Havelok the Dane Part 10

"Doubtless two strong men will not have to go far to find somewhat," she said; "but the court is full of idle folk, and maybe no place is empty. Now I will have you bide with me while you are at a loose end, for there are yet a few silver pennies in store, and I ween that they came out of Grim's pouch to me. Lonely am I, and it is no good h.o.a.rding them when his sons are hungry."

We thanked her for that kind saying, but she made light of it, saying that almost did she hope that we should find no work, that we might bide and lighten her loneliness for a time.

"But if an old woman's advice is good for aught, you shall not go to the court first of all. Sour is King Alsi, and he is likely to turn you away offhand rather than grant the smallest boon. But there is Berthun the cook, as we call him -- steward is his court name though -- and he orders the household, and is good-natured, so that all like him. Every morning he comes into the market, and there you can ask him if there is a place for you, and he loves to look on a man such as Curan. But if it is weapons you want -- and I suppose that is in the minds of tall men always, though it brings sorrow in the end -- there is the captain of the guard who lives over the gate, and he might be glad to see you enough."

We said that we would see the steward, for we wanted no long employment. We would go back to Grimsby when the famine ended, if it were only by the coming of the fish again.

Then she gave us of the best she had -- black bread and milk to wit; and after that we slept soundly before the fire, as I had done many times before in that humble house. Black bread and milk it was again in the morning; but there was plenty, and goodwill to season it. Then the old dame sent us forth cheerfully and early, that we might not miss Berthun the steward, from whom she hoped great things for us.

So we sat in the marketplace for an hour or more watching the gates of the wall for his coming; and men stared at Havelok, so that we went to the bridge and waited there. One could see all the market from thence. There were a good many of the market folk coming in presently, and most of them knew me, and more than one stopped and spoke.

Now Havelok grew restless, and wandered here and there looking at things, though not going far from me; and while I was thus alone on the bridge, a man I knew by sight came and leaned on the rail by me, and told me that he had just seen the most handsome man and the goodliest to look on that was in the kingdom, as he thought.

"Yonder he stands," he said, "like a king who has fallen on bad times. I mind that I thought that Alsi, our king, would look like that, before I saw him, and sorely disappointed was I in him therefore. Now I wonder who yon man may be?"

I did not say that I knew, but I looked at Havelok, and for the first time, perhaps because I had never seen him among strangers before, I knew that he was wondrous to look on. Full head and shoulders was he above all the folk, and the Lindseymen are no babes in stature. And at the same moment it came to me that it were not well that men should know him as the son of Grim the fisher. If my father, who was the wisest of men, had been so careful for all these years, I must not be less so; for if there were ever any fear of the spies of Hodulf, it would be now when his foe might be strong enough in years to think of giving trouble. Not that I ever thought much of the said Hodulf, seeing how far off he was; but my father had brought me up to dread him for this brother of mine. Certainly by this time Hodulf knew that Grim had come to England in safety, for the name of the new town must have come to his ears: and if Grim, then the boy he had given to him.

The man who spoke to me went away soon, and Havelok strolled back to me.

"I would that the cook, or whoever he is, would come," he said. "I grow weary of this crowd that seems to have naught to do but stare at a stranger."

"What shall we ask, when he does come? and supposing that there is a place for but one of us?" I said.

"Why, then, the one it fits best will take it, and the other must seek some other chance. That is all."

"As you will, brother," I answered, "but I would rather that we should be together."

"And I also. But after all, both will be in Lincoln, and we must take what comes. It is but for a little while, and we shall not like to burden that good old dame by being too hard to please. We want somewhat to do until we can go home, not for a day longer, and I care not what it is."

"That is right," I said; "and the sooner I see one of our folk coming over this bridge with a full basket of fish, the better I shall like it. But it may be a long day before that. Now, I have been thinking that it were not well that you should say that you are the son of Grim."

I did not quite know how he would take this, for he was proud of my father as I. But that very pride made it easy.

"Maybe not," he said thoughtfully, "for it seems unworthy of his sons that we have to ask for service from any man. But I do not think that he could blame us, as things are. Nevertheless, folk shall not talk."

"Men know me," said I, "but that cannot be helped."

He laughed gaily at that.

"Why, here we speak as if one man in a hundred knew you. And after all it may be that we shall get a place that none need be ashamed of. Look, here comes a mighty fine lord from the gateway."

It was Berthun the steward, for whom we were waiting, and I knew him well by sight. Often had he bought our fish, but I did not think that he would remember me by name, if he had ever heard it. He was a portly and well-favoured man, not old, and as he came down the street to the marketplace at the hill foot he laughed and talked with one and another of the townsfolk, whether high or low, in very pleasant wise.

Presently he stopped at a stall, and priced some meat; and when he had bought it he looked round and called for some men to carry it for him; and at that the idlers made a rush for him, tripping over one another in haste to be first, while he laughed at them.

He chose two or three, and sent them up the hill to the palace with their burdens, and then went to another booth and bought.

"This is work at which I should make a good hand," said Havelok, laughing at the scrambling men who ran forward when the steward again called for porters. "Well paid also the job must be, to judge of their eagerness."

The three men who had been chosen took their burden and went away, and the steward came near us, to a bakery that was close to the bridge end.

"I have a mind to do porter for once," Havelok said. "Then I can at least earn somewhat to take back to the dame tonight."

"If you do so," I answered, "I will wait here for you. But you will have to fight for the place."

Now the steward bought all that he needed, and that was bread for the whole palace for the day, and again he called for porters. Whereon Havelok got up from the bridge rail and went towards him in no great hurry, so that the idlers were in a crowd before him.

"Ho! friends," cried Havelok, "let the good cook see all of us and make his choice. He can only take one at a time."

"One, forsooth," said a man from the crowd; "why, there is a load for four men there."

"Well, then, let him pick four little ones, and give these little ones a chance of being seen."

Now I do not think that he would have troubled with the matter any more; but whether the men knew that this was the last load that the steward had to send home, or whether they quarrelled, I cannot say, but in their eagerness to raise the two great baskets they fell to struggling over them, and the steward tried to quiet the turmoil by a free use of his staff, and there was a danger that the bread should be scattered.

"Here will be waste of what there is none too much of just now," said Havelok; and with that he went to the aid of the steward, picking up and setting aside the men before him, and then brus.h.i.+ng the struggling rivals into a ruefully wondering heap from about the baskets, so that he and the steward faced each other, while there fell a silence on the little crowd that had gathered. Even the men who had been put aside stayed their abuse as they saw what manner of man had come to the rescue of the baskets, and Havelok and the cook began to laugh.

"Fe, fi, fo, fum!" said Berthun; "here is surely a Cornish giant among us! Now I thank you, good Blunderbore, or whatever your name is, for brus.h.i.+ng off these flies."

"The folk in this place are unmannerly," said Havelok; "hut if you want the bread carried up the hill I will do it for you."

Berthun looked him up and down in a puzzled sort of way once or twice ere he answered, "Well, as that is your own proposal, pick your helpers and do so; I would not have asked such a thing of you myself."

"There is not much help needed," said Havelok. "I think this may be managed if I get a fair hold."

Now we were used to seeing him carry such loads as would try the strength of even Raven and myself, who could lift a load for three men; but when he took the two great baskets of bread and swung them into place on either arm, a smothered shout went round the crowd, and more than once I heard the old Welsh name that the marsh folk had given him spoken.

"Let us be going," said Havelok to the steward on that. "One would think that none of these had ever hefted a fair load in his life, to listen to them."

So he nodded to me across the heads of the crowd, and followed Berthun, and the idlers followed him for a little. The guard turned these back at the gate, and Havelok went through, and I could see him no more.

Presently the crowd drifted back to their places, and I heard them talking. Havelok and his strength was likely to be a nine days' wonder in Lincoln, and I was glad that I had asked him not to say whence he was.

"He is some thane's son who is disguised," said one.

"Maybe he is under a vow," said another; and then one chimed in with a story of some prince of Arthur's time, by name Gareth, who hid his state at his mother's command.

"As for me," said the baker, "I think that he is a fisher, as he looks -- at least, that is, as his clothes make him."

So even he had his doubts, and I will say that I understood well enough now why my father never brought him here before.

Havelok was long in coming back, as I thought, and I seemed to be wasting time here, and so I bethought me of the other man to whom the old dame had said we might go -- namely, the captain of the gate. I should see Havelok if I stood there.

The captain was talking with some of his men as I came up, and of course it was of Havelok that they spoke; and seeing that I wore the same dress as he, they asked me if I knew who he was.

"He is a fisher from the coast," I answered. "I have heard him called Curan."

"Welsh then," the captain answered, somewhat disappointed, as it seemed. "If he had been a Mercian, or even a Saxon, I would have had him here, but a fisher has had no training in arms after all."