ne other thing, which was more pleasant, which we spoke
about at that time. And it was about the betrothal of my sister
Eadgyth. For it had come to pass that Egfrid, my friend, had sought
her hand, and the match pleased us all. So before the king and my
father went to Winchester there was high feasting, and those two
were pledged one to the other. Then was a new house to be built for
them at Hoxne, where the wedding itself should take place.

"Maybe Halfden will be here by that time," said Lodbrok to me. "I
wish, friend Wulfric, that honest Egfrid had not been so forward,
or that you had another fair sister."

Now though that saying pleased me, I could not wish for the wild
viking as husband to our gentle Eadgyth, though I loved him well as
my own friend. So I said that I thought Halfden's ship was his only
love.

"Maybe," answered the jarl; "but one may never know, and I think it
would be well for English folk and Danish to be knit together more
closely."

But when I asked him why this should be so, he only smiled, and
talked of friendliness between the two peoples, which seemed a
little matter to me at that time.

Now when the time came, my father having gone, we two, Lodbrok and
I, went back to Reedham, while my mother and Eadgyth stayed yet at
Thetford for the sake of Egfrid's new house building, for he would
have it built to suit her who should rule it.

Strange and grievous it was to me to see our shipyard empty, and
sad to have to tell the story of the good ship's loss to those
whose mourning was not yet over. Yet they were sailors' wives and
children, and to them death at sea was honourable, as is to a
warrior's wife that her husband should fall in a ring of foes with
all his wounds in front. And they blamed me not; but rather
rejoiced that I was safe returned.

Now without thought of any foe, or near or far, Lodbrok and I
hunted and hawked over our manors, finding good sport, and in a
little while I forgot all about Beorn, for I had seen him go in the
king's train as they rode out to Winchester.

Out of that carelessness of mine came trouble, the end of which is
hard to see, and heavily, if there is blame to me, have I paid for
it. And I think that I should have better remembered my father's
words, though I had no thought but that danger was far away for the
time.

We hunted one day alone together, and had ridden far across our
nearer lands to find fresh ground, so that we were in the wide
forest