Offa, being an honest man, was for sending the message back unanswered.

But the queen had a mind for the match, and as I was in the way, it was plain to me that I must be out of it.

So I did not wait for Quendritha to remove me, but removed myself." "Alone ?" I asked.
"Alone, and that hastily.

You do not know the lady of Mercia, or you would not ask." Now I thought to myself that in the last half hour I had learned more of that lady than even Ecgbert knew, and I felt that he was wise in time, if Thrond's tale was true; which, indeed, I began to believe.

But it did not seem right to me that an atheling of Wessex should be alone, without so much as a housecarl to tend him and stand at his back at need.