[littlemanpoet]

Thornden clapped Harreld on the shoulder as he passed, saying, “You should ask Ginna, you know, before some other fellow snatches her and you’re left wishing you were he.”

Harreld sighed and stood with his back to the wall. He saw Ginna across the room. No man asked her to dance. It was not surprising since they all knew that he had claim to her, or at least had at one time. He had said very little to anyone about Ginna, and she no doubt had kept quiet about him. All any other folk at Scarburg would know was that the two did not spend much time together. Perhaps they wondered why, but no one asked.

Harreld wished that he could ask Ginna to dance. After the way he had treated her, he felt that he did not deserve to. At least, not until they talked. He had not had a chance to talk to her this day of so much happening surrounding Eiodwine's return.

But the greatest thing surrounding the former eorl's return for Harreld had been their talk. Harreld rehearsed it in his mind as he started walking over the the living quarters.

Eodwine had wanted to know why Harreld felt that he could not take Ginna to wife, and he had explained, marshaling all his Eorling wisdom. Eodwine had been unimpressed. Maybe a father was a daughter's lord by Eorling ways, but Eorling ways were not the last word on who should wed whom, he had said.

"What is?" Harreld had asked, feeling very much out of his depth.

"The eorl of oafs, of course," Eodwine had grinned, but after his joke he had said something that had stuck with Harreld. Sometimes, Eodwine had said, a thing is meant to be against all odds and against all seeming wisdom. How was one to know? One could not ask for another's wisdom. One must weigh one's own heart. Even with this much, Harreld had held himself skeptical, for it sounded like something out of a Gondorian love geste; he had not heard or read any himself, but had heard of the strange things. "What weighs in the balance, Harreld, is whether your heart tells you to take, or to give. What does your heart tell you about Ginna?"

"Did the law of the Eorlings allow, I would give her anything she asked for, wise or foolish. I cannot help it."

Eodwine had smiled. "There you have it. You are meant for each other."

"Are you sure?" he had asked.

"Sure as I am still alive."

Harreld stopped at the door to the women's quarters. How had he known that Ginna would come this way? He hardly knew. It did not matter. As she approached, looking dismally at the floor, she saw his feet and stopped. She looked up at him, her expression sad but questioning.

"Can we talk?" he asked.