A Lovers' Tale by Maurice Hewlett

Thorveig, the mother of Ord and Gudmund, was a grave, heavy woman with thin hair and light eyes, wide open, which seemed always to be looking at things which were not there. They were like dead eyes. The tale says that she knew too much. Certain it is that when Cormac rode to see her, accompanied by his testimony, betimes in the morning -- certain it is that she had Ord laid out for burial and Gudmund in bed. She was sitting by the dead when they came to the door. It was covered with a sheet, as it had need to be.

Cormac said what he had to say. "I was attacked from an ambush; I defended myself. It was unprovoked on my part, and well you know it. I offer no atonement nor ransom for this dead man, and I require you to leave our land as soon as may be, and carry yourself and your evil seed elsewhere."