
    He swallowed. “A princess of the Atrebates.”
    Her arched brows rose high. “A princess?”
    “Yes. A princess from Bryn Atha.”
    “So …” Her mouth thinned. He had not seen fit to tell her, yet he had lodged the girl with his bitch of a friedlehe. She forced down the words that were hovering on her lips. It had never done her any good to show jealousy of Fara. “You took Calleva, then?”
    He shrugged. “There was not much to take. Calleva is a dead city.
    But the land up there is fertile. There will be estates enough for all my eorls, and farms for the rest.”
    Guthfrid’s brown eyes, so striking against her golden hair, were calculating. “Atrebates land?”
    “Atrebates land. They are farmers up there, not warriors. There is nothing left of the spirit that gave Arthur his victories.”
    “It will be easy, then, for you to expand Wessex.”
    Cynric reached once more for the platter. “Easy enough to conquer them, yes. But while I want to conquer the Atrebates, I also need them. There are too few of us. If Wessex is to become the equal of East Anglia and Sussex and Mercia, then I need the labor of the Britons.”
    Beyond her husband’s bulk she could just see Ceawlin’s silvery head, turning to talk to Cutha, who was on his other side. Guthfrid’s brown eyes narrowed. How had he managed that entrance with the king?
    “A good match for Ceawlin,” Cynric was saying.
    “What?”
    He ripped the leg off a chicken. “I said this girl may make a good match for Ceawlin. A marriage between the West Saxon royal family and the Atrebates could be beneficial to me. As I said, I need the Britons to work for me, not against me.”
    “What about Edwin?” The line of her mouth was now thin, like her narrowed eyes. “Why would not this girl be a good match for him? He is your heir, Cynric. Not Ceawlin.”
    His still-strong teeth tore into the meat of the leg. “I did not think you would deem a British princess good enough for Edwin. You have talked too often of matches to other of the Anglo-Saxon royal houses.”
    This was true, of course. But she had no intention of allowing Ceawlin to gain even a nominal foothold among the Britons. He would push Edwin aside if he could. She had always known that. He was a threat to her child. Over the years she had made several attempts to do away with the bastard, but she had not yet been successful. She had failed only because she had always to be so careful not to show her hand to the king. Cynric cared for Ceawlin. Guthfrid sometimes thought he loved the bastard even more than his true-born son. This, of course, only added fuel to the fire of her hatred.
    “Give her to Edwin,” she heard herself saying. “It would bind the Atrebates to you for now, and if it became politic in the future, he could always put her aside and make a more advantageous match.”
    His light eyes scanned her face. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shrugged. “I’ll think about it.” His eyes turned to the servant who was approaching them carrying a great golden drinking horn.
    Guthfrid saw the servant too and rose to her feet. She accepted the horn from the servant and stepped to the floor of the hall. The queen waited a moment until silence had fallen and all eyes were upon her. Then she raised the cup and turned to the king to make the banquet pledge: “Take this cup, my lord and king. Be glad, gold-friend of warriors, in your victory. Enjoy while you may many rewards, and be generous to these your followers who have risked themselves at your side.”
    Cynric nodded to her gravely and she offered him the horn. He drank and she took the vessel next to Edwin. Looking down into her son’s face, the mirror image of her