'
So he told her of the ransackings and of the murder at Carlstead.
She said: 'These tidings have we heard before, and some deal of them
we know better than ye do, or can; for we were the ransackers of
Penny-thumb and Harts-bane. Thereof will I say more presently. What
other tidings hast thou to tell of? What oaths were sworn upon the
Boar last Yule?'
So he told her of the oath of Bristler the son of Brightling. She
smiled and said: 'He shall keep his oath, and yet redden no blade.'
Then he told of his father's oath, and she said:
'It is good; but even so would he do and no oath sworn. All men may
trust Iron-face. And thou, my friend, what oath didst thou swear?'
His face grew somewhat troubled as he said: 'I swore to wed the
fairest woman in the world, though the Dalesmen gainsaid me, and they
beyond the Dale.'
'Yea,' she said, 'and there is no need to ask thee whom thou didst
mean by thy "fairest woman," for I have seen that thou deemest me
fair enough. My friend, maybe thy kindred will be against it, and
the kindred of the Bride; and it might be that my kindred would have
gainsaid it if things were not as they are.
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