Part 14 (1/2)

”Maybe, for I have heard that she is to come.”

”To be fetched rather, if one is to believe all that one hears. They say that Alsi has kept her almost as a captive in Dover, having given her into the charge of some friend of his there, that she may be far from her own kingdom and people. Now the Norfolk Witan has made him bring her here. Berthun seems to think there will be trouble.”

”Only because Alsi will not want to let the kingdom go from his hand to her. But that will not matter. He is bound by the old promise to her father.”

Now we were talking to one another in broad Danish, there being none near to hear us. We had always used it among ourselves at Grimsby, for my father loved his old tongue. But at that moment there rode up to the gate a splendid horseman, young and handsome, and with great gold bracelets on his arms, one or two of which caught my eye at once, for they were of the old Danish patterns, and just such as Jarl Sigurd used to wear. But if I was quick to notice these tokens of the old land, he had been yet quicker, for he reined up before I stayed him, as was my duty if he would pa.s.s through this gate to the palace, so that I might know his authority.

”If I am not mistaken,” he said in our own tongue, ”I heard you two talking in the way I love best. Skoal, therefore, to the first Northman I have met between here and London town, for it is good to hear a friendly voice.”

”Skoal to the jarl!” I answered, and I gave the salute of Sigurd's courtmen, which came into my mind on the moment with the familiar greeting of long years ago. And ”Skoal,” said Havelok.

”Jarl! How know you that I am that?”

”By the jarl's bracelet that you wear, surely.”

”So you are a real Dane -- not an English-bred one like myself. That is good. You and I will have many a talk together. Odin, how good it is to meet a housecarl who speaks as man to man and does not cringe to me! Who are you?”

”Radbard Grimsson of Grimsby, housecarl just now to this King of Lindsey.”

”And your comrade?”

I was about to tell this friendly countryman Havelok's name without thought, but stopped in time. Of all the things I had been brought up to dread most for him, that an English Dane should find him out was the worst, so I said, ”He is called Curan, and he is a Lindsey marshman.”

”Who can talk Danish though his name is Welsh. That is strange. Well, you are right about me. I am Ragnar of Norwich, the earl, as the English for jarl goes. Now I want to see Alsi the king straightway.”

”That is a matter for the captain,” I said, and I called for him.

Eglaf came out and made a deep reverence when he saw the earl, knowing at once who he was, and as this was just what the earl had said that he did not like, he looked quaintly at me across Eglaf's broad bent back, so that I had to grin perforce.

All unknowing of which the captain heard the earl's business, and then told me to see him to the palace gates, and take his horse to the stables when he had dismounted and was in the hands of Berthun.

So I went, and Havelok turned away and went on some errand down the steep street.

This Ragnar was one of whom I had often heard, for he was the governor of all the North folk for Alsi until the Lady Goldberga should take her place. He was her cousin, being the son of Ethelwald's sister, who was of course a Dane. Danish, and from the old country, was his father also, being one of the men who had come over to the court of East Anglia when Ethelwald was made king.

All the way to the door we talked of Denmark, but it was not far. There Berthun came out and greeted the earl in court fas.h.i.+on, and I thought that I was done with, because the grooms had run to take the great bay horse as they heard the trampling. But, as it happened, I was wanted.

Ragnar went in, saying to me that he would find me out again presently; and I saw him walk across the great hall to the hearth, and stand there while Berthun went to the king's presence to tell him of the new arrival. Then I stood for a minute to look at the horse, for the grooms had had no orders to take him away; and mindful of Eglaf's word to me, I was going to tell them to do so, and to see it done, when Berthun came hurriedly and called me.

”Master Housecarl,” he said rather breathlessly, ”by the king's order you are to come within the hall and guard the doorway.”

I shouldered my spear and followed him, and as we were out of hearing of the grooms I said that the captain had ordered me to take the horse to the stables.

”I will see to that,” he said. ”Now you are to bide at the door while the king speaks with Earl Ragnar, for there will be none else present. Let no one pa.s.s in without the king's leave.”

We pa.s.sed through the great door as he said that, and he closed it after him. Ragnar was yet standing near the high seat, and turned as he heard the sound, and smiled when he saw me. Berthun went quickly away through a side entrance, and the hail was empty save for us two. The midday meal was over an hour since, and the long tables had been cleared away, so that the place seemed desolate to me, as I had only seen it before when I sat with the other men at the cross tables for meals. It was not so good a hall as was Jarl Sigurd's in Denmark, for it was not rich with carving and colour as was his, and the arms on the wall were few, and the hangings might have been brighter and better in a king's place.

”Our king does not seem to keep much state,” Ragnar said, looking round as I was looking, and we both laughed.

Then the door on the high place opened, and the king came in, soberly dressed, and with a smile on his face which seemed to me to have been made on purpose for this greeting, for he mostly looked sour enough. Nor did it seem that his eyes had any pleasure in them.