Sir Sigefrith nodded.

“Malcolm,” Sir Sigefrith nodded.

“Sigefrith.”

For a while they stood together silently on the wall of Sigefrith’s father’s castle, staring out into the valley. The night was deep enough that they could see no sign of their own homes, miles away in the dark.

For a while they stood together silently on the wall of Sigefrith's father's castle, staring out into the valley.

“I thought you would be with your cousins,” Malcolm said when he could bear his loneliness no longer.

“I borrowed one of Hilda’s tricks and told them I had a headache.”

Malcolm snorted.

“But now I truly do,” Sigefrith sighed. “That’s always what happens to me when I try to think for more than thirty seconds at a time.”

“I recommend you take a break every twenty.”

“I usually do. What about you? I thought Sigefrith wanted you to be spying on my cousins.”

'I thought Sigefrith wanted you to be spying on my cousins.'

“Don’t say ‘spying on.’ Only observing. But he said I might go out. I’m satisfied with them. Your cousin Britmar has either the honesty of a saint or the devil’s own cunning. And I like Baldwin, too.”

“I’m glad! I remember them as saints or some sort of demigods myself. I suppose I was an annoying little brat to them, but they always let me follow them around. My mother almost sent me with them to Flanders when they went, but I was a little too young. Or she couldn’t bear to be parted from me.”

“That certainly would have changed your life around.”

“I wouldn’t have married Hilda…”

'I wouldn't have married Hilda...'

“For instance.”

Thereafter Sir Sigefrith seemed lost in his own thoughts for well over thirty seconds, and Malcolm looked out at the dark valley again. He was sensitive enough to know that his companion had come out seeking solitude, as indeed he had himself, but now that they were here, Malcolm was sorely tempted to ask Sigefrith’s advice on the matter he had come out to consider alone.

Malcolm was sorely tempted to ask Sigefrith's advice on the matter he had come out to consider alone.

“Sigefrith, you know a lot about girls,” he finally blurted.

“Probably less than you think,” Sigefrith laughed. “I was but a few months older than you are now when I was married. Good Lord! Haakon was already on his way.”

“Oh.”

“Well, what did you want to know?” Sigefrith asked after a moment. “I do know a few things. I can always tell you what not to do.”

'I can always tell you what not to do.'

“Well… Ordinarily I would ask my cousin Egelric, since he knows more about what to do with girls than anybody. But I can’t do that, because it’s about his daughter.”

“Oh!”

“And I can’t ask Sigefrith, because Murchad is having the same problem, and Synne is his cousin.”

“Oh, dear! Well, Malcolm, those are ladies, you know. You shouldn’t…”

'Well, Malcolm, those are ladies, you know. You shouldn't...'

“I don’t want to know about that,” Malcolm grumbled. “I suppose I know about that. I mean, what does it mean when you kiss a girl once, and she seems to like it, but after that, every time you try, she won’t let you?”

So it was! For two days and two nights after that dawn by the sea, Malcolm had thought of nothing but how and when he would be able to kiss his cousin again. But when he had finally found an opportunity, and ever since…

“She wasn’t drunk or anything when you kissed her?” Sigefrith asked.

“It’s Iylaine! And Synne!”

'It's Iylaine! And Synne!'

“I know. But Iylaine has been a little ill…?”

“That’s true,” Malcolm sighed. “That’s what I keep thinking. Perhaps she didn’t even know what she was doing.”

“When was it?”

“That first night we slept out, and she went down to the sea and got her feet and mine wet, like an idiot girl.”

“But she was with you every day afterwards! And I saw you holding her hand lots of times.”

“I know!”

'I know!'

“Then don’t worry about it, Malcolm. She’s simply being a girl. She’s young, anyway.”

“But your wife was thirteen when you…”

“I told you, I can certainly tell you what not to do!” Sigefrith groaned. “If a girl follows you around, and lets you hold her hand and call her Baby, then she’s yours. She’ll let you kiss her again eventually, especially if she liked it. Now, if she starts avoiding you and running away from you and making excuses not to see you, then you have a problem.”

“No, she doesn’t do that,” Malcolm admitted.

“Mine does,” Sigefrith sighed and looked out into the night again.

“What?”

“You don’t think I was up here thinking about religion or philosophy, do you?”

'You don't think I was up here thinking about religion or philosophy, do you?'

“No,” Malcolm laughed. “But I had the impression that the running and the avoiding was mutual at your house.”

“I don’t mean Hilda.”

“Ohhhh…”

“But she let me catch her last night, and now I don’t know what to do.”

Sigefrith spoke quickly, like a man who longed to unburden himself, Malcolm thought. He was not sorry he had come. He had had his eye on Sigefrith for some time, but his task would be greatly lightened if the young knight would simply tell him what was on his mind.

“Oh?” he prompted.

“I let her go,” Sigefrith said. “When I caught her, I mean. I didn’t… You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

'You won't tell anyone, will you?'

Malcolm thought his usual look of long-​​suffering would not show clearly enough in the dark, so he deigned to say, “I never tell anyone’s secrets.”

“But she’s ill. And I can’t stop thinking about her. Even when we were in Denmark, I simply… couldn’t stop…”

“She’s ill?”

“So she told me last night. Her mother is dying, you know.”

“You seem to think I know who you mean,” Malcolm grinned.

'You seem to think I know who you mean.'

“Don’t you?” Sigefrith smiled ruefully.

“Wynflaed, daughter of Brid?”

“How do you know?”

“Easily, if you’ve been thinking about her since you went to Denmark. Do not forget you asked my cousin Egelric to look out for her family – even while swearing you had no personal interest in the matter!” Malcolm cackled. “And besides, the whole time you’ve been talking about her you’ve been moving your hands as if you were touching a small girl, and she’s as small as they come.”

'And besides, the whole time you've been talking about her you've been moving your hands as if you were touching a small girl.'

“I have been?” Sigefrith asked. He looked down at his hands and smiled foolishly, as if he rather liked the idea.

“You have been!”

“But I hardly touched her, you know. I only held her and cried like a great big looby. But somehow you can’t kiss a girl when she tells you she’s dying, can you?”

“I hope I never find out,” Malcolm said grimly, thinking of those dark shadows around the eyes of his beloved.

“Well, so do I. But otherwise I suppose I should hurry up and kiss her. Except I’m too much of a coward.”

'Except I'm too much of a coward.'

“You?”

“I!” Sigefrith laughed. “If it were a simple matter of going into mortal combat, I wouldn’t hesitate, mind you…”

“Oh, I know what you mean!” Malcolm sighed. “All she has to do is clamp her lips together and turn her head, and you’re slain!”

“Or slap you.”

“I think I should rather be slapped. Iylaine hits me all the time anyway.”

'Iylaine hits me all the time anyway.'

Sigefrith only nodded and looked out into the valley again.

“In any case,” Malcolm said, “if you kiss her once and she lets you kiss her a second time, please tell me what you did in between so I can try it on Iylaine.”

“And if she doesn’t let me kiss her once, please tell me what you did to Iylaine in the first place.”

“Agreed,” Malcolm said firmly, and he sent his smile out into the west, miles away into the dark.

He sent his smile out into the west, miles away into the dark.