“The Lost Tales of Mercia” is a series of ten short stories set in England near the end of the Viking Age. These swashbuckling tales educate and entertain simultaneously. In this tale, Lord Athelward, an ealdorman who also wants to write history, finds his peace of mind disturbed when a strange woman named Golde and her young son Eadric show up on his doorstep with a ridiculous proposal.