“Right,” he said, laughing uneasily.  “But if one is told to seek for, say, a messenger?”

“I am a thane,” I said.  “To a thane even a queen may speak directly.”

“You Wessex folk are quick-tempered; or is that a Frankish trick you have picked up?” he sneered.  “Nay, but I will not offend you.”

Then he was silent for a time while we walked on.  I thought that the queen had hardly sent a message to me in that way, and that he had made some mistake.  I would leave him as soon as we turned back toward the hall.  We were alone on the rampart, with the stables below us on one side and the high stockading on the other; and then he dropped that subject, and talked of my home going in all friendly wise.

“There are always chances,” he said.  “Come and take service with Offa if aught goes amiss at home.”

“I have promised to go to Ethelbert, if so I must,” I answered, thinking to end his seemingly idle talk.

I had put up with it because I was his guest in a way, seeing that he was the marshal, and it does not do to offend needlessly those who hold one’s comfort in their hands.

End his talk this did, suddenly, and why I could not tell.

“Why,” he said, “then you are his man after all!  I deemed that you had but ridden westward with him for your own convenience.”

“So it was, more or less,” I said, somewhat surprised at his tone.

And when I looked at him his face seemed white in the moonlight.

“Of his kindness he bade me bear him company.”

But he made no answer, and half he halted and made as if to speak.  Again he went on, but said naught until we came to the steps which led down from the rampart to the rear gate.  On the top of them he turned and said in a low voice, staying me with his hand on my arm: 

“Say naught to any man of what I said concerning a state need of the queen’s, for mayhap I took too much on myself when I spoke thereof; there may be no need after all.”

I laughed a little, for I did but think that he had been trying to make out that he held high honour in the counsels of Quendritha, out of vanity, not knowing what my rank was.

“If she does send for me, I shall remember it, not else,” I answered.

And then, as he had the guard to visit, I left him, and went across the broad street, from the gate to the hall through the huts, back to my lodging.  There I found Father Selred, and together we waited for Sighard.  Erling sat on the settle by the door, with his weapons laid handy to him, on guard.

“All seems well, father,” I said; “there is naught but friendliness here.”

“Well indeed,” he answered.  “It is good to hear the talk of priests and nobles alike; they know the worth of our young king.”

“Well, and what is the talk of the housecarls, Erling?” I asked.

“Good also,” he growled.  “But I would that I kenned the talk of her of whom I have seen overmuch in the days gone by.”