And maybe if I looked to find more reason yet it would be to leave Sexberga to work out matters without having me to fall back on when Eldred is to be made jealous." Thereat Olaf laughed long.
"You have had an ill time with the womenfolk of late," he said, and it was true enough.
"I have," said I, "and I am tired thereof.

I shall be glad to be where byrnies and swords are more common than kirtles and distaffs." Yet in my mind I knew that I should not leave Uldra with much cheerfulness.

Such companionship as ours had been, strange and full of peril, was a closer bond than even the care of me that had made me think twice or more about Sexberga.

Thoughts of her came lightly in idleness, but when I thought of Uldra, there was comradeship that had borne the strain of peril.
Now I knew well what that comradeship might easily ripen into, and maybe, because I knew it, what I would not allow had begun.

But Uldra had never given me any reason to think that this was so with her.
Olaf said that maybe I was right, and after that we talked of his doings, wondering now when we should meet again, for we were going different ways.