"None whom we trust more fully," the king said.
"See, my queen, this is he to whom you must look for furtherance of your journey."
Then Emma turned from the window, and her face was still unmoved.
"I can trust Redwald," she said. "It will be well."
But Eadward wept openly, for he knew that the king spoke of the day when he should die.
"That is well," the king said, and leaned back on his pillows. "Now have I no care left. Yet it is hard to put so heavy a burden on your young shoulders, my thane."
"It is an honour rather," I answered. "May I be worthy thereof."
Then a brightness came over the king's face, and he answered me slowly and plainly, and with great joy, as it were.
"Presently I shall meet with Eadmund, your martyred king, and to him I will say that his thane of Bures is worthy."
"Forget me not also, my father, when you come to that place," Eadward said.