Part 27 (1/2)
Eric bowed, but made no answer.
That night, as they sat at meat in the palace, the Lady Elfrida, being bidden in jest of Edmund the King to fill the cup of the bravest, pa.s.sed down the board, and, before all men, poured wine into Eric's cup, and, as she did so, welcomed him back with short sweet words.
Eric grew red as dawn, and thanked her graciously; but after the feast he spoke with Skallagrim, asking him of the Gudruda, and when she could be ready to take the sea.
”In ten days, lord,” said Skallagrim; ”but stay we not here with the King this winter? It is late to sail.”
”Nay,” said Eric, ”we bide not here. I would winter this year in Fareys, for they are the nighest place to Iceland that I may reach. Next summer my three years of outlawry are over, and I would fare back homewards.”
”Now, I see the shadow of a woman's hand,” said Skallagrim. ”It is very late to face the northern seas, and we may sail to Iceland from London in the spring.”
”It is my will that we should sail,” answered Eric.
”Past Orkneys runs the road to Fareys,” said Skallagrim, ”and in Orkneys sits a hawk to whom the Lady Elfrida is but a dove. In faring from ill we may hap on worse.”
”It is my will that we sail,” said Eric stubbornly.
”As thou wilt, and as the King wills,” answered Skallagrim.
On the morrow Eric went in before the King, and craved a boon.
”There is little that thou canst ask, Brighteyes,” said the King, ”that I will not give thee, for, by my troth, I hold thee dear.”
”I am come back to seek no great thing, lord,” answered Eric, ”but this only: leave to bid thee farewell. I would wend homeward.”
”Say, Eric,” said the King, ”have I not dealt well with thee?”
”Well, and overwell, lord.”
”Why, then, wouldst thou leave me? I have this in my mind--to bring thee to great honour. See, now, there is a fair lady in this court, and in her veins runs blood that even an Iceland viking might be proud to mate with. She has great lands, and, mayhap, she shall have more. Canst thou not find a home on them, thinkest thou, Brighteyes?”
”In Iceland only I am at home, lord,” said Eric.
Then the King was wroth, and bade him begone when it pleased him, and Eric bowed before him and went out.
Two days afterwards, while Eric was walking in the Palace gardens he met the Lady Elfrida face to face. She held white flowers in her hand, and she was fair to see and pale as the flowers she bore.
He greeted her, and, after a while, she spoke to him in a gentle voice: ”They say that thou goest from England, Brighteyes?” she said.
”Yes, lady; I go,” he answered.
She looked on him once and twice and then burst out weeping. ”Why goest thou hence to that cold land of thine?” she sobbed--”that hateful land of snow and ice! Is not England good enough for thee?”
”I am at home there, lady, and there my mother waits me.”
”'There thy mother waits thee,' Eric?--say, does a maid called Gudruda the Fair wait thee there also?”
”There is such a maid in Iceland,” said Eric.