“I don’t think he does,” Arvid said. “And it’s no joy to me to be linked to you.”

“It won’t be on my day to choose your work,” Regar said. “You’ll learn what work is, and you’ll be howling for mercy before the noontide.” He walked on a few strides. “Which you won’t get, any more than I did when I was a ’prentice.” A few more strides. “I’m not having you in my house, let alone my bedroom. You’ll have to find me a bed.”

“Suits me,” Arvid said.

“Ten days,” Regar said. “Lia will kill me.”

Regar lived down a twisty lane, a house on the north margin of Ifoss, adjacent to a walled yard. A tall, stout woman stood in the door, watching them come.

“You’re late,” she said. “Been to the tavern again?”

“No, Lia,” Regar said. His tone with her was almost pleading. “Marshal bade me stay behind. On account of this fellow.”

Her gaze went over Arvid like a scrystone. “You’re the thief he talks about, aren’t you?”

“I’m the new yeoman of Gird, yes,” Arvid said.

Her lips thinned, and she looked at Regar. “Why did you bring this man here?”

“Marshal said. There was a quarrel—”

“Who started it?”

A long pause during which Regar slowly turned red. The woman nodded before he said anything. “You did, then. And you with a good contract at last, and children who need food on the table, and something tells me the Marshal’s solution is going to leave them hungry. Am I right?”

Silence from Regar. Arvid said, “He bade us stay no more than an armslength from each other for the next tenday.”

“Day and night?” Her brows were up, but she sounded more resigned than surprised.

“Yes. And each day we must work together, alternating days. He assigned tomorrow to my work as a merchant.”

“Much good you’ll be as a mason’s assistant,” the woman said, lip curling. She looked at Regar again. “If you lose this contract, Regar, I swear I’m going back to my family. It’s the best you’ve had in a hand of years.”

“I won’t,” he said. “I swear—”

“And you,” she said to Arvid. “You don’t have a wife or children, I’ll wager.”

“I have a son,” he said. “In Valdaire. His mother died of fever, years back.”

Her brows went up. “Well, then. You know children must eat.” A noise in the house behind her; she turned her head just as two children tried to squeeze past her in the doorway. One escaped and launched himself at Regar; the other, the woman caught by the arm and held fast.