Daughter of the Wolf Read Online Free

seemed oblivious to her presence.
    Not so Edmund. He caught her eye, smiled a little, then dropped a slow wink. Radmer frowned, a brief contraction across the brow, and he turned to look down at his daughter. ‘Big talk for my little girl to listen to.’
    Edmund snorted. ‘That’s not a little girl, Radmer. Not any longer. And more like her dear mother’ – he signed himself with a sketchy cross – ‘every time I see her.’
    Radmer’s face tightened. He turned and stared across the grassy forecourt once more. ‘So Tilmon has brought his wife and son back with him. He must be very sure he’ll be returned to Osberht’s favour.’
    â€˜Either that or he’s planning to send Switha in to fight his corner for him.’ Edmund grinned on an outbreath. ‘I’d rather take him on than her, any day.’
    â€˜True. She always was a foe to reckon with.’
    They laughed, but their words made Elfrun squint all the more curiously across the grass at the bulkily clad woman. Switha. She looked quite ordinary, so small next to the men. As big a menace as her husband, the ox-man? And so the boy with the bay mare, he was their son. What was it like, having a father like that?
    â€˜If Tilmon has been in the Danemarch,’ Edmund said slowly, ‘and if he is still shoulder to shoulder with Alred, then Osberht will have to buy his loyalty back somehow. How will he lime that branch? Do you know? Are you privy to this?’
    Radmer eyed him sideways. ‘Think I’d tell you?’
    â€˜Everyone’s wondering.’
    â€˜Let them.’ Radmer stretched out his legs and clasped his hands behind his head. ‘You want to look at me?’ His voice was louder, more challenging. ‘You want to speculate, boys? Come on then, and welcome. Be my guest.’
    â€˜Don’t push it, Radmer.’ Edmund sounded nervous.
    â€˜Don’t push me, then.’
    Elfrun’s eyes flickered from one man to the other, wondering at the sudden thundery crackle in the air between them.
    Edmund stood up and yawned, showing his back teeth. He caught her looking at him, and frowned. ‘And what about this one, Radmer? What plans?’
    â€˜Elfrun’s needed at Donmouth. She’ll take over the hall from her grandmother. In the fullness of time.’
    â€˜Not marriage?’ Edmund looked at her appraisingly. ‘There’s many a family would value a Donmouth alliance. Does the girl have a voice?’
    â€˜She wants to stay with me.’ Her father put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t you, Elfa?’
    Elfrun squirmed at being the sudden focus of both men’s attention. But she didn’t have to answer. The king’s steward had appeared at her father’s side, beckoning urgently.
    â€˜No, Radmer. Not the girl. Just you.’ He glanced at Elfrun. ‘For the moment, anyway.’
    Her father frowned. ‘Stay here, Elfa. I don’t like leaving you on your own.’
    Elfrun looked round, but there was no sign of Abarhild.
    Her father was still frowning. ‘Keep an eye on her for me, Edmund?’
    â€˜As though she were my own.’ Edmund’s voice was hearty.
    She watched the king’s steward usher her father to the tent and lift the heavy embroidered door-curtain. The ox-man, this Tilmon, he hadn’t come out yet. So the meeting was between the three of them.

3
    Edmund had drifted away a few feet. Little as she warmed to him with his sad, straggly moustache and his heavy, lingering eyes, he was at least kin, however distant, and her father had appointed him as a bulwark between her and all the other watchers. She tried to straighten her back and fold her hands in a way Abarhild would have approved. ‘Are you well, cousin Edmund?’
    â€˜So, you do speak.’ He sighed. ‘Well enough, cousin Elfrun. Well enough. Tell me, how are matters at Donmouth? Do you still have that fine