Now I said no more but this:
“My father kept this matter secret all these
years, and with reason, as we have seen; and so, while
he is here, we call this foster-brother of mine Curan,
until the time comes when his name may he known.
Maybe it will be best for you not to say much of your
knowledge of him. What does Earl Ragnar know
of our wreck? For he told me that you knew me.”
“I told him all about it at one time or another,”
Mord answered. “He always wanted to hear
of Denmark.”
So that was all that the chamberlain knew; but it
was plain to me that the earl had put two and two
together when he heard Havelok’s name, and had
remembered that this was also the name of Gunnar’s
son. Afterwards I found that Mord had heard from
Denmark that Hodulf was said to have made away with
Havelok, but he never remembered that at this time.
Ragnar knew this, and did remember it.
Pleasant it was to talk of old days with an old friend
thus, and the time went quickly. Then Mord must
go to his mistress and I to my place, and so we parted
for the time. But my last doubt of who Havelok
my brother might be was gone. I was sure that
he was the son of Gunnar the king.
Now I have to tell of a strange thing that happened
in the night that was just past, the first that the
Lady Goldberga had spent here in Lincoln for many
a year, for on that happening hangs a great deal, and
it will make clear what I myself saw presently at the
breaking-up feast of the Witan. That puzzled
me mightily at the time, as it did many at the feast,
but I see no reason why it should not be told at once.
Now I have said that Goldberga left the hall early
overnight, being wearied with the journey, and having
the remembrance of the attack on her party so near
to Lincoln to trouble her also. Not much cause
to love her uncle Alsi had she; though perhaps, also,
not much to make her hate him, except that he had
kept her so far away from her own people of late,
in a sort of honourable captivity. Now it was
plain to her that had it not been for the presence
of Ragnar and his men, her guard would not have been
able to drive off the attackers; and the strange way
in which Griffin had held back had been too plain
for her not to notice. Already she feared him,
and it seemed that he might have plotted her carrying
off thus. That Alsi might have had a hand in the
matter did not come into her mind, as it did into
the minds of others, for she knew little of him, thinking
him honest if not very pleasant in his ways, else
had not her father made him her guardian.
