Later the same day, when they were back in their camp, where Knut had ordered water fetched from Saint Erik's spring so that he could personally bless all of those who came to him for this reason, Arn was released from his duties to the king.

   Knut took him aside and said that now they faced some boring days of waiting and conversations with one man arriving after the other. Knut suspected that Arn might not have much patience for this. What could be finer than to ride for all he was worth to see Cecilia? For Knut did not want to be so hard on his friend that he would stand in the way of such happiness any longer.

   Then Arn embraced his best friend and they soon parted. Arn rode for the sake of his dreams, and Knut stayed for the sake of power.

It had taken Arn a week to reach the slopes of Husaby, yet that was faster than any man in the North could have managed it, at least on a Nordic horse. He had also stopped at home in Arnäs to tell them everything that had happened and to scour himself and change his clothes.

   Now he was finally riding along with Husaby in sight, moving so slowly and with such short reins that Shimal pranced impatiently. The closer he came to Husaby the less he cared about all the strange things he had witnessed in the struggle for power.

   Algot Pålsson had been called to Arnäs to settle the dowry, and they had found it just as well that such discussions be handled between Eskil and Magnus on the one hand and Algot on the other; Arn did not need to attend.

   This proposal had suited him doubly. First, he was not in the least interested in whether he and Cecilia were a good bargain, or even a bad one, for either of their fathers. Second, he would rather meet Cecilia with all the fine things he had to say to her without being watched over by her father or his suspicious retainers.

   Now everything seemed too good to be true. Soon he would be with her. Soon he would hold her in his arms and tell her that it was likely that the betrothal ale would be celebrated at Husaby as early as Eskilsmas.

   Magnus and Eskil had arranged it, apparently without first asking Algot, so that the betrothal ale would be held at Husaby and the wedding ale at Arnäs. Cecilia would be given Forsvik as a morning gift. It would be up to Eskil and Magnus to squeeze the dowry out of Algot.

   But Arn had no worry about such matters on his conscience. A few forests or beaches, what were they compared to the greatest thing of all that God had granted humanity?

   And even if Algot did not care particularly about his daughter's feelings, just as Magnus would not take the wishes of his second son seriously in such matters, Algot was still going to secure the life and property of his own clan through this marriage. That much Arn did understand now.

   A short time ago, when he'd last seen Cecilia, everything had looked dark and hopeless, but it was now suffused with light. Like Gunvor and Gunnar, Arn and Cecilia would never neglect to thank the Virgin Mary for her power, manifested once again, and for her teaching that greatest of all was love.

   When Arn approached the Husaby royal estate, the thralls at work sowing turnips noticed him, and some of them ran up to the manor to announce his arrival. So a great commotion arose at once, and by the time Arn reached the house, all the thralls, retainers, and other people at the estate were lined up in a double row leading up to the door of the longhouse. When Arn rode in between them the thralls' warbling shouts of jubilation rang out, and the retainers banged on their weapons while the thralls did the same on whatever lay to hand.

   Cecilia came out on the porch of the longhouse and at first took a few steps forward, as if she had thought to run and meet Arn. But then she restrained herself, clasped her hands, and stood erect as she waited for him. Her grandmother Ulrika came out on the porch looking as if she wanted to say something stern, but when she discovered Arn approaching between the ranks of thralls and retainers she stopped herself and stood waiting in the same manner as her granddaughter.

   Inside Arn a battle was raging as he dismounted from Shimal and handed the reins to a thrall who came running. Arn's face was hot and he knew he was blushing. His heart was pounding so wildly that he thought he might lose his wits, and he had to exert all his self-restraint to go to meet Cecilia respectfully and courteously before all these eyes, just as she waited for him so calmly with her gaze lowered demurely.

   But then she raised her eyes and they looked at each other briefly, and all polite control burst, and they ran to each other. When they met they threw their arms around each other in a way that was not at all proper for young people who had not yet drunk their betrothal ale. Then the thralls' jubilant ululations rose again, and such a great noise commenced that none could make himself heard for a good long while.

   The thralls of Husaby already knew everything about what had happened and what was to be expected, and many of them hoped to follow along with Cecilia after the wedding ale. They believed that anyone who went with Cecilia and young Herr Arn would be better treated than anywhere else. Among the thralls only good things were said of Arn, things that had nothing to do with swords and bows and other topics that free men discussed over their ale tankards. Instead they talked of how young Herr Arn treated thralls like men.

   Cecilia and Arn did not want to let each other go, but forced themselves to do so when Grandmother Ulrika coughed for the third time. The two women and Arn then went into the longhouse so that Arn might be welcomed with some ale and break a piece of bread. Once inside the longhouse, Grandmother Ulrika spoke before the young people could say a word. She began to interrogate them about the morning gift, the dowry, and where the betrothal ale was to be celebrated. Arn had to make an effort to answer all these inquiries as if he really cared, and he had to describe the property at Forsvik, the number of outbuildings and the size of the main house, the number of thralls in the house, and other details of which he had no knowledge. Only then did Ulrika ask about things that seemed more important, about what stand the Folkungs in Eastern Götaland had taken and whether the Swedes had held a tingyet. Arn was able to reassure her that the Folkungs in both Eastern and Western Götaland stood united with the Erik clan, and that he did believe that Knut Eriksson had already been elected king at the tingof the Swedes. Judging by all he had heard from everybody as he rode south from Östra Aros through Svealand, there seemed to be no doubt in this matter. King Erik Jedvardsson had been a much loved king in Svealand, and as Arn understood it, Karl Sverkersson was not at all liked in the same way. Up there among the Swedes, they hardly knew who the king's brothers Kol and Boleslav were, nor did they care. So presumably Knut Eriksson was already the king of the Swedes, and he would come to the landstingin Western Götaland in the summer to be elected king here as well.