“This is hasty, my princess,” Mord said. “Whither are we bound?”
“For Grimsby, Mord,” I answered quickly. “Are there no more horses to be had?”
“Never a one, unless we steal from the king,” he answered.
The people were crowding out now that they might see the start, and I saw Berthun speak to a man among them who was a stranger to me. And from him he turned directly with a glad face.
“Go down to such a hostelry,” he said to me, “and there ask for what horses you will. Maybe I shall have to follow you for my part in this matter—that is, if I am not put in the dungeon.”
“Faith,” I answered, “better had you come with us than run that risk. Alsi is in a bad mood.”
He shook his head; and then the people behind him made way, for the king was coming.
“Almost had you forgotten this,” he said; “and I think you will want it.”
The men with the money were there, and he waved his hand to them. Havelok lifted the princess to her horse without heeding him, and the men set the bags on the pack horses.
“See the bridegroom down the street, you who were his witnesses,” the king went on, with a curling lip; “and if you are a wise man, master Berthun, you will not come back again.”