“This must be Osmund, I suppose,” the king said, smiling.  “I have heard how you came to know him and his fair daughter at Wareham.  It was well done, though maybe I should blame you for running over-much risk.”

“I think I ran little, lord king,” I said; “and I could have done no less for the poor maiden.”

“Surely; but I meant that to go at all was over dangerous.”

“I am ready to do the same again for you, my king,” I said.  “And after all I was in no danger.”

Then said the king, smiling gravely at me: 

“Greater often are the dangers one sees not than those which one has to meet.  I have my own thoughts of what risk you ran.

“Well, take your fair lady and the jarl also where you will.  But the feast is set for two hours after noon, and all must be there.”

So I thanked him, and he bade me ask his steward for horses if I would, and I went straight to Osmund from his presence.

“I think it will be a more pleasant ride than our last,” said Thora.  “Yet that is one that I shall not forget.”

Then I tried to say that I hoped she did not regret it either, but I minded me of the loved nurse she had to leave, and was silent in time.  Yet I thought that she meant nothing of sorrow in the remembrance as she spoke.

We called out my two comrades, for Osmund liked them well, and rode away northward, that the keen air might be behind us as we returned.  That was all the chance that led us that way, and it was well that we were so led, as things turned out.

The white downs and woodlands sparkling with frost were very beautiful as we rode, and we went fast and joyously in the fresh air; but the countryside was almost deserted, for the farmsteads were burned when the Danes broke in on the land last spring, and few were built up as yet.  The poor folk were in the town now, for the most part, finding empty houses enough to shelter them, and none left to whom they belonged.

Now we rode for twelve miles or so, and then won to a hilltop which we had set as our turning place.  I longed to stand there and look out over all this country, that seemed so fair after the rugged northern lands I had known all my life.  But when we were there we saw a farmstead just below us, on the far slope of the gentle hill; and we thought it well to go there and dismount, and maybe find some food for ourselves and the horses before turning back.

So we went on.  It was but a couple of furlongs distant, and the buildings lay to the right of the road, up a tree-shaded lane of their own.

We turned into this, and before we had gone ten yards along it I halted suddenly.  I had seen somewhat that seemed strange, and unmeet for the lady to set eyes on.

“Bide here, jarl,” I said, “and let us go on and see what is here; the place looks deserted.”

And I looked meaningly at him, glancing at Thora.

But he had seen what had caught my eye, and he stayed at once, turning back into the main road, and beckoning Harek to come with him and Thora, for some reason of his own.