That
she did not tell you, is by no means to be wondered at; it might even count as
something in her favor. But me she should have given her confidence. That she
should dare to offer her King that lying story about her sister's death--" His
face flushed as though he were remembering his emotion on receiving that same
story; and his foster-brother's observation did not tend to mollify him.
"And not only to offer it," the son of Lodbrok chuckled, "but to cram it down
his throat and make him swallow it."
Canute's heels also began to ring with ominous sharpness upon the frosty
ground. "She must be Ran herself! Oh, you need not be afraid that I shall not
get overbearing enough after I am started! Had she been no more than her
father's daughter, her behavior would have been sufficiently bad; but that she
whom I had made my ward should withhold her confidence from me to give it to
an Englishman! Become his thrallwoman, by Odin, and betray my people for his
sake! Now, as I am a king, I will punish her in a way that she will like less
than strangling! I tell you, her luck is great that she is not here to-night."
Chapter XIX
The Gift of The Elves
Fair shall speak
And money offer,
Who would obtain a woman's love.
Ha'vama'l.
It was the edge of a forest pool, and a slender dark-haired girl bending from
the brink to see herself in the water.
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