During these days, Gunnar made few demands on me. I chopped wood for the woodstore, fed the chickens, carried water from the well, helped Odd feed the cows and mend the hurdles when the cattle kicked them down; I helped Helmuth with the pigs, removed ash from the hearthplaces, changed the straw in the barn, spread manure on the fields, dug stumps; I helped Ylva pluck geese and pull weeds…In short, I performed whatever tasks needed doing, but my toil was no more arduous or burdensome than any I had known at the abbey. Indeed, my master often preferred the more demanding tasks for Odd and himself. And in any event, no one worked harder than Karin. Thus, I formed the conclusion that Gunnar had no real need of another slave. Whatever reasons he had for buying me from Ragnar, labour was not one of them.
I continued to take my meals in the house, and began to feel as much a part of the family as Ylva or Ulf. Sure, I was treated no worse than either of them. And when I learned to put word to word, forming crude, and often amusing, sentences, my master praised me highly and professed satisfaction with my progress-so much so that the day of testing came soon after my first halting conversation with him.
Hoping to put my mind at ease, I determined to ask what happened the night of the raid. "Do you know what became of my brothers?" I asked, fumbling over the words.
"It was very dark that night," Gunnar observed mildly.
"Were they killed?"
"Maybe," he allowed, "some men were killed. I do not know how many." He then explained that, owing to the confusion which ensued upon the sudden arrival of the lord and his men, he could not be sure of anything. "The jarl appeared and we ran away, taking only what we could carry. We left much treasure," he concluded sadly. "But I do not know about your friends."
The next morning Gunnar roused me in the barn and told me that he and Helmuth were taking some of the pigs to Skansun. "There is a market," he told me. "It is one day's walk. We will stay the night and return home. Do you understand?"
"Heya," I replied. "Am I to go with you?" I asked, hoping for a chance to see something of the wider world once more.
"Nay." He shook his head solemnly. "You are to stay with Karin and Ylva. Ulf will go with me, and Helmuth, too. Odd will remain with you. Heya?"
"I understand."
"Garm I will take with us; Surt I leave here to guard the cattle."
A short while later, we were standing in the yard bidding the travellers farewell. Gunnar spoke a word to his wife, charging her, I think, with the care of the farm, then called the black hound, Garm, to him and strode from the yard without looking back. Ulf fell into step behind him, and Helmuth, with the pigs, met them at the end of the yard. We watched them out of sight, and then turned to our chores.
The day was good and bright, the air warm and full of insects, for summer was speeding on. Odd and I spent the morning working in the turnip field and, after a midday meal, Ylva and I filled a small cauldron with the previous day's milk which had been left to stand, built a small fire in the yard, and began making cheese. Once the milk was gently simmering, we left the tending of the pot to Karin, and I returned to the field.
The first intimation I had that the situation was other than I believed it to be was when, at sunset, I happened to look up from weeding the turnips to see both Gunnar and Ulf striding across the meadow with Helmuth and his pigs straggling along some distance behind. Thinking something terrible must have befallen them, I dropped the hoe and ran to meet them.
"What has happened?" I gasped, breathless from my run. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," Gunnar replied with a slow, sly smile. "I have returned."
"But-" I waved a hand towards Helmuth, "what about the market…the pigs? Did you change your head-ah, mind?"
"I did not go to the market," my master informed me. Ulf laughed aloud, as if they had perpetrated a handsome jest.
I glanced from one to the other of them. "I do not understand."
"It was the watching-trial," Gunnar explained simply. "It was in my mind to see what you would do when I was not here to guard you."
"You watched me?"
"I watched you."
"You watched to see if I would run away, yes?"
"Yes, and-"
"You did not trust me." The realization that I had been tested-albeit in a gentle and good-natured way-made me feel stupid and disappointed. Of course, I reckoned, a master has every right to test the loyalty of his slaves. Still, I felt ill-used.
Gunnar regarded me with a deeply puzzled expression. "Do not take on so, Aeddan. You have done well," he said. "I am satisfied."
"But I was never out of your sight," I complained.
Gunnar took a deep breath and drew himself up. "I do not understand you," Gunnar said, shaking his head from side to side. "I," he thumped himself on the chest, "I am well pleased."
"I am not well pleased," I told him flatly. "I am angry."
