It could be heard in the priest’s playing and in his voice that he had learned well in school.
North over the mountains rode the king—
He heard the dove lament bitterly:
“The hawk took my sweetheart away from me!”
Then he rode so far and wide
The hawk flew over the countryside.
Into a garden the hawk then flew,
Where it blossoms ever anew.
In that garden there is a hall,
Draped with purple over all.
There lies a knight, seeping blood,
He is our Lord so fine and good.
Beneath the blue scarlet he does lie
And etched atop: Corpus domini.
“Where did you learn that ballad?” asked Erlend.
“Oh. Some fellows were singing it outside the hostel where I was staying in Canterbury,” said Gunnulf. “And I was tempted to turn it into Norwegian. But it doesn’t work so well. . . .” He sat there strumming a few notes on the strings.
“Well, brother, it’s long past midnight. Kristin must need to go to bed. Are you tired, my wife?”
Kristin looked up at the men timidly; she was very pale.
“I don’t know . . . But I don’t think I should sleep in the bed in here.”
“Are you ill?” they both asked, bending toward her.
“I don’t know,” she replied in the same voice. She pressed her hands to her flanks. “It feels so strange in the small of my back.”
Erlend leaped up and headed for the door. Gunnulf followed. “It’s shameful that you haven’t yet brought the women here who will help her,” he said. “Is it long before her time?”
Erlend turned bright red.
“Kristin said she didn’t need anyone but her maids. They’ve borne children themselves, some of them.” He tried to laugh.
“Have you lost your senses?” Gunnulf stared at him. “Even the poorest wench has servant women and neighbors with her when she takes to childbed. Should your wife crawl into a corner to hide and give birth like a cat? No, brother, so much a man you must be that you bring to Kristin the foremost women of the parish.”
Erlend bowed his head, blushing with shame.
“You speak the truth, brother. I will ride down to Raasvold myself, and I’ll send men to the other farms. You must stay with Kristin.”
“Are you going away?” asked his wife, frightened, when she saw Erlend put on his outer garments.
He went over to Kristin and put his arms around her.
“I’m going to bring back the noblest women for you, my Kristin. Gunnulf will stay with you while the maids get ready for you in the little house,” he said, kissing her.
“Couldn’t you send word to Audfinna Audunsdatter?” she pleaded. “But not until morning—I don’t want her to be wakened from her sleep for my sake—she has so much work to do, I know.”
Gunnulf asked his brother who Audfinna was.
“It doesn’t seem to me proper,” said the priest. “The wife of one of your leaseholders—”
“Kristin must have whatever she wants,” said Erlend. And as Gunnulf accompanied him out and Erlend waited for his horse, he told the priest how Kristin had come to meet the farmer’s wife. Gunnulf bit his lip and looked pensive.
Now there was noise and commotion on the estate; men rode off and servant women came running in to ask how their mistress was faring. Kristin said there was nothing to worry about yet, but they were to make everything ready in the little house. She would send word when she wanted to be escorted there.
Then she sat alone with the priest. She tried to talk calmly and cheerfully with him as she had before.
“You’re not afraid then?” he asked with a little smile.
“Yes, of course, I’m afraid!” She looked up into his eyes—her own were dark and frightened. “Can you tell me, brother-in-law, whether they were born here at Husaby—Erlend’s other children?”
“No,” replied the priest quickly. “The boy was born at Hune hals, and the maiden over at Strind, on an estate that he once owned there.” A moment later he asked, “Is that it? Has the thought of that other woman here with Erlend tormented you?”
“Yes,” said Kristin.
“It would be difficult for you to judge Erlend’s behavior in this dealing with Eline,” said the priest somberly. “It wasn’t easy for Erlend to know what to do. It was never easy for Erlend to know what was right. Ever since we were children, our mother thought whatever Erlend did was right, and our father thought it was wrong. But he has probably told you so much about our mother that you know all about this.”