Wondering, I took the bracelet, pitying the man again, yet fearing what he might say and do next, for I thought that maybe he would slay himself, so hopeless looked he.
"Fain would I have been your friend," he said, "but pride would not let me. Yet Eadgyth your sister and Egfrid called me so, and maybe that one deed of ruth may help me. Now go, lest I become weak again. Lonely shall I be, for you take all that I hold dear--but even that is well."
So he turned from me, and I went out without a word, for he was Ingvar. Yet sometimes I wish that I had bidden him farewell, when the thought of his dark face comes back to me as I saw him for the last time in his own hall, leaning away from me over his carven chair, and very still.
I sought Thormod, and told him that he must see the king with his tidings, for I would not see his face again.
"Nor shall we see Jutland again," he said, pointing to the ship, which lay now in the same place where the pirate had been, alongside Ingvar's. And the other ship had come in during the night, and was at anchor in the haven.
"Shall we sail home at once?" I asked him.
"Aye; no use in waiting. We are wanted at Guthrum's side, and can take no men, but a few boys back. Yet the other ship will stay while I send messengers inland, if Ingvar will not. But I shall return no more."
"Then," said I, "I will speak to the Lady Osritha."
"Go at once," he said, smiling; "bid her come with us to the better home we have found."
I had not seen Osritha since I left her yesterday, and now I feared a little, not knowing how she would look on things.