The Evening and the Morning

Ragna stays busy. She has a new maid named Osgyth and a new guard, Ceolwulf. She stays in Edgar’s old house and replaces Dudda with Eanfrid as headman.

Wigelm arrives with Garulf. He tells her that Ethelred gave him a massive fine for divorcing her without his approval. He did not pay it. She wakes later to see that Osgyth and Ceolwulf are gone. She will fire them. She heard Wigelm outside. He is very drunk. He falls while trying to rape her. He is so disoriented that she is able to kneel on his chest and keep him from moving. He vomits from alcohol and the pressure on his chest; she covers his mouth and nose until he is dead. Ragna puts the body in the canal, makes it home, and tries to sleep. The next morning, she organizes search parties which quickly find the body.

Under questioning, Garulf says Wigelm had left the alehouse to urinate in the canal. However, a man named Bada does not think Wigelm drowned. No water came out of his mouth when they pulled him from the canal. He wants to see Ragna touch the body; there is a superstition that if a killer touches the victim’s body, it bleeds again.