I think that the princess
found her way out of the little constraint first, for she began to
smile merrily.
"There must be a story for me to hear about all this," she said.
"But I was sure that I had seen your eyes before. I was wondering
where it could have been."
"Well," said Howel, "I have sat with the thane for close on an
hour, and now I do not know what colour his eyes are."
"They were all that I could see of him, father," laughed the
princess, and then she put the matter aside. "Now we have been here
long enough, and good Govan shivers on the hilltop. Surely the
thane will ride home with us, and we can talk on the way."
Howel added at once that this was the best plan for me, and what he
was about to ask me himself.
"I know you will want to get home again as soon as may be," he
said. "No doubt Thorgils will take you at once. I will have word
sent to him at Tenby to stay for you."
"Father, you have forgotten," the princess said, somewhat
doubtfully, as I thought.
"Nay, but I have not," answered Howel grimly. "But honest Thorgils
is a white heathen, and those Tenby men are black heathen. He does
not come into our quarrels, and will heed me, if they will not."
I minded that I had heard of trouble between the Tenby Danes and
this prince, and it seemed that he spoke of it again.
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