"You have not spoken to her of your search, then?" the lady said.
"I had thought that she would ask you of it first of all."
She had asked nothing, and I had said nothing.
Then the lady said:
"She and I spoke thereof with Uldra but yesterday, and they were both full of your praises for wishing to seek for your Hertha. They will be glad to hear that you have done so, and sad that you have failed to find her."
Then there came over me a wish that Uldra knew nought about it. And that angered me with myself, because it was plain that I cared overmuch for the company and pleasant voice and looks of this maiden who was friendless as I.
So that was all that was said at the time, and I met Uldra in my foolishness as if this were going to make some difference in her way with me. Which of course it did not. Whereupon I was angrier yet with myself for deeming that it would.
Now, there was another person who should have known of this betrothal of mine, and that was Edred, but s.e.xberga never told him, and her mother did not, for she thought that s.e.xberga would do so.
Of all the foolish things that a maiden can do, the most foolish is to try to make the man who is to wed her jealous. For it is playing with edged tools in two ways--if the man, being an honest man and trustful, is not jealous, the maiden thinks that he cares not, and so is herself wretched. But if he is jealous, why, then every thought of his towards the maiden is changed and spoilt, and it will be long, if ever, before full trust is won again between those two.
But this seems to be good sport to some damsels, and so it was with s.e.xberga. The blacker grew the young thane"s looks the more she would praise me, and the more she would choose to speak with me rather than to him; wherefore his life was made wretched for him, and I think he hated the sight of me. Maybe I was blind not to see this, but I liked him well enough, save for what I thought was his sullen temper, and I would try to joke him into better humour at times in all good fellowship. But I think that the trouble began before I came back, with talk of the time when I had been at Penhurst before.
He was ever at Penhurst--I should have thought ill of him if he had not been--for Dallington was close at hand, and he was ever welcome.
After that talk with the lady I must needs ask s.e.xberga what she thought concerning my strange betrothal, she having had so much to say thereon before. And so one day, as I had been with Spray to see some traps set by the bank of the Ashbourne river for otter, and was coming back with him, bearing a great one between us on a pole, we met s.e.xberga in the woodland track to the house, and Spray went on, while I walked back with her on her way to the old village--where we had had the fight--and talked about my baffled search.
Now her saying was that I had no need to pay any more heed to this betrothal after what I had said to Ailwin, and that he himself would seem to try to break it by thus taking Hertha out of my ken.
And we talked freely of the matter, and the last thing that I said was this, coming round to what I had made up my better mind for:
"It is not much matter either way. I can think of no maiden as things are."
Whereon we met Eldred, and his face was not pleasant to look on, though he said nothing at that moment, and turned and walked silently with us on the other side of the maiden.
When we came to the village I said that we would wait outside until she came back, and thought that Eldred would go along with her. But he stayed with me, and I looked round for a sunny seat where one could see all the long chain of bright hammer ponds that went in steps, as it were, down the valley before us.
"Nay," he said in a strange voice, "come over to the other side of the valley--there is a pleasant place there."
"The lady will miss us," said I.
"We need not be long," he said. "The place I would show you is not far. One of us can be back before she has done with these churls."
So, as I supposed that we might have to wait for half an hour, because every woman in the place would want to tell her ailments to the kindly young mistress most likely, we went together, pa.s.sing over the brook, and going up the steep valley side beyond it, until we came to the rocks of the old quarry where we had rested before the fight with the outlaws.
A pleasant place enough it was, truly, for the rocks stood round in a little cliff, hemming in a lawn of short gra.s.s on every side but one, and the trees that hung on the bank of the stream closed that in. So when we were fairly within this circle of red cliff and green trees Eldred said:
"This will do. We will see which of us is to go back to s.e.xberga."
"Why, you will," said I, thinking that he had some device by which he might be free from my presence. "I spoil company for you both, and will go back to the hall by the lower track presently."
"You have spoilt company long enough," he said, his face growing very savage of a sudden. "Now I will end it, one way or the other."
"What is this foolishness?" I said, seeing now what he meant.
"You know well enough," he answered with a great oath. "Pluck out that fine sword of yours and show that you can do more than talk of using it."
"Come, Eldred," said I, "I have not deserved this."
"You deserve all that I shall give you," he answered, drawing his sword. "Stand up like a man."
Now it seemed very hard to me that all these friendships should be broken and spoilt by this foolish business, as they would be if either of us was hurt; and so I tried to quiet him yet once more.
"Eldred, listen to reason," I said. "I have done you no wrong. Tell me of what you complain."
Thereat he only cursed, bidding me draw and cease prating.
"I will not fight you thus," I said, for he was growing over wild to fight well for himself. "Let us find some to attend us and watch the business, that neither of us may be blamed. It is ill to slay a man in a hidden place like this with none to say that the fight was fair."
"You are afraid," he said sneeringly.
"You must ask Relf if that is likely," said I, for I would not be angered by his angry words. "But I do not care to risk blame to you or me. Nought is gained by fighting thus."
"Ask Relf, forsooth!" he snarled. "I care not to hear again how you lay hid in the pit yonder while others fought."
"Have a care, Eldred," I said then. "You grow heedless in your anger, and go too far. I do not think that you mean this."
"Do you need to be called nidring {12}?" he snarled at me.
Now none heard that word pa.s.s between us, and though it made me bitterly angry I kept my wrath back. Truly I began to think that I was foolish to argue with him; but there would be grief, lifelong, at Penhurst if deadly harm befell either of us where none could say that all was fairly fought out.
"Are you not going?" he said in a choking sort of way.
"No," I said, "not until I know what all this is about."
"What good in going over that again?" he answered. "You know well enough. Let me be--you have won."
"I know," said I; "but you have not told me aught. I can only guess that you think that I have taken your place with s.e.xberga."
"Aye--and now you have won it."
"I want it not," I answered. "Had you not been so angry you would have known that, when I bid you go back and meet her without me."
Now he looked at me with a sort of doubt, and said, in a somewhat halting way:
"I heard you just now tell her that it could not be that you could think of her--as things are."
Then I remembered what my last words had been, and I saw that they might easily have misled him after all the trouble he seemed to have had.
"You heard too much or too little," said I, being minded to laugh, though the matter was over serious to him to let me do so. "I spoke of my own troubles, which were the less because my fortunes prevent my thinking of any maiden, seeing that I have no home to give a wife when I find her. You were wrong in thinking that I spoke of s.e.xberga--I spoke, as you might have known, of the one whom I have lost."
"How should I know that? I know nought of your affairs."
Then thought I to myself that I would punish s.e.xberga, for she had tortured this honest lover of hers over much.