The ships he had seen were still far away, beating southward now.
"Are these maidens nuns, or but in disguise, father ?" he said.
Elfric answered not at once, and I said: "Three are nuns, two only are disguised.

You will not take the queen's maidens from her ?" "Not I," he answered.

"I think that even with the abbot's help and theirs I shall have trouble enough with the queen when she finds that the shore we reach is not Normandy." "Shall you take me ?" asked Elfric.
"I must take all but my own friend here, and the three holy women; I will not hinder them.

They can find shelter in Selsea or Chichester--a nun has always friends and a house--if Redwald will see them safely to the door," Egil said very kindly.
Then he bade the men get out the boat, which was a good one, and fitted for carrying cargo from ship to shore.

Two of Bertric's men were to go ashore with me and the nuns, taking messages also to the Bosham folk of what had befallen the ship.
"You will scare the wife if you say you have fallen into the hands of the Danes," Egil said laughing at the shipmaster.
"It is the truth," Bertric said stoutly.