“Oh, how you can talk!” Hot, bitter tears rose up in his wife’s eyes, but she brushed them aside and laughed, her mouth contorted. “You seem even more childish than the boys, Erlend! Sitting there and saying . . . when it was only today that Naakkve nearly won the kind of fortune that a Christian man can hardly speak of, if God hadn’t saved us.”
“Yes, and I was the one lucky enough to be God’s instrument this time.” Erlend shrugged his shoulders. Then he added in a somber voice, “Such things . . . you needn’t fear, my Kristin. If this is what has frightened you from your wits, my poor wife!” He lowered his eyes and said almost timidly, “You should remember, Kristin, that your blessed father prayed for our children, just as he prayed for all of us, morning and night. And I firmly believe that salvation can be found for many things, for the worst of things, in such a good man’s prayers of intercession.” She noticed that her husband secretly made the sign of the cross on his own chest with his thumb.
But as distressed as she was, this only infuriated her more.
“Is that how you console yourself, Erlend, as you sit in my father’s high seat? That your sons will be saved by his prayers, just as they are fed by his estates?”
Erlend grew pale. “Do you mean, Kristin, that I’m not worthy to sit in the high seat of Lavrans Bj?rgulfs?n?”
His wife’s lips moved, but not a word came.
Erlend rose to his feet. “Do you mean that? For if you do, then as surely as God is above us both, I will never sit here again.
“Answer me,” he insisted when she remained standing in silence. A long shudder passed through his wife’s body.
“He was . . . a better husband . . . the man who sat there before you.” Her words were barely audible.
“Guard your tongue now, Kristin!” Erlend took a few steps toward her.
She straightened up with a start. “Go ahead and strike me. I’ve endured it before, and I can bear it now.”
“I had no intention of . . . striking you.” He stood leaning on the table. Again they stared at each other, and his face had that oddly unfamiliar calm she had seen only a few times before. Now it drove her into a rage. She knew she was in the right; what Erlend had said was foolish and irresponsible, but that expression of his made her feel as if she were utterly wrong.
She gazed at him, and feeling sick with anguish at her own words, she said, “I fear that it won’t be my sons that will thrive once more among your lineage in Tr?ndelag.”
Erlend turned blood red.
“You couldn’t resist reminding me of Sunniva Olavsdatter, I see.”
“I wasn’t the one to mention her name. You did.”
Erlend blushed even more.
“Haven’t you ever thought, Kristin, that you weren’t entirely without blame in that . . . misfortune? Do you remember that evening in Nidaros? I came and stood by your bed. I was terribly meek and sad about having grieved you, my wife. I came to beg your forgiveness for my wrong. You answered me by saying that I should go to bed where I had slept the night before.”
“How could I know that you had slept with the wife of your kinsman?”
Erlend was silent for a moment. His face turned white and then red again. Abruptly he turned on his heel and left the room without a word.
Kristin didn’t move. For a long time she stood there motionless, with her hands clasped under her chin, staring at the candle.
Suddenly she lifted her head and let out a long breath. For once he had been forced to listen.
Then she became aware of the sound of horse hooves out in the courtyard. She could tell from its gait that a horse was being led out of the stable. She crept over to the door and out onto the gallery and peered from behind the post.
The night had already turned a pale gray. Out in the courtyard stood Erlend and Ulf Haldorss?n. Erlend was holding his horse, and she saw that the animal was saddled and her husband was dressed for travel. The two men talked for a moment, but she couldn’t make out a single word. Then Erlend swung himself up into the saddle and began riding north, at a walking pace, toward the manor gate. He didn’t look back but seemed to be talking to Ulf, who was striding along next to the horse.
When they had disappeared between the fences, she tiptoed out, ran as soundlessly as she could up to the gate, and stood there listening. Now she could hear that Erlend had let Soten begin trotting along the main road.
A little later Ulf came walking back. He stopped abruptly when he caught sight of Kristin at the gate. For a moment they stood and stared at each other in the gray light. Ulf had bare feet in his shoes and was wearing a linen tunic under his cape.