“I wonder he went near you,” I said.

“Therein was craft.  If he had not paid passage I would have let every shipmaster beware of him, and he would have fared ill.  He thought you done for, no doubt, and so fell back on certainty, as one may say.  It is a marvel you escaped the great rifts in yon cliffs in the storm.  Now he will hear that you are none the worse, and he will be sorry he paid me.”

Thorgils laughed grimly, but Nona sighed at the downfall of the man she had liked.  As for myself, it mattered little what became of him, so far as I was concerned.  Howel’s men were hunting him as I knew, and I only hoped they might catch him, for then we might learn more of the plotting that was on hand from him.  He would tell all to save his skin, no doubt.

But now I told Thorgils how I needed to be back in Norton with all speed, and it sent a sort of chill through me to see him shake his head.

“There is need, truly,” he said, “and all that may be done I will do.  But yestermorn we found that we had sprung a plank or two just above the waterline, as we were in a bad berth for shelter.  I made shift to get the ship to Tenby, but on one tack she leaks like a basket, and she must be repaired.  It will take all today, and maybe tomorrow; but it shall be done, if we have to work double tides, or to make a cobbler’s job of it in haste.  I must be off therefore to see to it.  But I hope, if wind will serve us we may sail for home tomorrow night.  Tide serves about midnight, and waits for no man.  You had better be with us betimes.”

He saw that I seemed downcast, and added thoughtfully enough:  “It is in my mind that you need have little care yet.  Gerent will not let Owen out of his sight for some time, as I think, and danger begins when he is abroad alone, and carelessly.  Maybe not till he is at Exeter.”

Then he beckoned to the two Danes who were waiting him, and made them known to me after they had saluted the princess.  Eric the chief was a fine old warrior, iron grey and strong, and the other was his son, who bade fair to be like his father in time.  He was a sturdy young man, and wore his arms well.  They shook hands with me frankly, and from their words it was plain that Thorgils had told my story at Tenby already.

“This is the sick man I told you of,” he said now.  “He turns out to be a Thane of Glastonbury, and Evan had a hand in some plot of the friends of Morgan.  Took him by craft and brought him here for ransom, doubtless.  I had not thought that man such a knave, and shall distrust my judgment of men sorely in future.”

Then Nona asked them what they would with the prince, and Eric told her.

“The deer are in the valleys, Lady, and we came to tell the prince that we have harboured the great stag of twelve points in the woods beyond Caerau.  Will it please him to join our hunt?”

“Doubtless,” she said.  “Now there is no time to be lost, for the day is high already.”