When they finally entered the king’s solar, fingers entwined, Selik already waited there for them. “I will not ask if you two got lucky last night,” he commented sarcastically. “Freya’s tit! You both look like you have rubbed each other raw. If you do not stop that smiling, King Athelstan will think you lackwitted.”
Thork glared at him, but Ruby just smiled.
At first Ruby and Selik stood in the background while Thork discussed the details of Sigtrygg’s marriage with Athelstan’s sister. Ruby was dying to see what the sister looked like, but she was nowhere in sight.
While they talked, Ruby looked around the opulent room, filled with the priceless books the young king collected. He had his scribes and clerics copying manuscripts from around the world. Fine Persian rugs warmed the stone floors, coordinated with the bright-colored tapestries and a few paintings on the walls. In fact, an artist stood in one corner painting a portrait of the king, even as he conducted his royal business.
Ruby walked over and looked. The painting showed King Athelstan presenting his favorite St. Cuthbert with a book. The young painter looked up and told Ruby, ” ‘Twill be the first painting of an English monarch ever done. ‘Tis important to King Athelstan that he be viewed as the new Charlemagne.”
He turned back to his work, and Ruby returned to Selik’s side just as Thork told the king, “My son Eirik wishes to foster here at your court along with his uncle Haakon. Wouldst you permit such?”
“Of course! Highly respected are you here, Thork, as a fighter, as well as a tradesman. I consider you a friend. Well, as much a friend as a Saxon and Viking can be,” the king said with a wry smile that lit up his handsome face. Ruby knew that Thork didn’t trust the Saxon king, and that Thork’s guards had orders to remove Eirik at the first hint of any mistreatment. It was hard to imagine cruelty in so seemingly gentle a man as Athelstan. Also, Ruby wondered if it could be true that this handsome man was celibate.
“I did not know you had children,” Athelstan continued. “Why did you not tell me afore? Are there others? And a wife?”
“I have two children but have denied they are my sons for years because of the—”
“—danger,” the king finished for him. “How well I understand the danger posed by greedy men, especially brothers.”
Thork and Athelstan exchanged knowing looks before Thork continued, ” ‘Tis Eirik who would like to be your fosterling. He has seen ten winters. And, nay, there is no wife… yet, though I just betrothed myself.” He went on to describe Elise’s family and the reason for the alliance.
Ruby’s heart sank at his cold words about the children and the reminder of his upcoming marriage. With all she’d shared with Thork the night before, she’d forgotten he was promised to another.
The king nodded. ” ‘Twould be a good match. I know the family and the location of their lands well.”
Thork’s eyes connected with Ruby’s in gentle apology. He seemed to know that words of his marriage hurt her.
Then the king turned to Ruby, asking her many questions about her claims to be from the future. He scoffed at her words of time-travel but said he suspected she might be one of those talented seeresses who can see into the future. Surprisingly, he wasn’t so much interested in his own personal fate as what would be happening in the future with art and literature and education.
“Every child is entitled to a free education up through twelve years of school?” the king exclaimed after listening to Ruby for a short time. “How extraordinary! But how can it be so? Are they not needed as fighters in times of war and farmers in times of peace? And what could they possibly be taught for twelve whole years?”
Ruby smiled at his enthusiasm. She looked at Thork and Selik who sat in big carved chairs with legs outstretched, shaking their heads in wonderment at the things she conjured up.
“In my country there is no longer a military draft. The army draws from a volunteer force. Farming is only a small part of the economy. And the school curriculum,” she said, trying to use words he would understand, “well, it includes history, working with numbers, studying plants and animals, music, art, exercise, reading, writing…”