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Author Insight
Who Will Be King?
Taking up her responsibilities, Abbess Elfleda goes to meet Abbot Cuthbert on Coquet Island. Her mission is to persuade him to accept the bishop's mitre, but other matters prey on her mind. Her brother King Egfrid has no heir and may not live much longer. What will happen to Northumbria? Will there be civil war? Will they be taken over by their Mercian enemies? The future seems bleak. Abbot Cuthbert predicts the next king will be a brother she doesn't know, a son of her father King Oswy and a woman called Fin. The comfort Cuthbert extended doesn't ease Elfleda's mind. People don't always embrace the future laid before them.
Book Excerpt
Saxon Heroines
“What will happen, Abbot Cuthbert? Egfrid has no sons, no brothers, no nephews, no one to become king after him. Shall we be taken over by Mercia?”
Cuthbert lifts my chin. “There is another to rule. A man you will love as much as you love your brother Egfrid.”
“Another brother? Who?”
“How many islands are in the ocean? As many as stars in the sky? If God creates islands and stars, he creates heirs for Northumbria. Like father, like son. If Ermenburg is your brother’s love, who was your father’s? Think, Elfleda.”
“King Oswy’s first wife had a son, but he died after the Great Synod at Streoneshalh.” I shake my head. “There’s no one.”
“Once there was an Irish princess. A woman called Fin. She knew Oswy while he lived on Iona.”
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