Erlend lifted his haggard face. “As truly as I need God’s mercy. As truly as I hope that … that God has comforted Mother in Heaven for all that she had to endure down here. I have not touched Eline since the first time I saw Kristin!” He shouted so that Fru Aashild had to hush him.
“Then I don’t see that this is such a misfortune. You must find out who the father is and pay him to marry her.”
“I think it’s Gissur Arnfins?n, my foreman at Husaby,” said Erlend wearily. “We talked about it last fall—and since then too. Sigurd’s death has been expected for some time. Gissur was willing to marry her when she became a widow if I would give her a sufficient dowry.”
“I see,” said Fru Aashild.
Erlend went on. “She swears that she won’t have him. She will name me as the father. If I swear that I’m not … do you think anyone will believe that I’m not swearing falsely?”
“You’ll have to dissuade her,” said Fru Aashild. “There’s no other way out. You must go home with her to Husaby tomorrow. And then you must stand firm and arrange this marriage between your foreman and Eline.”
“You’re right,” said Erlend. Then he bent forward and sobbed aloud.
“Don’t you see, Aunt … What do you think Kristin will believe?”
That night Erlend slept in the cookhouse with the servants. In the house Kristin slept with Fru Aashild in her bed, and Eline Ormsdatter slept in the other one. Bj?rn went out to sleep in the stable.
The next morning Kristin followed Fru Aashild out to the cowshed. While Fru Aashild went to the cookhouse to make breakfast, Kristin carried the milk up to the house.
A candle was burning on the table. Eline was dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed. Kristin greeted her quietly, got out a basin, and strained the milk.
“Would you give me some milk?” asked Eline. Kristin took a wooden ladle and handed it to the woman. She drank greedily and looked over the rim at Kristin.
“So you’re Kristin Lavransdatter, the one who has robbed me of Erlend’s affections,” she said, handing the ladle back.
“You’re the one who should know whether there were any affections to rob,” replied the young maiden.
Eline bit her lip. “What will you do,” she said, “if Erlend grows tired of you and one day offers to marry you to his servant? Would you obey Erlend in that too?”
Kristin didn’t answer.
Then the other woman laughed and said, “You obey him in everything, I imagine. What do you think, Kristin—shall we throw the dice for our man, we two mistresses of Erlend Nikulauss?n?” When she received no reply, she laughed again and said, “Are you so simple-minded that you don’t deny you’re a kept woman?”
“To you I don’t feel like lying,” said Kristin.
“It wouldn’t do you much good anyway,” replied Eline in the same tone of voice. “I know that boy. I can imagine that he probably rushed at you like a black grouse the second time you were together. And it’s too bad for you, pretty child that you are.”
Kristin’s cheeks grew pale. Sick with loathing she said quietly, “I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Do you think he’ll treat you any better than he did me?” Eline continued.
Then Kristin replied sharply, “I won’t complain about Erlend, no matter what he does. I was the one who took the wrong path, and I won’t moan and feel sorry for myself even if it leads me out over the scree.”
Eline was silent for a moment. Then she said, flushed and uncertain, “I was a maiden too, when he took me, Kristin—even though I had been the old man’s wife for seven years. But you probably can’t understand what a wretched life that was.”
Kristin started to tremble violently. Eline gazed at her. Then she took a little horn out of her traveling box which stood at her side on the step of the bed.
She broke the seal and said quietly, “You are young and I am old, Kristin. I know it’s useless for me to fight against you—now it’s your turn. Will you drink with me, Kristin?”
Kristin didn’t move. Then the other woman put the horn to her lips. Kristin noticed that she did not drink.
Eline said, “You might at least do me the honor of drinking to me—and promise that you won’t be a harsh stepmother to my children.”
Kristin took the horn. At that moment Erlend opened the door. He stood there, looking from one woman to the other.
“What’s this?” he asked.