We came easily to Reedham, and very strange it was to me to see two Danish longships lying in our roads, while our own shore boats were alongside, the men talking idly together on deck or over gunwale in all friendliness.  Stranger yet it was to see the black ruins of farms and church on the southern shores of the river mouth, and at Reedham all things safe and smiling as ever.

Then was a wondrous welcome for us on our little staithe, and all the village crowded down to greet us.  Nor were the men from the Danish ships behindhand in that matter, for they too would welcome Lodbrok’s friends.

So we came home, and soon the old life began again as if naught had altered, but for the loss of loved faces round us.  Yet in peace or war that must come, and in a little while we grew content, and even happy.

Soon Guthrum came to Thetford, and many times rode over to me, asking me many things.  And all men spoke well of him, so that Egfrid’s father and some other thanes owned him as king, and took their lands as at his hands, coming back to rebuild their houses.  For as yet none of the greater Danish chiefs chose lands among us, since it seemed likely that in a little while all England would be before them, and in any case the power of Ethelred must be broken before there could be peace.

Now when the first pleasure of return was over, I myself began to be restless in my mind, seeing the quiet happiness of Egfrid in his marriage, and thinking how far I was from Osritha, whom I loved in such sort that well I knew that I should never wed any other.  And I would watch some Danish ship when she passed our village, going homewards, longing to sail in her and seek the place where Lodbrok’s daughter yet lived beyond the broad seas.

But presently, at the summer’s very end, I knew from the Danes that Ingvar had gone back to Denmark, called there by some rumour of trouble brewing at home in his absence; and that made it yet harder for me, if possible, for on Ingvar I would not willingly look again, nor would I think of Osritha but as apart from him.

So the winter wore away.  The host was quiet in winter quarters in Mercia, and the Danes in our country grew friendly with us, harming no man.

These men, I could see, would fain bide in peace, settling down, being tired of war, and liking the new country, where there was room and to spare for all.

In early spring Guthrum went to the host on the Wessex borders, taking command in Ingvar’s place.

For Hubba went to Northumbria, there to complete his conquests, and Halfden was on the western borders of Wessex.  And before he went Guthrum took great care for the good ordering of our land—­and that he might leave it at all at that time was enough to show that he feared no revolt against him.

Now as I sat in our hall, listless and downcast, one day in July, Cyneward came in to me.

“Here is news, master, that I know not what to make of.”