Ethelmund goes out to the barn

“What are you doing, Ethelmund?” Githa asked quietly.

Ethelmund had gone out to the barn after dinner to get her old spindle down from the loft, as she had dropped and broken the new one he had made last year. When he didn’t return, she went out looking for him. And now she could not merely stand in the barn with a breaking heart but had to say something, and so she had to ask, “What are you doing, Ethelmund?”

“I found it up in the loft,” he said simply.

“Of course you did. But maybe you shouldn’t have brought it down just now.”

“I don’t know. It gets dusty up there, with no one playing with it.”

“Why don’t you give it to the girls?”

Ethelmund thought a while before answering sadly. “I don’t think I could do that. I think I will give it to Athelis and Brinstan. I guess I would like to see a little boy playing with it.”

“We’ll have a little boy someday,” Githa protested, beginning to lose her composure.

“Then I’ll make another,” Ethelmund replied, shaking off his sorrow for her sake as he got to his feet. “Never you mind, Githa. We’ll be happy enough with the four of us, anyway. Now you just take your spindle and go on inside. I’ll just take this over to Theobald’s and we won’t talk about it any more.”

Githa went back to the house without a word, and only began to cry when the door was shut behind her. His pain was harder for her to bear than her own.