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With no small trepidation did Leof return to the hall for the feast. After witnessing the fight between Eodwine and Saeryn, and then not seeing Athanar anywhere in the immediate vicinity, he had decided to just return to his work in the stables and that his own complaints and ideas could wait. There was enough upheaval right now without his adding to the mix.
All in all, it had been a quiet day in the stables. There were no drills, and it had been too cold for most of the men to want to take their horses out on pleasure riding, assuming they had no chores. So he’d had a lot of time to think about his new organizational scheme for the stables.
He’d also had a lot of time to think about his relationship with the soldiers… especially Quin. He wondered if Quin was upset with him. He had left so suddenly this morning, and the look of shock on his face when Leof said he thought that Eodwine would be Eorl again…
In hindsight, he supposed that comment could also be taken as an insult to the soldiers sitting there. Because the logical follow-up to Eodwine resuming the Eorlship was Athanar leaving, and with him all his soldiers. He could see why Quin might take that badly.
So when he came to the hall for the feast, he looked around a little nervously and was almost glad to see that Quin had not yet arrived. It saved him the decision of whether or not to sit near him. Instead, he chose what he considered a safe spot near the old Scarburgians – Stigend and Garstan among them. That was well, because there were some ideas he thought they could help him with. He was just starting to explain to them how he would like to add numbers to all the stalls, when Quin came up beside him.
“I hope you are not angry with what happened this morning. I meant no mischief,” he said.
Leof looked at him in surprise. “No, of course not. I thought you might be angry with me, after how you walked out this morning.”
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