Water Borne has such a poetic feel to it that it seems a shame that I’m going to start this book review by criticizing it. But this title doesn’t, in my humble opinion, really tell you what this novel is about. Yes, the piece starts with Lady Dwynwen pouring water from a silver jug. Yes, Edwin of Kilton does spend some time on the sea. But even so, I don’t think this title gives you enough of a flavor of what really happens in this volume.
I really think that matters could have been improved if this novel had been titled The Missteps and Misfortunes of Lord Edwin of Kilton. For poor Edwin cannot catch a break in this volume.
Naturally, his troubles start with Lady Dwynwen. Having traipsed all the way to Wales (at least a 50-mile journey over rutted roads), the lady refuses to marry him. Instead, she persuades him to take her back to Kilton so that she could see his home and then make a decision.
As soon as her gaze falls on his elder brother Ceric she changes her mind.
“I will not leave you,” she says over and over again to him, as he sits bemused before her. For Ceric is fragile, having just returned from his sojourn in the forests of Kilton, where he has been living for the past year. He would have died had it not been for the supplies that Worr sent him. And he is still shell-shocked over the death of his intended bride Ashild, because he was responsible for her death. Believing that he saw a Viking warrior before him, he threw a spear which pierced her heart. It was only as he took the speak out that he realized that the Viking was actually Ashild herself. This is the worst thing that could have possibly have happened to Ceric, for he loved Ashild dearly.
But that night, Lady Dwynwen appears at his door in her nightgown. Ceric is unable to resist, and so, of course they have to marry, which they do the very next day.
Everyone is delighted, that Ceric, who has suffered so much in the past year, has finally found happiness. All, except for Edwin, who is in shock. How can that child-like girl have spurned him so completely? Why did she choose Ceric? Edwin cannot understand what happened. She has slipped through his fingers like an eel, before he had a chance to get acquainted.
And now he must go to the trouble and expense of acquiring another bride. So when a letter from King Alfred arrives, inviting him to court, Edwin is only too eager to go. But it turns out that the bride Alfred has in mind is Ealhswith, daughter of Sidroc the Dane. Edwin is appalled. For Sidroc murdered Edwin’s father Godwin. And so he refuses the King’s offer point blank.
Disconsolate, he wanders the halls of the King’s palace, spotting a beautiful, dark-haired woman of noble aspect. He inquires who she is, only to be told that she is Dagmar, Hrald of Four Stone’s first wife, whom he divorced when he found her with another man.
And so when Raedwulf proposes that Edwin travel all the way to Frisia, to the mouth of the Rhine river to negotiate a match with one of the local nobleman’s daughters, Edwin is desperate to go. But when he arrives, the nobleman has just died and the household is in mourning. As it seems the new count is not likely to do anything for his sisters, Edwin’s hopes are again dashed.
And that is how he makes the decision to visit his mother Ceridwen, who is now living happily with his nemesis Sidroc at the Hall of Tyr on Gotland. Of course, things are very tense, but I won’t say more so as not to spoil the ending for those of you who have not read this book.
