Thorbeorn of Stockness died of the winter sickness the winter before
Thorwald sailed for Wineland. Thore himself had been very sick too,
but he recovered and was almost himself that summer. Not altogether
so, for he had lost his lightness of heart, and with that his decision
and blunt common sense. Gudrid, who had fought, as it seemed to her,
against fate, and prevailed, was unhappy that he should care so little
to be with her. She did not know that he avoided her. But it was so.
He spent most of his time at Brattalithe, where he had taken a great
fancy for Thorstan. He did not tell her, and Gudrid did not know, what
he and Thorstan could have to say to each other--but the two were great
friends. The fact of the matter was that Thore had now got it into his
head that Gudrid had cast a spell upon both himself and Thorstan, and
that the prediction concerning her was less prophecy than a gift of
magic power. He found that Thorstan would let him talk about his hard
fate by the hour together--nay, more, he found that Thorstan did not at
all avoid being cast in the same lot. Thorstan, indeed, was quite open
about it. "I have so much love in me for Gudrid," he said, "that you
may say whatever you please about her to me, and I shall hear you
gladly. Talk evil of her, sooner than not talk at all. I shall never
believe you, but I shall hear her name, and name her myself. That will
be enough for me." So Thore grumbled away about his troubles, and
Thorstan listened to him.
He himself saw Gudrid seldom, because he believed that it made her
uneasy to have him there. Nevertheless he prevailed upon Thore to
bring her to Brattalithe very often; and when she was there he would
take himself off cheerfully to work about the estate. Eric Red always
made much of her, and even Freydis liked her well enough. She was the
only woman for whom Freydis had a civil word. Freydis used to frown
upon her, with her arms folded under her bosom. "You have soft ways,"
she said, "and can make men do as you want; but all that is nothing to
me. I see that you are made of steel underneath, for all that. I see
that you are no fool, and no doll. One of these days you will fall in
with a man worthy of you, and then I should like to see the pair of you
at work."