Reine des Anglais

My name is Isabeau

ᛁᛊᚨᛒᛖᚢ

"How much longer until we reach the English shore?" Isabeau asked tiredly as her ship's captain gave her a bowl of dried and salted meat.

"At least until late tomorrow." The captain responded as he handed her a small corked jug of ale. "If the wind is against us and we have to rely fully on rowing, it would be another two nights instead of just the one."

Isabeau sighed. "If that is the case, I will need my ladies brought from the other ship to change my clothing at some point," she informed him as she looked up at the sky. "I wonder how bad the fighting in England has gotten now. The last letter I had from my sister was... not hopeful for the future of her husband or her crown."

"I've heard the vikings are planning to retreat at least for the winter." He sat across from her.

"We can hope for that, at the very least." She said as she took a drink.

From the front of the ship, they heard a loud shouting and rushing of their men.

Isabeau stood up and hurried to the front of the ship, holding onto the ledge to peer into the distance of the waves.

Ahead of her was a terrifying sight- three ships. Viking ships. She knew they weren't there for peaceful negotiations, either. It was treasure, blood, or both that they'd be after.

Usually both.

She couldn't take her eyes off the ships, though. Almost as though something about them was calling out to her from it.

"My lady!" The ship's captain rushed over to her from the stern of the ship. "My lady, we need you to get away from the bow, please. These men approaching us are Norsemen, they won't hesitate to sink our ship just because they see a widow on board!"

Isabeau turned and looked at the captain for a moment. She reached up and began twisting her wedding ring around with her right hand. It was worth almost as much as almost anything on the ship- including her own life. "If they board, offer them this in exchange for our lives and ability to continue through the Channel." She handed the ring to the captain as she walked past him to the stern and sat down. She folded her hands in her lap and took a breath. It had eighteen since she had been made a very young widow and only six months since she had been forcefully separated from her son, almost immediately her half brother had decided that he couldn't bother to make plans regarding her life now and that she should be sent to England to be managed by her older half sister. Being seventeen, she was still of a perfect age to marry and provide whatever husband Emma found for her with heirs and spares. At least, that was the intention. That was always the intention.

She heard the dull thud of wood on wood as a plank came from the vikings' ship to their own. She lifted her head and saw her crew readying to fight. Readying to die is more like it, she thought to herself. The vikings came rushing onto the ship, and almost immediately the smell of blood hit the air. Her Norman soldiers were certainly attempting to put up a fight, but their opponents were as ruthless as the stories. They had never stood a chance.

"My lady, please. We have to try and swim to the next ship." The captain rushed back to her. Behind him, the war cries of Normans and Norsemen could be heard as their one-sided skirmish waged.

It couldn't be called a battle, and if the Normans hadn't fought back it simply would have been a slaughter.

"What would the point of that be, exactly?" Isabeau asked incredulously as she grabbed his hand and took her ring back from him. Clearly the man had no plans to use it, and she had no plans to die at sea. "They have multiple ships and have already begun pillaging both of ours."