This honest saying warmed my heart to him somewhat, and weary enough of his lawman's work this warrior looked. Yet I was not sure that he would not try to use me to make his hold on the land more sure.
"Tell me in what way that may be," I said, therefore.
"Let me come and ask you of this and that when I am in a strait owing to knowing naught of Saxon ways. Then can I say to a Dane, 'Thus says Wulfric, Lodbrok's friend,' and to an Anglian, 'So says the Thane of Reedham.' Then I think I shall do well, for I would fain be fair."
"I will ever be ready to do that, Guthrum," I said; and I held out my hand to him, for I could not help it.
So he took it and wrung it warmly.
"Now must I go back to Thetford very soon," he said. "Come back that you may be near me."
"I must live here, in London now," I said; for I would by no means live with his court, nor did I think that he should have thought it of me after my words.
"Why not go back to your own place now? I can see you often at Reedham."
"That is an ill jest," I said; for I thought nothing so sad as going back to see that dear home of mine but a blackened heap of ruins, nor would I ever ask any who might have seen the place concerning it, knowing how the Danish ships had burnt all the coast villages.
Guthrum looked at me as if puzzled.