But the feast is set for two hours after noon, and all must be there." So I thanked him, and he bade me ask his steward for horses if I would, and I went straight to Osmund from his presence.
"I think it will be a more pleasant ride than our last," said Thora.

"Yet that is one that I shall not forget." Then I tried to say that I hoped she did not regret it either, but I minded me of the loved nurse she had to leave, and was silent in time.

Yet I thought that she meant nothing of sorrow in the remembrance as she spoke.
We called out my two comrades, for Osmund liked them well, and rode away northward, that the keen air might be behind us as we returned.

That was all the chance that led us that way, and it was well that we were so led, as things turned out.
The white downs and woodlands sparkling with frost were very beautiful as we rode, and we went fast and joyously in the fresh air; but the countryside was almost deserted, for the farmsteads were burned when the Danes broke in on the land last spring, and few were built up as yet.

The poor folk were in the town now, for the most part, finding empty houses enough to shelter them, and none left to whom they belonged.
Now we rode for twelve miles or so, and then won to a hilltop which we had set as our turning place.