“No, I’m sure she wouldn’t do that. Come with me. If you want.” Absently she rubbed Klaus’ chest, tracing the edge of one of the tattoos with her finger and felt his breath hitch. Yanking her hand to her side she pulled out of his embrace, and hurried from the room toward the front, happy for the darkness to hide her embarrassment. Klaus followed her after a few seconds, shifting her to the side when they reached the front so he went out first. They found Solaug, alone, huddled in the shadows, without a cloak and shivering.
“What are you doing here at this hour? Are you by yourself?” Agnethe asked and started rubbing the girl’s arms to warm her.
“I had to get away. This was the only place I could think to go.” At that moment there was a rattle of some empty crates and something jumped out toward them.
Klaus raised his axe and Agnethe screamed, “No!” In the commotion, Solaug slammed herself against the wall and Agnethe reached out to stop Klaus’ arm from swinging the axe.
“It’s only Caesar.”
It took a few seconds for Klaus to register her words and lower his arm with a sigh. “It was almost two Caesar’s.” He huffed and shook his head as the cat darted away. “Let’s get inside and talk there.”
Solaug was shaking, not just from the cold, as she followed Agnethe into the house. Klaus stoked the fire and added a few logs to warm the room before turning to the girls.
“Why did you need to get away?” Agnethe asked her cousin, but the girl was staring at Klaus with wide eyes. Agnethe looked over her shoulder at Klaus standing in only his trousers, still without a shirt and no shoes. “Perhaps we should go to my room to talk.” Pulling Solaug along with her, the girl finally looked at Agnethe, but stopped and stared at her as well. “What now?”
“It’s just the two of you here?” Solaug looked from Agnethe to Klaus and back.
Agnethe shook her head and then realized that she was in her night clothes. “He is sleeping out here. Come with me and tell me what happened.” She hurried her cousin toward her bedroom, grabbing a taper to light a candle as she went. Solaug followed but continued to gape at Klaus as she stumbled along.
Pushing Solaug through the door curtain, Agnethe lit several small candles, then walked to her bed and the two girls sat next to each other. “Now, please tell me why you are here?”
“I’m to be married to Godolf.” Solaug leapt from the side of the bed and began pacing, hands clenching and unclenching into fists at her sides.
“When did this happen? You are not old enough, or ready to marry.” And why come to me about it?
“Heidrun is going to marry Svein and then we are all going to move into his home for a time. He needs someone to care for his father which Mother will do. In time she’ll find someone to put up with Malfrid’s whining and marry her off also, but she has pledged me to Godolf and we are to marry as soon as Trond leaves for the wapentake.” Solaug stopped pacing and stood with her shoulders sagged.
“They settled on a bride price today. It was so quick. Mother says that she has to make sure we have protection and the ability to care for ourselves now that Father’s gone.” Solaug plopped onto the bed again and put her hands over her eyes, starting to cry. “I tried to accept it. Tried not to think of a man with an angry temperance and rough hands becoming my husband. Not to mention his age, but the more I did, the more I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t sleep with so many thoughts going through my head, so I got up and left. I’m never going back.”
“Marriage? What is your mother thinking? She took me in because I’m young and you are a year behind me.”
“Will you take me with you? I will do everything I can to help and not be a burden.”
Agnethe stared at her cousin, searching Solaug’s face to figure out what she was asking. Take you with me? Where am I going?
“I thought I would stay here with you, but now that you will be leaving with Klaus I want to go with you as well.”
“Leaving with Klaus where? What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know you were. . .with him. But now,” Solaug moved her eyes to Agnethe’s night dress and then over her shoulder toward the other room and shrugged her shoulder, “I see you are and when he leaves, you will have to go with him. Please let me come, I can’t marry that old man.” Solaug’s face twisted and her eyes filled with tears again.
“First, I am not with him, in the sense that you mean, and won’t be going anywhere. Second, you won’t be forced to marry until you are ready, so I think there is time to find someone else for you.”
“You don’t understand, I am ready. My bleeds began last year. It was easy to hide it with two older sisters around, but a couple of weeks ago Mother found out.”
“Oh.” Agnethe looked down at her hands in her lap. I wish I was leaving with Klaus. “I don’t know what to say, or do. You can stay here with me, but that’s all the help I can give. Let’s try to get some sleep and maybe we can think of something better in the morning. Maybe Klaus will have an idea.”
Solaug started to untie her overdress and glanced at Agnethe, “You know, you don’t need to have your bleeds to be with a man.”
“Solaug!” Agnethe let her mouth fall open while she stared at her cousin. Solaug was taller and fuller through the chest than Agnethe, making her look older than she was. “You have . . . have you?”
The girl giggled and pulled her dress over her head before crawling onto Agnethe’s bed in her underpinnings. “No, but Heidrun has, and she tells Malfrid and I all kinds of stories.” Her eyes sparkled and a huge grin split her face. “Do you want to hear some?”
“No,” Agnethe turned away biting her lip, but peered at her cousin again and tried to hide a grin. Hopping onto the bed and she folded her legs under her, and both girls giggled as Solaug began revealing all the details her older sister had shared.
10
All About Reputation
Agnethe yawned and stretched, bumping into the sleeping figure next to her she jerked her hand to her chest. Releasing a sigh, she remembered it was Solaug. Fiddling with the edge of the blanket she sank back into the mattress and stared up to the ceiling. Solaug had been very detailed in the stories she’d shared from Heidrun and Agnethe hadn’t known how to process them. Flustered by the memory of Klaus’ naked chest the night before, she still didn’t.
Klaus would never be like Trond, would he? No. He has been kind, he is different.
Slipping out of bed so as not to wake Solaug, Agnethe dressed and took a deep breath before heading out to the main room. She peered around the corner to make sure that Klaus was dressed before surprising him and didn’t know what she would do if he was shirtless like the night before. Part of her was disappointed she realized and grit her teeth at her own nonsense.
Grow up, Agnethe. Keep your wits and don’t act like a silly fool.
“Good Morning,” she said, doing her best to walk casually into the room.
Klaus looked up and smiled. “Good morning to you.” He walked over to Agnethe and pulled her into a kiss. Shocked she tried to pull away, but then sank into his embrace and returned the affection. When he pulled back Agnethe stood with her eyes closed, face still angled up, and unable to move. Klaus let out a snicker and kissed the top of her nose. “We don’t seem to have any food, so while I’d like to continue this, I’m going to go out and get something to eat for all of us.”
“Oh, uh-huh.” Agnethe opened her eyes and felt the heat flush her cheeks before she turned away. An abundance of noise near the back of the room announced Solaug’s arrival, and she waggled her eyebrows at Agnethe. Before she could say something, the front door slammed against the wooden brace keeping it shut. Klaus put his finger in front of his mouth so the girls would stay silent and then shuffled Agnethe behind him which caused a flurry of tingles in her stomach. It didn’t help that her insides had already flipped over at the sound of the door and she couldn’t hear beyond the pounding of blood rushing through her ears. Agnethe reached up and bunched Klaus’
tunic between her fingers thinking it would steady her, but the quick peek and grin that he gave her over his shoulder did the opposite.
“Who’s there?” Klaus called out when the door wiggled again.
“Agnethe! Open this door at once,” Trond’s voice rang clear through the wooden panels. Another voice was muffled and sounded feminine, but Agnethe couldn’t tell who it was.
Klaus turned to Agnethe and whispered, “Go to the back room, take Solaug and no matter what, stay there until I come to get you.”
Wide-eyed, she shook her head and turned toward Solaug who reached out her hand. The two girls hurried toward the bedrooms, but around the corner Agnethe pulled back against Solaug, pressing herself against the wall where she could listen. Solaug stood next to her leaning half across Agnethe to hear also as Klaus opened the door to Trond, but did not allow him inside.
“Where is my sister?” Trond bellowed.
“I have no idea? Don’t you have several. Have you misplaced them all?” Klaus asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.
“You know who I’m talking about. Solaug come out here at once.”
There was a scuffle. The girls stared at each other and held their breath. The outside door in Agnethe’s parents’ room was still blocked, so they couldn’t escape that way if it came to it. Agnethe latched onto Solaug’s hand and squeezed to let her know it would be ok.
I hope.
“Solaug, please come out and come home with us.”
Solaug froze. It was her mother, and she sounded sincere as if she really did care and worry. Agnethe squeezed her hand again and stared into her eyes. However heartfelt the words sounded, she was not genuine, Agnethe was sure of that. Nausea threatened her insides once again as she was filled with a sensation of dread.
This is getting out of hand. Forcing herself to relax, she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. A waft of Solaug’s floral scented hair mingled with the chill morning air.
“She is not here and you both need to leave now. I’ll not be letting you pass,” Klaus said.
“You have no right to block me from coming into my brother’s home, in fact you should not be here. If anyone should leave it is you,” Bierka said, her voice rising to a shrill pitch. Solaug rolled her eyes at Agnethe.
“It is no longer your brother’s home. It is mine. I’ve taken Agnethe for my wife and we will live here now since it is actually her family home, not yours.”
Agnethe’s eyebrows reached her hairline, right before her eyes narrowed. Pressing her mouth into a tight line, her nostrils flared with each breath, and it was time for Solaug to squeeze her hand. Agnethe started to move, but Solaug leaned into her and covered her mouth, shaking her head to make Agnethe stay quiet.
“You have no right to take her to wife,” Trond said with a growl the girls could hear even as far away as they were.
“I have every right, and I have. So, you can leave now because I promise you that we were too busy last night to harbor your missing child.”
Agnethe growled and pushed forward. Solaug pressed harder against her mouth and had to force herself to stifle a giggle.
Bierka let out a frustrated screech, but Trond lowered his voice and said something to Klaus that the girls could not understand before they heard his heavy footsteps retreat after his mother. A couple minutes later, Klaus called out to the girls to come back to the main room.
The girls walked around the corner as Klaus was returning the barrier to block the door. When he turned toward them he had a big grin across his face and chuckled under his breath.
“You should have seen their faces. Although, you made such a racket I’m sure they knew you were both hiding just around the corner.”
“How dare you!”
“What?”
“Agnethe, calm down. I’m sure he only said those things to give a convincing story,” Solaug tried to reason.
“I don’t care, you said we were married. You had no right to say that . . . or that, other part you said. Now she will spread that story to everyone.”
Klaus took slow steps toward Agnethe, aware of the clenched fists at her sides. “Can you could give us a couple minutes alone, Solaug?”
“I’ll go to the back room,” she looked at Agnethe, “for real.” She glanced again at Klaus and grinned on her way to the other room.
“Please listen to me. I had no intention of ruining your reputation, in fact the opposite. If I had tried to explain that we were in different rooms through the night, they would not have believed me.”
“You could have made sure they did.”
“Maybe, but Trond would have spread lies against you, anyway. This way you are protected from any gossip that would taint your honor.”
“Except that I’ve married a man I met two days ago.”
Klaus lifted a corner of his mouth into a rakish grin. “Well, I’m sure that will be understood easily enough after a few more of the town girls get a look at me.”
Agnethe let her mouth drop open as she glared at him. He moved to within arm’s reach of her and looked into her eyes, continuing to smile.
“So now, you think it would be acceptable to saunter around to all the town girls?”
Klaus let out a belly laugh, “First you are afraid of your reputation, yet now you are jealous.” He put both hands on her upper arms and started to pull her into him, but she pushed against his chest and kept him back. Raising an eyebrow, he kept his grin as he stared at her.
“If you think that flaunting yourself around to all the other girls would be acceptable for a husband of mine, you are sadly mistaken.” She tried without success, to keep her mouth from twitching into a grin. Although, her hands did shake as she touched his muscular torso. I can’t believe I’m going along with this.
Klaus smiled so large that his eyes crinkled before pulling Agnethe to his chest. “I will remember that,” he said into her hair.
11
The Final Straw
Klaus stormed into the house carrying one of Agnethe’s crates, startling both girls as he did. “Where do you want this?”
“In my room. Or you can leave it there and I’ll move it,” Agnethe said, her brow creased as she watched for some clue to the obvious anger in Klaus’ stance.
Without a word, he strode off to her room and reappeared only to continue back outside and in again, hauling the trunk and all the crates by himself. The surrounding air radiated with heat and neither Agnethe nor Solaug dared to say another word while he went about his task.
“I’m going to return the cart. I’ll be back later,” he said into the air as he left the final time.
“What was that about?” Solaug asked.
“I have no idea.” Agnethe shook her head and walked over to the trunk that held some of the cooking utensils that had been her mothers. She tried not to think of how Klaus’ muscles had strained through his shirt as he carried the trunk or how his bad temper had made him feel a little dangerous, in a way that made her insides squirm. Do not let Solaug guess what you are thinking or there will be no end to her chiding.
“Why do you think he was so angry? It was like he was ready to hit something,” Solaug said. Somehow she had stepped closer to Agnethe without her realizing.
“I don’t know. Most men have a bad temper sometimes, don’t they?”
Solaug snorted. “Yes, but I thought he was different. When he’s around you, anyway.” She picked up a spoon and fiddled with it in her hands, staring as if it was far more fascinating than a well worn piece of wood. “Maybe I should go back.”
“What? You are safe here. Why would you go through all of this and then just go back?”
“That’s where Klaus was, right? It’s probably why he’s angry. My family does that to people.”
Agnethe stared at her cousin. They had all been so mean to her when she had to move in with them, yet now here was Solaug confessing to her that she understood how difficult her family could be. Had it been a way to live among them? Join the
m in their taunts so as not to be the focus of their cruelty. Agnethe sighed and couldn’t help feel a little camaraderie with the cousin she never expected to get to know so well.
“You aren’t going anywhere. Klaus was angry about something else I’m sure. Who knows what sets a man off?”
“Such an interesting conversation. Would you like me to help shed some light on it for you?” Both girls spun at the sound of Trond’s voice. He’d come in through the unlatched door without a sound.
Solaug dropped the spoon, and it clattered against the floor. Agnethe’s chest heaved as she struggled to breathe and her feet felt rooted to the ground, if she tried to run she knew she’d just trip over them. Each girl reached for the other and held their hands together, unable to do anything else except stare at the smirking man as he sauntered closer.
“I knew he was lying, what fool would marry you, Agnethe? You’re pretty enough, with those bright sorceress eyes, but why marry when you can get what you need, anyway?” Agnethe’s nostrils flared and her lip curled at him, but she couldn’t form words. “And you, little sister, are in a lot of trouble. Your husband will take care of you for this disgrace I’m sure and show you what happens in a real marriage.”
Movement behind Trond caught Agnethe’s attention and made him turn to see what made her face soften in relief.
“Would you like to die in here or out in the street?” Klaus asked between clenched teeth as he looked at Trond with a cold, hard stare.
“Bold, for a liar and a thief.”
Klaus flared his nostrils and growled with his fists tight at his side. “Outside then.” Spinning he stormed out the door, not looking back.
12
A Deal Is Struck
True to his nature, Trond slammed into Klaus from behind as he strode toward the street, knocking him face first into the mud.
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