"She bids me give this to her king and warrior," Etheldreda said. "I did but tell her that you asked a token that she minded you."
"It was well," I answered. "What said she?"
"Nought at once. But her sadness went, and her face changed--ay, but she is beyond any of us in beauty when her eyes light up in that way--and she fetched this, and then said 'Say, if you think that he will care to know it, that this is the glove wherein I rode to Wareham.'
"Do you care to know it, Ranald?"
"Ay, with all my heart," I said.
And so I put it very carefully under the broad, golden-studded baldric of Sigurd's sword. And it would not stay there, and Etheldreda laughed at me, and took a little golden brooch like a cross that she wore, and pinned it through glove and baldric, making all safe.
"There," she said, "is a token from me also, though it was unasked. Bear yourself well, Ranald, for our eyes are on you. If Hubba comes indeed, we women folk will be in the fort."
Then I said, being at a loss for words enough:
"I would I had the tongue of Harek the scald, that I might thank you for gift and words, my fairy princess."
"I have half a mind to take it back for that fine saying," she answered.