When Queen Cecilia Blanca came to visit this time she brought her firstborn son Erik with her, and she was obviously pregnant again. The meeting of the two Cecilias was more poignant than ever, because they were both now mothers. Cecilia Blanca also brought tidings of both her son Magnus and of Arn Magnusson.
Her son Magnus was a plucky lad who climbed trees and fell off horses, but he never injured himself. Birger Brosa claimed that he could already see in the boy that he would be such a good shot with a bow and arrow that only one man would be able to match him; there was no doubt about his father’s identity.
According to the latest news from Varnhem, Arn Magnusson was in good health and still carrying out his calling in Jerusalem, among bishops and kings. To Cecilia Blanca this meant that his life was not in danger, for among bishops and kings there were no terrible foes. She could both be happy about this and thank Our Lady for Her high protection.
To Cecilia Blanca’s question about whether Rikissa were still behaving herself Cecilia Rosa replied in the affirmative, but also explained in no uncertain terms that this state of calm might soon be at an end. For there was a big problem and great danger.
But about this matter she would prefer to speak alone with the queen.
They went upstairs in the hospitiumand lay down on the bed where they had said goodbye on the last night they had both been captives at Gudhem. Now they once again took each other’s hands and lay silent for a while, musing and staring up at the ceiling.
“Well?” said Cecilia Blanca at last. “What is it that only my ears should hear?”
“I need silver money.”
“How much and for what purpose? Of all that you lack here at Gudhem, the need for silver money is probably something that seems the least important,” said Cecilia Blanca, surprised.
“Our simple yconomus, whom I will soon be replacing, by the way, would say two handfuls of silver. That will be enough for a long journey to the south of the Frankish kingdom for two. I should think that a hundred Sverker coins would be sufficient. I beg you sincerely for this, and I will pay you back someday,” said Cecilia Rosa.
“You and Ulvhilde aren’t planning to run away, are you? I don’t want that, I don’t want to lose my dearest friend! And remember that we’re not old yet, and that half your penance has already been served,” the queen replied uneasily.
“No, I’m not asking for my own sake or for Ulvhilde,” said Cecilia Rosa with a little laugh, since she couldn’t help thinking of herself and Ulvhilde wandering on foot, holding hands all the way to France.
“Do you swear it?” asked the queen dubiously.
“Yes, I swear it.”
“But you can’t tell me what this matter involves?”
“No, I don’t want to, dear Cecilia Blanca. Perhaps someone will come and tell you that this money was used for a grave sin, and malicious tongues will try to involve you in this sin. But if you know nothing about it, then you are without sin. That’s what I thought, anyway,” said Cecilia Rosa.
They lay silent for a while as Cecilia Blanca thought it over. But then she giggled and promised to take the money from her own traveling funds, since the amount was so small. But she reserved the right to be told someday what this sin entailed; so that she was innocent of any involvement, although she was providing the money. At least she wanted to find out eventually, when it was all over.
Cecilia Rosa promised to tell her at some later time.
Because the second matter that Cecilia Rosa wanted to discuss dealt with Ulvhilde, she thought it would be better if all three of them spoke together. So they got up from the bed, kissed each other, and went down to the queen’s table and her attendants.
On this first evening of her visit Cecilia Blanca had decided that Rikissa would be allowed to stay behind the walls, since it seemed to her such a bother to hold a banquet for her queen. In this way the dear friends and Ulvhilde could spend a much more amusing evening together. The queen had minstrels in her retinue, and they performed merrily as the feast was consumed. There were only women in the hall; the queen’s guards had to remain outside the hospitium, taking their own repast in their tents as best they could. For as Cecilia Blanca said, she had learned quickly as queen that men were bothersome to have at table. They talked so loudly, got so drunk, and had to show off if they were in the presence of too many women and maidens, with no king or jarl.
But all the women were now eating and drinking like men, whom they mimicked with the greatest mischief. For example, the queen could still perform a number of tricks she had played when she was to be scourged at Gudhem, belching and breaking wind thunderously. Which she now repeated as she stretched and scratched her bottom and behind her ears as some men were in the habit of doing. All the women had a good laugh at this.
When all the food was consumed, they kept some mead on the table and Cecilia Blanca sent all her ladies-in-waiting to bed so that she and her friends at Gudhem could more easily converse about serious matters. For the queen understood the need for secrecy, since what concerned Ulvhilde Emundsdotter could become quite serious.
Cecilia Rosa began. At the time when Ulvhilde came to Gudhem there was great unrest in the country; all three of them remembered that. And as the blessed Fru Helena Stenkilsdotter made them all realize, a woman was unwise to run like a goose after friends and enemies when war could turn everything upside down in the blink of an eye.
Now all of Ulvhilde’s kinsmen were dead on the fields of blood outside Bjälbo and in the battles that followed, when the Folkungs and Eriks were victorious. That was when a message came to Gudhem that for Cecilia Rosa and her dear friend Cecilia Blanca had been like the loveliest dream. But Ulvhilde belonged to those for whom the fields of blood were the blackest of all nightmares.
Since then it was as though everyone had forgotten about Ulvhilde here at Gudhem. There was no one to ask after her, and no one could plead her cause or demand her rights. And even if it was hard to know what payment had been made on Ulvhilde’s behalf during the bloody mess that existed back then, it was inconceivable that Rikissa would have cast out a relation out of hand.
But now was the time to settle accounts, Cecilia Rosa concluded, reaching for her tankard of mead.
The queen said, “Now, as your queen but above all as your dearest friend, I would like to know what exactly you have in mind.”
“It’s very simple,” said Cecilia Rosa, collecting herself as she drank calmly. “Ulvhilde’s father died. Then her little brother and her mother inherited. But later her brother died on the field of blood. After her mother died too…”
“Ulvhilde was the sole heir!” said the queen. “As I understand the law, that is true. Ulvhilde, what was the name of the estate they burned down?”
“Ulfshem,” said Ulvhilde in terror, for what was now being discussed was something she hadn’t heard even from her dear friend Cecilia Rosa.
“Folkungs now live there. They took over Ulfshem as a prize of victory. I know the people who live there,” said the queen pensively. “But in this matter we have to proceed cautiously, dear friends. Very cautiously, since we want to win. The law is clear, it cannot be anyone but Ulvhilde who inherits Ulfshem. But laws are one thing, and men’s conceptions of what is right and reasonable are not always the same. I can’t promise you anything for certain, but it will please me greatly to try and create order in this matter. I will first speak with Torgny Lagman in Eastern Götaland. He is also a Folkung and is close to us. Then I will talk to Birger Brosa, and when I’m done with these two I will take my case to the king. You both have your queen’s word on this!”