us keep Yuletide with him.

It had been in my mind that Halfden would have come to Reedham, and
at first I looked for him, but he had not been heard of, so that
now we knew that we should not see him before springtime came, for
he must needs be wintering somewhere westward. Yet now Lodbrok was
at ease with us, seeing the end of his stay, and being in high
favour with our king, so that he was seldom away from his side in
all the hunting that went on.

That liked not Beorn, the falconer, and though he would be
friendly, to all seeming, with the Dane, it seemed to me that his
first jealousy had grown deeper and taken more hold of him, though
it might only be in a chance look or word that he showed it as days
went on.

But one night my father and I rode in together from our hunting,
and there was no one with us. We had been at Thetford for a month
now, since I came home, and there was a talk that the king would go
to the court of Ethelred at Winchester shortly, taking my father
with him for his counsellor, and so we spoke of that for a while,
and how I must order things at Reedham while he was away.

"Lodbrok, our friend, will go back with you," he said. "Now, have
you noted any envy at the favour in which he is held by Eadmund?"

"Aye, Father," I answered, "from Beorn, the falconer."

"So you, too, have had your eyes open," went on my father; "now I
mistrust that man, for he hates Lodbrok."