there
is no winter. That's the place for me. Will you come too, Thorstan?"
But Thorstan was looking at Gudrid and did not hear him.
XI
Biorn stayed on some time longer with Eric Red, and had some talk with
Gudrid. He had had his eye on her from the beginning, with curious,
considering looks. After several attempts, swallowed down by himself
with abrupt decision, he did manage to speak out. "It was of you that
Thorberg prophesied at the Ness, I expect," he said.
"Yes, it was," said rueful Gudrid.
He tossed his foot from the knee, and looked at it swinging. "Such
things as that make a man thoughtful."
Gudrid bent over her needlework. "You may be sure that she made me
thoughtful."
"Well," said Biorn, "it is a glory to a woman to hear the like of that.
But it makes a man think twice. Now, I daresay my father spoke to you
about me, with a nod and wink, as we say? He is fond of me, is my
father."
"And you, certainly, of him," Gudrid said. "You seem to be a loving
couple."
"He spoke to me about you," Biorn went on, pursuing his own thoughts.
"He was much taken with you, and seemed to think you were singled out
for great honour. And clearly you are. But I value my life--and so I
told my father. And then he spoke scornfully to me, and hurt my
feelings." Gudrid found something to smile at in this.
But while she scared Biorn she attracted the brothers at Brattalithe,
and others besides them. Thorstan Ericsson was exceedingly shy, and
would never go into the bower to talk to the girls, nor into kitchen or
wash-house when they were working there if he could help it. So he saw
very little of Gudrid, and had nothing to say to her when he did see
her. Yet he loved her deeply within himself, in an honourable way of
worship, with no jealousy about it. Thorwald, his younger brother, was
always in and out of the women's quarters, teasing the girls, getting
in their way, and making them laugh. He was often outrageous, but they
all liked him, and Thorstan trusted in his loyalty. He told Gudrid
that Thorstan thought a great deal about her; but she knew that
already. She used to sing in the evenings when the hall was full, and
everybody praised her except Thorstan; yet she knew that he was more
affected than any one. She felt his heavy eyes on her, and used to
think of songs which would please him.
But Thorstan was dumb, and others were not. One day in the spring
Gudrid was sent for. She
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