In front of the roaring fire, Count of Northumbria Volsiov still could not forget what little Guspatrick had just said:

"Don't forget, sir! My grandmother was the daughter of the Count of Utred of Northumbria, and my mother was the granddaughter of King Ethelred! ”

Vorsiov almost began to rejoice that such a reckless and impulsive young man had not become his son-in-law.

But he could fully understand the anger of the other party, and the fact that his fiancée was humiliated by the king's son and that he was going to be "gifted" abroad, which could already constitute a reason for rebellion.

However, the Empress Dowager Agatha had agreed to provide shelter to Volsiov's daughter, pay the earl a ransom and, more importantly, arrange a favorable marriage for Uhtred herself, and Walsiov could not object to the royal family's proposal.

When Guspatrick mentions his kinship with the royal families of Northumbria and Wessex, Walsiov doesn't know what he is implying when he is, which in some ways could even be interpreted as an ambition for the throne.

But what supporters can he find? Moka's son may be equally unhappy with the royal family, but Edwin is not even an official Earl of Chester now, and is still counting on royal recognition. As for himself, of course, it was impossible to support such a crazy thing, and not long ago he had the opportunity to use his Earl's squire to do so in Westminster, but he knew what the end would be, and for whatever reason, it was impossible for the Council of the Magi to approve of the betrayal of the King himself. At that time, even if he occupied London, what could he do? Hughard Barn, though old and lame, in the north, would treat his own family as he had done with the Serbrand, and he remembered very well that after the fall of East Redding, he did not leave a single boy of the Serbrand, and as for the adults, they were corpses. Now, with the addition of Guspatrick's forces, it is not a problem to mobilize four thousand militias, so can such an army be against the entire kingdom? If Count Rodrigo returned with the Normans and Saxons and saw the Duke of Saxony under the White Horse Army, I am afraid that most of the militia would defect.

Walsioff's advice to Gerspatrick Jr. was to obey the king and not to go to the Scottish court, lest it provoke new suspicions. The young man's displeasure was palpable, but Vorsiov knew he would listen.

He was a little upset by the sound of the bell of the evening prayer, his wife was hiding something from him, he had no doubt about it, the woman had never known how to hide it, but he was a samurai, a war lord, and it was not his skill to guess women's secrets. Volsiov finally decided to sit down and write letters, one to the king, and how to accept the king's apology was a question, and it was the second that made him stop thinking about it.

It took him eleven revisions before he poked the heraldic ring on the wax seal, and then summoned his father's bodyguard, Kirkpatrick:

"You've got to go to Paris."

After leaving the hall of Walsioff, little Guspatrick yelled at his brother Uhtred Jr., who was waiting for him, "Let's go! ”

Uhtred Jr. and he are both the sons of his father and Mrs. Ethelda, and unlike his deceased eldest brother Uhtred, they are the orthodox descendants of the elder Earl Guspatrick, but in the hearts of the royal family, blood ties may not be comparable to the love on the battlefield.

Passing through the pig farm and a sanctuary, little Guspatrick said to his brother on the back of a Saracen horse with a graceful mane: "Northumbria has advised me to go directly to the East, and it seems that this time I must leave, and you must make a trip to the north for me, to Locien, and let our lords be ready, and when I return to Cumbria, we will take the oath again." ”

"How long will it take you to go to the East?" Little Uhtred asked with some concern, the nervousness in his tone could not be concealed by the sound of evening prayers nearby.

"I don't know. Northumbria mentioned some things that I'll leave for home when I'm done. He did not elaborate with his brother, but what Volciov had spoken to him of was actually a marriage to the king of Greece, which had already been entrusted to him, but the Count of Northumbria intended to let the matter fall through.

If Prince Alfred and Princess Constance were married, King Philip would be more likely to support the younger nephew, and a purple-robed princess would be of no use to either of them, nor would it help the prince's career.

Moreover, the king himself did not have much hope for this, and even if the mission failed, the king would not punish Guspatrick himself for this.

"Take this gold, my brother, and give it to me in exchange for the loyalty of the northerners, the royal family's weregild. You know the story of Sigmund who slain the dragon beneath the limestone, pierced the shining scale armor of the fire-breathing beast with his sword, and the treasure was all his own, but this is bloody gold, and you know what this gold brings. Even if one day I die on the sword or the gallows, you must remember the origin of this gold: blood-red gold represents the dragon's curse. ”

Little Uhtred's fingers seemed to be burned with pounds of gold, and there were more such red lights to shoot out from the horse's leather bag.

Reward is rewarded with loyalty, and shame is rewarded with blood, this is the law of the northern land, and it is also the law that little Uhtred has understood since childhood. He had yet to see this rule in action, after all, the samurai in the story did not scream for mercy. Volsiov understood the price of these traditions because he had seen the objects of revenge, the corpses that were strewn and bloody, as if he were wearing a bright red cloak.

By this time the drawbridge at the Ludmen had been retracted, and there was a graveyard-like silence, and Gerspatrick leaned down from his saddle, patted Uhtred on the shoulder, and departed surrounded by the Earl's guard with spears in hand.

Little Uhtred didn't know where the next time he saw his brother would be, he knew that his brother was not satisfied with the Count of Northumbria's proposal to support Alfred's succession, a milky crown prince could not make the lords feel awe, but who else could he support? What's more, the elder brother is going to Constantinople, how will the future of the kingdom be affected in the court of the Greeks?

Note: According to later records, Uhtred is the son of Guspartrick, Count of Northumbria, and Lady Etheleda, the daughter of Prince Edred, the fourth son of the "Unprepared King" Ethelred, and Prince Edred is the half-brother of the protagonist's grandfather, "King Brave" Edmund. Uhtred had a great-grandson, William, who married the Countess of Richmond, who was given the title of Wixington, and his descendants began to use the title of Lord Washington, and after moving to the New World, he became the county governor of the Virginia colony, and the family eventually gave birth to George Washington, the number one thief in the history of the Kingdom of England.