But I heard someone singing in the wood, and knew the voice well.  It was Gerda who was wandering, and gathering the red raspberries, and I had half a mind to turn aside and keep beyond her sight.  That thought came too late, however, for the path turned, and I came on her suddenly, and she looked up from the ripe berries she had found alongside the path and saw me.

A flush went across her fair face, and then she greeted me brightly.  I did not know what she had been told of tomorrow as yet, and could not tell from her face whether she knew or not.  So I thought it best to ask.

“Have you heard aught from the king as to your going back to the old home yet, Gerda?”

“Yes,” she said, standing still and looking somewhat pitifully at me.  “And he says that it shall be at once.  But I fear how he may send me back.”

“He will give you ship and men, and so see that there is no chance of any great trouble with Arnkel.”

“Aye—­but—­but, Malcolm, he says that he needs must find someone who will help me hold the land.  Who will that be, for he can spare so few?”

“I think that he will let you make your own choice,” I answered.

“If I might—­” she said, and there stopped, seeming troubled.

Then I said, “And if you might, who would be the choice?”

She looked at me and paled, and then looked away at the berries again.  She stooped to pick one, and her face was away from me.

“I think it is cruel to ask that,” she said in a low voice.  “I have no one here whom I know—­save you, and Bertric.”

I moved a pace nearer to her, but still she did not look up.  The crimson berries she bent over were no excuse for the colour of her face at that moment, and I feared I had angered her.

“Gerda,” I said, “have you forgotten how that in the holy island I was wont to say that I should not rest until your were back in your home?”

“I thought that you had forgotten,” she said in a low voice.  “I had not.”

“I seemed to forget it, because I deemed it best that I should do so.  I am but a landless warrior, with naught to offer.  And you—­”

Then she turned quickly on me, and there was a smile on her face and a new light in her eyes.

“And I,” she said.  “And I am naught but the girl who was found by Asa Thor in the burning ship.

“O Malcolm, let it be so still, and take me to the end of the voyage and bide there always.  For I fear naught as long as you are with me.”

She held out her hands to me, and then she was in the shelter of my arms, and no more was needed to be said.  We were both content, and more than content.

Chapter 17:  Homeward Bound.

Mayhap I need not say that I forgot the message which took me to this place, seeing that it was of no great account.  Gerda and I had much to say to one another of matters which would be of note to none but ourselves, and the time fled unheeded by us.