“Yes.” Erlend’s smile was wan and quivering. “We were friends after that. And she didn’t resist very strongly; but she is without blame. That was when she wanted me to take her away; she didn’t want to go back to her kinsmen.”
“But you refused?”
“Yes, I wanted to attempt to win her as my wife with her father’s consent.”
“Was this long ago?” asked Fru Aashild.
“It was a year ago, on Saint Lavrans’s Day,” replied Erlend.
“You haven’t made much haste to ask for her hand,” said his aunt.
“She wasn’t free of her previous betrothal,” said Erlend.
“And since then you haven’t come too close to her?” asked Aashild.
“We made arrangements so that we could meet several times.” Once again that quavering smile flitted across his face. “At a place in town.”
“In God’s name,” said Fru Aashild. “I’ll help the two of you as much as I can. I see that it will be much too painful for Kristin to stay here with her parents with something like this on her conscience. There’s nothing else, is there?” she asked.
“Not that I know of,” said Erlend curtly.
After a pause, Fru Aashild asked, “Have you thought about the fact that Kristin has friends and kinsmen all along this valley?”
“We must travel in secrecy as best we can,” said Erlend. “That’s why it’s important for us to get away quickly, so we can put some distance behind us before her father comes home. You have to lend us your sleigh, Aunt.”
Aashild shrugged her shoulders. “Then there’s her uncle at Skog. What if he hears you’re celebrating a wedding with his brother’s daughter in Gerdarud?”
“Aasmund has spoken with Lavrans on my behalf,” said Erlend. “He can’t be an accomplice, that’s true, but he’ll probably look the other way. We’ll go to the priest at night and keep on traveling by night. I imagine that Aasmund will probably tell Lavrans afterward that it’s improper for a God-fearing man like him to part us once we’ve been married by a priest. Rather, he ought to give us his blessing so that we will be legally married. You must tell Lavrans the same thing. He can state his own conditions for a reconciliation with us and demand whatever penalties he deems reasonable.”
“I don’t think Lavrans Bj?rgulfs?n will be easy to advise in this matter,” said Fru Aashild. “God and Saint Olav know that I do not like this business, nephew. But I realize that this is your last recourse if you are to repair the harm you have done to Kristin. Tomorrow I will ride to j?rundgaard myself if you’ll lend me one of your men, and I can get Ingrid to the north to look after my livestock.”
Fru Aashild arrived at J?rundgaard the following evening just as the moonlight broke away from the last glow of the day. She saw how pale and hollow-cheeked Kristin had become when the girl came out to the courtyard to receive her guest.
Fru Aashild sat next to the hearth and played with the two younger sisters. Secretly she watched Kristin with searching eyes as the maiden set the table. She was thin and silent. She had always been quiet, but it was a different kind of silence that had come over her now. Fru Aashild could imagine all the tension and stubborn defiance that lay behind it.
“You’ve probably heard,” said Kristin, coming over to her, “about what happened here this fall?”
“Yes, that my sister’s son has asked for your hand?”
“Do you remember,” said Kristin, “that you once said he and I might suit each other well? Except that he was much too rich and of too good a family for me?”
“I hear that Lavrans is of another mind,” said Aashild dryly. There was a sparkle in Kristin’s eye, and she smiled a little. She’ll do, thought Fru Aashild. As little as she liked it, she would oblige Erlend and give him the help he had asked for.
Kristin made up her parents’ bed for the guest, and Fru Aashild asked the young woman to sleep with her. After they lay down and the main room was quiet, Fru Aashild explained her errand.
Her heart grew strangely heavy when she saw that this child did not seem to give a thought to the sorrow she would cause her parents. Yet I lived in sorrow and torment with Baard for more than twenty years, thought Aashild. But that’s probably the way it is for all of us. Kristin didn’t even seem to have noticed how Ulvhild’s health had declined that autumn. Aashild thought it unlikely that Kristin would see her little sister alive again. But she said nothing of this. The longer Kristin could hold on to this wild joy and keep up her courage, the better it would be for her.