“I have had no answer from them,” he said at last, for Arngeir was looking at him in a way that he could not meet. “It was her saying that she would do this for herself.”
“Then they do not refuse,” said Arngeir quietly, “nor did I think that they would do so. It only remains therefore, that you, King Alsi, should do your part. Then can the queen speak to the Witan, even as she said, concerning her husband.”
Now it must have been clear to the king that nothing short of a plain answer would be taken, and he sat and thought for a while. One could see that he was planning what to say, as if things had not gone as he expected. Maybe he hoped to put off the matter by talk of asking the Witan, and so to gain time, for we had certainly taken him unawares.
At last he said, “How am I to know that you are here with full power to speak for Goldberga? For this is a weighty matter.”
Arngeir held out his hand, and on it was the ring of Orwenna the queen, which Alsi had last seen here on the high place.
“There is the token, King Alsi, and it is one which you know well,” he answered.
“Ay, I know it,” answered the king with a grin that was not pleasant.
And then he said, “I will speak with my thanes, and give you word to carry back in an hour’s time, now that I know you to be a true messenger.”
“There should be no reason for waiting so long as that, nor do I think that the matter of the throne of East Anglia is a question for Lindsey thanes,” answered Arngeir at once. “All this is between you and the princess.”
Thereat one of the thanes rose up and said, “If a kingdom has been handed over to our king, it is not to be taken again without our having a good deal to say about it. I do not know, moreover, if we can have a foreigner over any part of our land.”