Smid Gudleikss?n said with a laugh that he had practically invited himself along on the journey. “I wanted to see our Kristin again—the loveliest rose of the north valley. And I also thought that my kinswoman Ragnfrid would thank me if I kept an eye on her husband, to see what kind of decisions he was making with such wise and mighty men. Yes, your father has had other matters on his hands this winter, Kristin, than carousing from farm to farm with us and celebrating the Christmas season until Lent begins. All these years we’ve been sitting at home on our estates in peace and quiet, with each man tending to his own interests. But now Lavrans wants the men of the valleys who are the king’s retainers to ride together to Oslo in the harshest time of the winter—now we’re supposed to advise the noblemen of the Council and look after the king’s interests. Lavrans says they’re handling things so badly for the poor, underaged boy.”1
Sir Erling looked rather embarrassed. Erlend raised his eyebrows.
“Have you decided to support these efforts, Father-in-law? For the great meeting of the royal retainers?”
“No, no,” said Lavrans. “I’m merely going to the meeting, just like the other king’s men of the valley, because we have been summoned.”
But Smid Gudleikss?n spoke again. It was Lavrans who had persuaded him—and Herstein of Kruke and Trond Gjesling and Guttorm Sneis, as well as others who had not wanted to go.
“Isn’t it the custom to invite guests into the house on this estate?” asked Lavrans. “Now we’ll see whether Kristin brews ale as good as her mother’s.” Erlend looked thoughtful, and Kristin was greatly surprised.
“What’s this about, Father?” she asked some time later, when he went with her to the little house where she had taken the child in order not to disturb the guests.
Lavrans sat and bounced his grandchild on his knee. Naakkve was now ten months old, big and handsome. He had been allowed to wear a tunic and hose since Christmas.
“I’ve never heard of you lending your voice to such matters before, Father,” she said. “You’ve always told me that for the country, and for his subjects, it was best for the king to rule, along with those men he called to his side. Erlend says that this attempt is the work of the noblemen in the south; they want to remove Lady Ingebj?rg from power, along with those men whom her father appointed to advise her. They want to steal back the power they had when King Haakon and his brother were children. But that brought great harm to the kingdom—you’ve said so yourself in the past.”
Lavrans whispered that she should send the nursemaid away. When they were alone, he asked, “Where did Erlend get this information? Did he hear it from Munan?”
Kristin told him that Orm had brought a letter from Sir Munan when he returned home in the fall. She didn’t say that she had read it to Erlend herself—he wasn’t very good at deciphering script. But in the letter Munan had complained bitterly that now every man in Norway who bore a coat of arms thought himself better at ruling the kingdom than those men who had stood at King Haakon’s side when he was alive, and they presumed to have a better understanding of the young king’s welfare than the highborn woman who was his own mother. He had warned Erlend that if there were signs that the Norwegian noblemen had intentions of doing as the Swedes had done in Skara2 last summer, of plotting against Lady Ingebj?rg and her old, trusted advisers, then her kinsmen would stand ready and Erlend should go to meet Munan in Hamar.
“Didn’t he mention,” asked Lavrans as he tapped his finger under Naakkve’s chubby chin, “that I’m one of the men opposed to the unlawful call to arms that Munan has been carrying through the valley, in the name of our king?”
“You!” said Kristin. “Did you meet Munan Baards?n last fall?”
“Yes, I did,” replied Lavrans. “And there was not much agreement between us.”
“Did you talk about me?” asked Kristin swiftly.
“No, my dear Kristin,” said her father, with a laugh. “I can’t recall that your name was mentioned by either of us this time. Do you know whether your husband intends to travel south to meet with Munan Baards?n?”
“I think so,” said Kristin. “Sira Eiliv drafted a letter for Erlend not long ago, and he mentioned that he might soon have to go south.”
Lavrans sat in silence for a moment, looking down at the child, who was fumbling with the hilt of his dagger and trying to bite the rock crystal embedded in it.