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was about the time Thorolf and his men came to Northlanding. I kept up the stables and paddock – I already was doing most of the horse-training, it’s something women are good at.
    “Thorolf sometimes rented horses from me, in the early days before he’d settled on his course of business. We got along well, but we were both too filled with our sorrows—me a widow, he an exile—for it to go beyond that.
    “And then he began insisting that merchants take him as a trading partner. A number of people were badly beaten. He’s been able to get along with quiet threats ever since.”
    She was silent a moment. “I guess that’s all over now, isn’t it?
    “I didn’t approve, but he would visit the stables now and then, and I would be pleasant. He wanted to trade in goods that could be kept in his warehouses—not horses—so he was no danger to me as long as I didn’t anger him. Politeness works with horses, and it seemed to work with Thorolf. I did not realize he’d taken it for something more.
    “Yestereve I was in the shed working on tack when Thorolf came to see me. We spoke for a while, then he embraced me and said I would be his.”
    Matilda’s eyes were unseeing, looking at a different place and time. Gervase thought she might be of two minds in this matter: lonely, wanting Thorolf despite knowing what he was. She continued.
    “I told him he could not have me—and he tried to force me. I work with horses, I am stronger than I appear. We had a set-to, which panicked Thorolf’s horse. He sprained himself.
    “That brought Thorolf and myself to our senses. I loaned him one of my horses, so he could return home, and promised to care for Storm until he was healed. He rode off, and that is the last I saw of him. The last thing he said to me was that we would speak further of this on the morrow.
    “I realized Thorolf now thought I had betrayed him. God alone knows what he would have done! I put Storm in a box stall, then went to the tavern. And that’s all I remember, until I awoke this morning.”
    “What about the horse you lent Thorolf?” Gervase asked.
    “He was in the paddock this morning—but I don’t remember anything about it. When I saw him there, I assumed Thorolf had turned him loose to make his own way home. Thorolf kept other horses at his warehouse, so he wouldn’t have needed mine.”
    “A plain story, Matilda, forthrightly told. But you say you have no memory of the time of the murder. This is a matter for concern, hm?”
    Matilda snorted. “I may not have the memory, but I have the hangover. Ask at the tavern, I’m sure they can speak for me there.” She rose, addressed the watching crowd. “Good neighbors, I am sure many of you saw what happened yesterday. An’ you love me, tell the bailiff truly what happened.”
    She sat again on the hay, leaned against the fence. “I place my fate in their hands, bailiff. I can say no more.”
    Gervase Rotour motioned to one of his men. “Stay with her. Watch her, protect her.” He went forth into the crowd.
    An old gaffer, with keen ears for his age, nudged the bailiff. “Heh, ‘set-to.’ Bailiff, it did these old eyes good. All the brave merchants truckling to Thorolf these past years—and it took a woman to handle him right proper. Horsewhipped him, she did! You should have seen him hopping! He was running for his horse, but the sight of a screaming woman with a whip panicked the beast. Yes, sir! Lamed himself trying to escape, did that horse.”
    The sweetmonger was nearby. “He speaks truth. I don’t think Matilda ever hit Thorolf with her whip, but she came close. A while later, after Thorolf rode past my booth, she walked by headed in the direction of the tavern.”
    A cloth merchant spoke. “My wife and I have the next place over.” He swept his hand to indicate the brightly-colored display. “About two hours after sunset, a horse in riding tack came to the paddock all lathered up. I recognized Matilda’s mark on the saddle,