ERPWALD.
I bided at Norton with Owen until the Lententide drew near, and
then I must needs go back to my place with Ina. Maybe I should have
gone before this, seeing that all was safe now, but our king had
been on progress about the country, to Chippenham, and so to
Reading and thence to London, and but half his guard was with him,
so that I was not needed. Now he was back at Glastonbury, and I
must join him there and go back to royal Winchester with him for
the Easter feast.
Owen and I also had been far westward at one time or another, in
this space, though there is little worth telling beyond that we
went even to the lands of Tregoz that had passed to him, and so
took possession of them. I could not see that any of the folk on
those lands, whether free or thrall, seemed other than glad that
Owen was their lord now. It was said that Tregoz was little loved.
We left a new steward in the great half-stone and half-timber
house, with house-carles enough to see that none harmed either him
or the place, and so came back to Norton.
Now, one may say that all this time, seeing that Glastonbury was
but so short a distance from Norton, I was a laggard lover not to
have ridden over to see Elfrida, and maybe it would be of little
use for me to deny it. However, I would have it remembered that
there was always fear for Owen in my mind if I was apart from him
at the first, and then there was this westward journey, and the
hunting in new places, and many other things, so that the time
slipped by all too quickly. Also, when it is easy to go to a place
one is apt to say that tomorrow will do, and, as every one knows,
tomorrow never comes. Nor had we said much of that damsel; if Owen
had not altogether forgotten my oath, he never spoke of it, nor did
I care to remind him. Nevertheless, whenever we spoke of Howel and
his daughter, Owen's godchild, I minded that the princess had
bidden me see how Elfrida greeted me when I came back, and it was
in my mind that she would be no less glad to see me after a long
absence.
That I should find out very shortly, but the thought troubled me
little. I will say that the parting from Owen was all that was of
consequence to me, for it was hard enough. I could not tell when we
should meet again, for I must go east and he west now, and
presently all Devon, and maybe Cornwall, would lie between us, even
when our court was at Glastonbury. It would be hard to see him at
all in the coming days, for not often was Gerent here. However,
partings must needs be, and we made the least of it, and so at last
we rode together to the old bridge that crosses the Parrett, and
there bade our last farewells, and went our ways, not looking back.
It was a lonesome ride onward for me after all these days with him,
and I had not a word for my house-carles, who had ridden from
Glastonbury hither to meet me, for the first few miles. Then I
bethought myself, and drew rein a little and let them come up with
me, for I had ridden alone at their head for a while, and so heard
all the news of the court and whatever talk was going about the
place, and my mind left Norton and went on, as it were, before me
to Glastonbury and all that I should see there.
There was a warm welcome waiting for me from the many friends, and
best of all from the king himself. With him I sat long in his
chamber telling of my doings and of Owen, and hearing also of what
had been going on. At the last, when I was about to leave his
presence, he said:
"There is one matter that we must speak of tomorrow, for it is
weighty and needs thought. Let it bide now, for it is nought
unhappy, and so come to me at noon and we will speak thereof. Now
your friends will seek you, and I will not say more."
I left him then with a little wonder as to what this business might
be, but thought little of it, as it would very likely be a matter
of taking some men on some errand or the like house-carle work, and
then I bethought me that I would even go and see how fared Elfrida.
It was not unpleasant to think of taking her by surprise, for I did
not suppose that she had heard of my return yet. At all events, she
would have no chance of making up some stiff greeting for me.
Wherefore I went down the street with my head in the air, making up
my mind how I would greet her, and maybe I thought of a dozen ways
before I reached the ealdorman's door.
His welcome was hearty enough at all events, but before I could
make up my mind to ask for Elfrida, who was not to be seen at
first, though I had counted on finding her at her wheel in the
great hall of the house, as was her wont in the afternoon, he had
wasted a long hour in hearing all that he could of my affairs, as
may be supposed. There had been some strange rumours flying about
since I was lost. I began to wish that I had brought Thorgils home
with me, for it was plain that I should have to go over all this
too often, and he cared not at all how many times he told the same
tale.
At last I was able to find a chance of asking how fared the lady
Elfrida, and at that the ealdorman laughed.
"What, has not all this put that foolishness out of your head?" he
said.
"No, it has not," I answered pretty shortly.
But all the same, the old thought that I had remembered her less
than I would have it known did flash across me for a moment.
"Well, I will send for her, and she will tell you for herself how
she fares."
He sent, and then in about half an hour she came, just as I was
thinking I would wait no longer. And if she had been stiff with me
in the orchard it was even more so now, and I did not seem to get
on with her at all. She said, indeed, that she was glad to see me
back, but in no way could I think that she looked more so than any
one else I had met.
So we talked a little, and then all of a sudden her father said:
"Ho!--Here comes that South Saxon again."
Then at once a blush crept slowly over her fair face, and she tried
not to look toward the great door in vain, though no one came in,
and presently she was gone with but a few words to me. I did not
like this at all, but the ealdorman laughed at her and then at me,
the more that he saw that I was put out.
"Never mind, Oswald," he said. "That vow of yours pledged you to no
more than duty to any fair lady."
"Maybe it is just as well that it did not," I answered, trying to
laugh also.
"Ay, that is right. You were bound to say somewhat, and you did it
well. But it has not pleased the girl, nevertheless."
"I did think, at least, she would have been more glad to see me."
"Trouble yourself not at all about the ways of damsels for the next
five years, or maybe ten, Oswald, my friend," said the ealdorman.
"So will you have an easier life, and maybe a longer one."
Discontented enough I went away, and that same discontent lasted
for a full half-hour. At the end of that time I found myself
laughing at the antics of two boys who were sporting on a flooded
meadow in a great brew tub, while their mother threatened them with
a stick from the bank. It was my thought that a cake would have
fetched them back sooner than the stick, but maybe she knew best.
It was like a hen with ducklings.
Then I grew tired of loitering outside the town and nursing my
wounded pride, and when it began to rain I forgot it, and went back
to the palace and talked about the British warriors with Nunna and
some of the other young thanes until supper time.
Next morning I waited on the king as he had bidden me, finding him
in his chamber with a pile of great parchments and the like before
him. He bade me be seated, and I sat in the window seat opposite
him.
"It is no light matter that I have to speak of," he said, "but I
will get to the point straightway. What do you remember of your old
home, Eastdean?"
Now the thoughts of old days there that had sprung afresh in my
mind in the parting with Owen, made me ready to answer that at
once.
"Little, my King. I was but ten years old when we fled," I answered
therefore.
"That is likely. But would you go back there? As the Thane of
Eastdean, I mean; for I know that you would wish to see the place
where your father lies."
I could not answer him this at once, for it was indeed a matter
that needed thought. So I said, and he turned to his writings with
a nod and left me to myself.
In all these thoughts of mine, pleasant as they were with some
memories, it had never come to me to wish that the lands were mine
again. Save for that one thing of which Ina spoke, and for the
pleasantness of seeing old scenes again, I had never cared to go
back. Owen had not spoken of the lands that should have been mine
for years, and even as he talked with me and Gerent he had not
seemed to remember that old loss at all. Gerent had done so, saying
that I should be back there, but even that did not stir me now. I
was of the court, and here I had my place, and all my life was knit
with the ways of the atheling guard and the ordering of the
house-carles under Owen. If I were to turn from all this to become
a forest thane it would be banishment.
And then I thought of Owen, and how this would take me yet farther
from him. I would sooner, if I must be sent from Ina, go to him and
find what home I might on the lands of Tregoz in wild Dartmoor. And
then the thought of leaving Ina, who had cared for me since I was a
child, was almost as terrible.
"I would not leave you, my King," I said at last.
Ina looked up at me with a smile, but was silent, stroking his
beard as was his way when thinking, looking past me out of the
narrow window to the great Tor that towered beyond the new abbey
buildings.
"Think!" he said at last--"partings must come, and lands are not to
be had lightly. Erpwald's brother, who held Eastdean, is dead."
"I need no lands," I answered. "The ways of a captain of your
house-carles are good to me, and I need no more. If I took those
lands from your hand, my King, needs must that I gave up all the
life with you. Sooner would I let the land go and bide with you.
Yet if I must needs take them, be it as you will."
"It is a great thing that you speak so lightly of giving up," he
answered gravely; "Erpwald, the heathen, was willing to risk his
life for those lands, and he held them dear. And a captain of the
king's house-carles will always look to be rewarded for service
with lands. In time you will seek the same."
"That time has not yet come to me, King Ina."
"Eastdean lies in my hand here," he said, taking up a parchment
with a great seal on it. "I may give it to whom I will, but you are
the lawful heir who should hold it from me. If it goes not to you,
it may be that one whom you would not shall have it."
Then I said, not seeing at all what the king would have me do, but
thinking that he deemed me foolish for not taking the lands
straightway:
"Let me bide with you even yet for a while. When the time comes
that I must leave you I must go to Owen, and neither he nor I care
for aught but to be here. He must leave you because of duty, and if
this is indeed choice with me, let me choose to stay. It is nought
to me who holds the lands, save only that it might be one who will
tend the grave of my father."
Then said Ina, looking into my face and smiling, as if well
pleased:
"The choice is free, my Thane, and I should be wrong if I did not
say that I am glad to hear you choose thus. I have missed you in
these days, and I have work here for you yet. It was in my mind
that thus you would choose, and I am glad. Let it be so. I need one
to take the place of Owen, as second in command of the household,
as one may say, and that you must do for me henceforward.
"Nay," he said quickly, raising his hand as I tried to find some
words of thanks for this honour; "you know the ways of Owen, and
men know you, and it will be as if there had been no change, and
that will mean that we shall have no grumbling in the palace, and
the right men will be sent to do what they are best fitted for--and
all that, so that there will be quiet about the court as ever. It
is a matter off my mind, let me tell you, and no thanks are
needed."
So he laughed and let me kiss his hand, patting me on the shoulder
as I rose, and then bade me sit down again. He had yet more to say.
"With Erpwald who is dead, men would hold that you had a blood
feud. That is done with; but his son yet lives. I do not think it
is your way, or Owen's, to hold that a feud must be carried on in
the old heathen way of our forefathers."
"Most truly not," I said. "What ill has a son of Erpwald done to me
or mine?"
"None! Nay, rather has he done well, for I know that he has
honoured the grave of your father, and even now is ready to do what
he can to make amends for the old wrong. He brought me this."
He took up the parchment that he had shewn me before. It was a
grant of the manors of Eastdean to Erpwald, gained by those means
of utmost craft whereby the king thought that indeed the last of
our line had perished by other hands than those of the heathen
thane.
"Honest and straightforward and Christian-like is this young
Erpwald," the king said. "Well brought up by his Christian mother,
if not very ready or brilliant in his ways. Now he has learned how
his father came into the lands, and though he might well have held
them after his uncle on this grant, he has come hither to set the
matter in my hands. 'It is not fair,' quoth he, 'that I should hold
them if one is left of the line of Ella. I should not sleep easily
in my bed. Nevertheless, I will buy them if so be that one is left
to sell them to me.' So he sighed, for the place is his home."
"All these years it has been no trouble to me that Erpwald's
brother has held the place, my King. It will be no trouble to think
that a better Erpwald holds them yet."
"I do not think that he will be happy unless he deems that he has
paid some price--some weregild {ii}, as one may say; for slow
minds as his hang closely to their thoughts when they are formed.
See, Oswald, I have thought of all this, and the young man has been
here for a fortnight. I brought him here from Winchester, where he
joined me. Let me tell you what I think."
"The matter is in your hands altogether, my King."
"As you have set it there," he said, smiling gently. "Now all seems
plain to me, and I will say that this is even what I thought you
would wish to do. How shall it be if we bid Erpwald, for the deed
of his father, to build a church in Eastdean and there to keep a
priest, that all men shall know how that the martyr is honoured,
and the land be the better for his death?"
Nought better than this could be, as I thought, and I told the king
so.
"Why, then," he said, "that is well. I shall have pleased both
parties, as I hope. I know you will meet him in all friendliness."
Then he let me go, and it was with a light heart that I parted from
him. Now I knew that my father's grave and memory would be held in
more than common honour, and I was content.
Men would miss Owen sorely here, but, save for that, I had so often
acted for him in these last two years that my being altogether in
his place made little difference to any one, or even to myself in a
few days. That last was as well for myself, as it seems to me, for
I was not over proud, as I might have been had the post been new to
me. As it was, I do not think that there was any jealousy over it,
or at least I never found it out. My friends rejoiced openly, and
if any one wondered that the king should so trust a man of my age,
the answer that I had saved Ina's life was enough to satisfy all.
My men drank my health in their quarters that night, and after I
got over the little strangeness of sitting on the high place next
to Nunna, things went on, save for the want of Owen about the
court, even as when he was the marshal and I but his squire, as it
were.
I saw young Erpwald for the first time soon after the king had
spoken of him to me, and I liked the look of him well enough. He
was some few years older than I, square and strong, with a round
red face and light hair, pleasant in smile, if not over wise
looking. One would say that he might be a good friend, but one
could hardly think of him as willingly the enemy of any man. Some
one made me known to him as the son of Owen, as was usual, and as
such would I be known to him for a while; but for some time I saw
little of him, not caring to seek his company, as indeed there was
no reason for me to do so.
The next thing that I heard of him was that he had made a great
friend of the ealdorman since he came here, being often at his
house. It was not so long before I met him there, though my pride,
which would not let me risk another rebuff, kept me away for some
days. I had an uneasy feeling that I should fare no better, and I
could find good reason enough to justify the thought in some ways,
as any one may see from what had happened before.
Maybe that was a token that my first feelings were cooling off, and
I do not think that there is much wonder if they were. It would
have been strange, and not altogether complimentary to the fair
damsel if, after the deed at the feast and the vow that I had to
make, I had not thought myself desperately in love with her at
last, after a good many years of friendship. But now there had
befallen the long days of peril and anxiety which had set her in
the background altogether, and I had had time to come to more sober
thoughts, as it were. Men have said that I aged more in that short
time than in the next ten years of my life, and it is likely.
Nevertheless, it needed but a word or two of kindness to bring me
to Elfrida's feet once for all, and but a little more coldness to
send me from her altogether.
So at last I went to her home to find out how I should fare,
thinking less of the matter than last time, and there she sat in
the hall, chatting merrily with Erpwald. That pleasantness stopped
when I came in, and after the first needful greetings Elfrida froze
again, and Erpwald fell silent, as if I was by no means welcome. I
could see that I was the third who spoils company. However, the
ealdorman came in directly, and I talked to him, and as we paid no
heed to those two they took up their talk once more, and presently
their words waxed low. Whereon the ealdorman glanced at them with a
sly grin and wink to me, and I understood.
So I went away, for that was enough. Of course, I was very angry,
by reason of the scratch to my pride; for it does hurt to think
that one is not wanted, and for a while I brooded over it just as I
had done the other day. Then it came to me that at least I had no
reason to be angry with Erpwald, who could know little or anything
about me, being a newcomer, and it was not his fault if the girl
made a tool of him to scare me away, and after that I found my
senses again, rather sooner than before, perhaps. It was plain that
the ealdorman took it for granted that I had no feeling now in that
direction, and so others would do the same, which was comforting.
So I supposed that there was no more to be said on the subject by
any one, unless Elfrida chose to have the matter out, and set
things on the old footing of frank friendliness again.
There I found that I was mistaken at once. Some one was coming down
the lane after me quickly, and then calling my name. I turned, and
there was Erpwald, with a very red face, trying to overtake me, and
I waited for him.
"A word with you, Thane," he said, out of breath.
"As many as you will. What is it?"
"Wait until I get my breath," he said. "One would think that you
were in a desperate hurry, by the pace you go. Plague on all such
fast walkers!"
That made me laugh, and he smiled across his broad face in return.
"It is all very well to grin," he said, straightening his face
suddenly to a blankness; "but what I have to say concerns a mighty
serious matter."
"Well, then, get it done with," I answered, trying not to smile yet
more.
"I don't rightly know how to begin," he said in a hesitating kind
of way. "Words are as hard to manage as a drove of forest swine,
and I am a bad hand at talking. Can you not tell what I have to
say?"
"Not in the least," I answered.
It flashed across me that he might have found out who I was,
however, and wanted to speak of the old trouble.
"Well," he said at last, growing yet redder, "the Lady Elfrida is
angry that her name has been coupled with yours pretty much
lately."
He stopped with a long breath, and I knew what he was driving at.
"She has told me as much herself already," I said solemnly.
He heaved a sigh of relief.
"But she did not tell me that," he said in a puzzled sort of way.
"Well, it must not go on, or--or else, that is, I shall have to see
that it does not."
"The worst of it is that I cannot help it," said I. "Did the lady
ask you to speak to me of the matter?"
"Why, no; she did not. Only, I thought that some one must. Of
course, I mean that I will fight you if it goes on."
"Of course," I said. "But I can in no wise stop it. Do you know how
it began?"
"Not altogether. How was it?"
"Really, that you had better ask some one else," I said, keeping a
grave face. "I think that it would have been fairer to me to have
done so first. But if there was any real blame to me, do you think
that the ealdorman would have been glad to see me just now? I think
that it was plain that he was so."
"I am an owl," Erpwald said. "Of course, he would not have been.
But did you come to see the ealdorman, or the lady?"
"Why, both of them, of course. I have known them for years."
He looked relieved when he heard that, and I thought that he must
be badly smitten already.
"Well, I will go and ask the ealdorman all about it," he said.
"Where shall I find you in an hour's time?"
"In my quarters," I answered; "but, of course, if you want to fight
me you will have to send a friend to talk to me."
"I will send the ealdorman himself."
"Best not, for he is the man who is charged with the stopping of
these affairs if he hears of them. Any atheling you meet will help
you in such a matter. It is an honour to be asked to do so. But
don't ever ask me to be your second if you have another affair, for
I also have to hinder these meetings if I can."
"Is there any one else I must not ask?" he said in a bewildered
way.
"Best not ask the abbot," I said, and I could not help smiling.
"Now you are laughing at me, and that is too bad. How am I to know
your court ways?"
"Well, you will not have to fight me unless you really want to pick
a quarrel. So it does not matter. Get to the bottom of the
question, and then come and talk it over, and we will see what is
to be done."
He nodded and left me, and I had a good chuckle over the whole
business. It was not likely that Elfrida had set him on me, in the
least; but I suppose he had heard some jest of her father's, who
was one of those who will work anything that pleases them to the
last.
So I went my way, and saw to one or two things, and sat me down in
the room off the hall that had been Owen's, and presently Erpwald
came in, and I saw that he was in trouble.
"Well," I said, "how goes the quarrel?"
"I am a fool," he replied promptly. "The lady should be proud of
the affair, and the more it is talked of the better she should like
it. You are right in saying that it cannot be stopped. Why, there
is a gleeman down the street this minute singing the deeds of
Oswald and Elfrida. As for the vow you made, the ealdorman says
that it could not have been better done. Forgive me for troubling
you about it at all."
He held out his broad hand, and for a moment I hesitated about
taking it. He bore his father's name, but in a flash it came to me
that I was wrong. We were both children when the ill deed was
wrought, and I was no heathen to hold a blood feud against all the
family of the wrongdoer. He did not even know that one of us lived,
and, as the king had told me, I knew that he was prepared to make
amends.
So I took his hand frankly, and he had not noticed the moment's
slowness or, if he did, took it for the passing of vexation from my
mind.
"You will laugh at me again," he said, "but now I am in hot water
in all sooth. The lady will not speak to me at all."
I did laugh. I sat down on the edge of the table and tried to stop
it, but his red face was so rueful that I could not, and at last he
had to smile also.
"Why, what have you done?" I asked. "Now it is my turn to know
reasons why. Here is a new offence to be seen into."
"I only told her that I had spoken to you on the subject, and was
going to talk to the ealdorman, her father, if she would not save
me the trouble by telling me herself all about it."
"And then?"
"She got up and went away, tossing her head, without a word. So I
had a talk with the ealdorman, and learnt all; but after that I
tried to see her, and that black-haired Welsh maiden of hers told
me that she would not see me."
"It seems to me that you have had a bad day," I said. "But what
does it matter? You have done what seemed right, and if it is taken
in the wrong way you cannot help it."
"It does matter," he said. "If she is wroth with me, I don't mind
telling you that I am fit to hang myself. Could you not set things
right for me, somehow? You are an old friend."
"No, hardly; for I am not in favour there just now."
"Well, I shall go and try to get round the Welsh girl to speak for
me."
Now, that was a servant I had never heard of, and I thought I knew
all the household. So I could not tell him if that would be of use,
and he left me in some sort of desperation to try what he could. He
was very much in love.
Next day he came back beaming. Somehow the Welshwoman had managed
things for him, and all was well again. I had my own thought that
Elfrida was by no means unwilling to meet him halfway, but I did
not say so. I think I had fairly got over my feelings by this time,
but I must say that I felt a sort of half jealousy about it. But
the more I came to look on the South Saxon's round face, and to
think of him as Elfrida's favoured lover, the less I felt it. It
became a jest to watch the going of the affair, and I was not the
only one who found it so in a very short time.
Erpwald made no secret of his devotion. He minded me of a great
faithful stupid dog, whose trust was boundless and whose love was
worth having. One could lead him anywhere, but he was true
Sussex--he would not be driven an inch.
So Elfrida had a hopeless slave at her beck and call, and by and by
I was on the old footing, and we used to make much of my vow of
service to her.
"I would that I had made that vow," Erpwald said once.
"It is not too late now," answered the ealdorman, with his great
laugh; "but I do not think it is needed."
After me went Erpwald when he was not at the ealdorman's, and Ina
told me that he was glad to see that I harboured no thought of
revenge.
"Presently you will want to go to Eastdean to see that your
father's grave is well honoured, and this friendliness will help
you," he said. "And for his friend such a man as Erpwald will do
much. The church at Eastdean will be no poor one, and you will help
him choose the place. We could not have asked him to do anything
that has pleased him more."
One thing I feared was that when he found out who I was he would be
ill at ease with me, and I asked the king to tell him in the way
that seemed best to his wisdom, lest the knowledge should come by
chance from some one else.
So he did that, and in a day or two Erpwald came to me and told me
that he knew at last who I was, and we had a long talk together. It
was in his mind to try to make me take the lands again, and I had
hard work to make him believe that I was in earnest when I said
that I did not want them. And at the end I made him happy by
telling him that the king would let me go to Eastdean with him
before long, so that we could see to things together.
"Well," he said, "this is all very pleasant for me, and it is
common saying that you will be some sort of prince in West Wales
before long; but I shall ever feel that my family owes yours more
than I can repay."
After that he was a little uneasy with me for a time, but it soon
wore off, and we used to talk of our ride to Eastdean often enough.
And then happened a thing that set me back into trouble about Owen
again. I had had many messages from him, as may be supposed, and in
all of them he said that there was no sign of danger, or even of
plotting against him.
One of my men brought me a written message one evening. A thrall
had left it at the gate for me. And when I asked from whom it came
I had the same answer that was given me when that other writing
warned me not to sleep in the moonlight, for it was said to come
from a priest whom I knew.
So when I glanced at the writing I was not surprised to see that it
was the same, though the sight of it gave me a cold shudder.
Somewhat the same also was the form in which the message ran:
"To Oswald, son of Owen.--It is not good to take wine from the hand
of a Briton."
Now, I had some reason to believe that Mara had written the first
note, as she seemed the only possible person to warn us of the
plots of her kin, and that was a very plain warning to Owen rather
than to myself, as it seemed. So I thought this might come from the
same hand, and be meant for him also, and that all the more that
there was not a stranger left in Glastonbury, now that the feasting
was over, much less a Welshman. But Owen had none but Welsh round
him, and it seemed to say that there was some plot among them
again. Maybe he would know who was meant by the "Briton." Men have
nicknames that seem foolish to any but those who are in the jest of
them. We used to call Erpwald the "Saxon" sometimes, because he was
not of Wessex, although we were as much Saxon as he, or more so,
according to our own pride.
I went straight down the street to the house of a man whom I knew
well, an honest franklin who had a good horse and knew the border
country from end to end, and I bade him ride with all speed to Owen
at Norton with the paper. He was to give it into his own hand, and
I made shift to scrawl a few words on the outside of it that he
might shew to my friend the captain of the guard, and so win
speedier entry to the palace. I did not send one of my own men,
because he would have been known as coming from me, while this man
was often in Norton about cattle and the like, and none would
wonder at seeing him.
I was easier when I saw him mount and ride away, but I was ill
content until the morning came and brought him back with tidings
that all was well, and that Owen would be on his guard.
Also, the franklin was to tell me that Gerent's court went to Isca,
which we call Exeter, in two days' time, and that Owen would fain
see me before he went westward, if I could come to him. There
seemed to be difficulty in persuading Gerent to let him return to
our court, even for a day now.
Whereon I went to Ina and told him of this new trouble, and he bade
me go. He thought that some fresh plot was being hatched in Exeter,
but both he and I wondered that the warning was not sent direct to
my foster father, rather than in this roundabout way through my
hands. He said the same thing to me that Howel had spoken when I
parted from him.
"These plotters will not think twice about striking at Owen through
you, if it seems the only way to reach him. And you mind that the
princess told you to have a care for yourself. Evan said that if
strife was stirred up between us and Gerent they would be glad. If
they slew you, my Thane, it is likely that there would be trouble,
unless Gerent is as wroth as I should be."
So I went with a few guards and spent the day and night with Owen
at Norton. I knew it was the last chance I should have of seeing
him for a long time, but we talked of the coming summer, promising
ourselves that journey together to see Howel. I told him how things
went with Elfrida and me, and he did not seem to wonder much, nor
to think it of any consequence. He laughed at me, and told me to
get over it as soon as I could, and that was all.
But this last warning he could no more understand than I. It was
his thought that it was meant for me rather than himself.
"You will have to take heed to any Welshman you meet," he said,
"and as you are warned that should be no very difficult matter. No
Briton can ever pretend to be a Saxon."
I do not think that there is more to be said of that meeting,
though indeed I would willingly dwell on it. Mayhap it will be
plain why I would do so presently, for I left him bright and happy
in his old place, with nought but the distance from the foster son
whom he loved to trouble him.
But when I rode away again the sorrow of that parting fell heavily
on me, and I could not shake it off. It seemed to me that I would
not see Owen again, though why it so seemed I could not tell. If I
had any thought of danger to myself I should have cared little, so
it was not that. I wonder if one can feel "fey" for another man if
he is dear to you as no other can be?