For once his persistent scowl was gone, and in its place was a broad smile.
‘After what you managed at Eoferwic last year, did you think I’d let you claim all the glory a second time?’ he asked. ‘If you were prepared to venture into the heart of the enemy camp with a band of just ten men, I reckoned four hundred ought to be enough to do battle with them.’
Even hours after the clash of steel had ended, Berengar’s face was still flushed with the exhilaration of battle and the knowledge that he had taken the fight to the ?theling and the Danish king and bested them both, spread panic amongst their troops and forced them to flee, driven them into the swamps and laid waste their only stronghold this side of the Humbre. All with the mere four hundred knights that Fitz Osbern had entrusted to his command: a force barely half the size of the enemy’s.
‘The king didn’t lend you any men, then,’ I observed.
‘There was no time to ask,’ he said. ‘I knew you and your friends were travelling lightly; if we were to catch up with you we had to leave quickly. Besides, much larger a force and the enemy would probably have spotted us coming long before we had the chance to attack. By that time they could have further strengthened their defences or else have quit the town entirely.’
‘So you took it upon yourself,’ I said, shaking my head in disbelief. ‘What if you were returning now having led several hundred men to their deaths on a fool’s errand? How would you have explained that?’
‘No man ever won fame without taking any risks,’ he said. ‘You know that as well as I do. I had a chance to do something great, something that the poets would sing of, and I knew I had to take it.’
Despite our past quarrels, I admired Berengar’s audacity. It was exactly the manner of war we waged out on the Marches: a quick raid in main force to wreak as much damage as possible, followed by an equally swift retreat. This time it had worked better than probably even he had imagined.
‘My one regret is that the ?theling still lives,’ said Berengar. ‘I thought I might be the one to kill him once and for all.’
Once more beaten but not yet defeated, Eadgar would no doubt return in time. I doubted this would be the last we’d see of him.
‘We owe you our lives,’ I said. ‘If you hadn’t come when you did, we would all be dead men.’
‘I should be the one thanking you,’ he replied. ‘Without the distraction of the ships, the enemy would have been better prepared, and we might never have broken into the town. That was good thinking, and good work from your comrades.’
I gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder and with that I left him. Others were coming to congratulate Berengar on his victory, whereas my place was with my companions, with Lord Robert and his father.
And Beatrice. She was waiting for my return, and rode to greet me. As well as her cloak, a rough-spun shirt and trews had been found to help keep her warm and preserve her modesty. They were much too big for her slender frame, but she didn’t seem to mind.
‘I still can’t believe you came for us,’ she said. ‘To lead ten men in such circumstances, knowing that if you were caught it would mean death.’
I shrugged. ‘I’d never have forgiven myself had I left you to whatever fates the enemy might have dealt. But it wouldn’t have been possible without my friends as well, and Berengar too.’
‘I know, and I’m grateful to them as well.’
We rode on in silence, raising our hoods up over our heads as cold rain swept in across the hills.
‘I’m sorry about Leofrun,’ she said after a while. ‘Truly I am.’
‘You’ve heard?’
‘Your man ?dda told me what happened. He told me the story of how your manor was sacked; he told me how she died. I know how happy she made you, and I know she’s not the first that you’ve lost either.’
But she was. Hard though it was to believe, Oswynn lived, and I didn’t know quite what to make of that fact. In my heart was a swirl of feelings so tangled that it was impossible to tease them all out. On the one hand there was joy at the knowledge that she was out there somewhere, but on the other it seemed a hollow sort of revelation, since I didn’t know how I would possibly find her again, only that somehow I had to.
Beatrice of course could know none of this, and yet it was partly because of her that I had gone to Beferlic in the first place. The thought of losing her as well as Leofrun had been too much to bear. While it would have been false to say that I loved her, I did still care for her, even if it wasn’t in quite the way that she might have wished.
‘Beatrice—’ I began, hoping to explain at least some of what was going through my mind.