Then I said, not seeing at all what the king would have me do, but
thinking that he deemed me foolish for not taking the lands
straightway:

"Let me bide with you even yet for a while. When the time comes
that I must leave you I must go to Owen, and neither he nor I care
for aught but to be here. He must leave you because of duty, and if
this is indeed choice with me, let me choose to stay. It is nought
to me who holds the lands, save only that it might be one who will
tend the grave of my father."

Then said Ina, looking into my face and smiling, as if well
pleased:

"The choice is free, my Thane, and I should be wrong if I did not
say that I am glad to hear you choose thus. I have missed you in
these days, and I have work here for you yet. It was in my mind
that thus you would choose, and I am glad. Let it be so. I need one
to take the place of Owen, as second in command of the household,
as one may say, and that you must do for me henceforward.

"Nay," he said quickly, raising his hand as I tried to find some
words of thanks for this honour; "you know the ways of Owen, and
men know you, and it will be as if there had been no change, and
that will mean that we shall have no grumbling in the palace, and
the right men will be sent to do what they are best fitted for--and
all that, so that there will be quiet about the court as ever. It
is a matter off my mind, let me tell you, and no thanks are
needed."