I supposed that we should all go together with the young king to that place which he should choose for his first landing, and thereafter she would bide in his court until Eric had fled the land and the power of Arnkel had ended with his fall.

Then she would go to her own place and be once more as a queen, while I would fare with Hakon, and see what honour I might win.
Still, it was pleasant to sit on the deck in the soft, summer weather, and talk with Thoralf's wife and daughter, Ortrud, and watch Gerda as she forgot the hard things she had passed through, and grew cheerful and happy once more.

These two ladies were most kind to her, and grew to be great friends in those long days at sea.
One day, after we had left the Shetland Islands, and it wore toward the end of the voyage, and we began to talk of where we might best land and call on men to rise for Hakon, the elder lady, Thoralf's wife, had been talking to me, and I think my mind had wandered a little as I watched Gerda, who was on the after deck with Bertric and Dalfin.

The men were all clustered forward, and no one was near for the moment.
"You two well bore the care of Gerda," she said in a low voice.
"See, she might never have passed through aught of peril or hardship.

Yet she will never forget those days of trial." "She was very brave through them," I said.