‘And the urgency?’ Sayrid tapped her foot on the ground and struggled to hold on to her temper. ‘Why the next tide? Do I have to prise everything out of you? I can understand tactics, Hrolf. Better than most.’
He stopped and seemed to grow into the formidable sea king who commanded a fleet of long ships. Sayrid stood her ground.
‘I am trying to protect you, Sayrid,’ he said finally, his gaze softening. ‘I can do that better if we are at my hall. I want to assess its strengths and weaknesses. If someone isn’t there to prevent it, that harbour becomes the back door to this whole area. Lavrans wants a jaarldom at least.’
‘Or potentially a trap to lure you out of the harbour. When the ships go around the headland, they will be exposed until they reach the bay.’
‘In a sea fight, my men will win. I’ve beaten Lavrans before.’
‘If there is a battle, I expect to fight.’
His hands rose as if he wanted to shake her, but he checked the movement. Instead he gave a placating smile. ‘The women in my family are shielded so they don’t have to lift a sword.’
‘That has changed.’
‘Why?’
‘I’ve a tendency to fight first and ask questions after.’
He burst out in a loud laugh, breaking the tension which had sprung up between them. His lips lightly brushed her forehead. ‘I’m anxious to continue our lessons. When we are at the hall, there’ll be no interruptions, Sayrid. Far better for us. Think about that.’
Sayrid frowned as a warm tremor radiated out from his touch. ‘I was being serious.’
He put his arm about her shoulders and pulled her close. ‘We sail on the tide. We will begin our marriage properly on our lands.’
She stared up into his piercing blue gaze. A warm glow infused her being. She shook her head to clear it. His new lands were her home, the one she shared with her brother and sister. ‘You need the secret to getting into the harbour.’
‘And if I attempt it without a guide?’
‘You would be dashed against the rocks.’
He raised a brow. ‘Thus far I’ve avoided them.’
‘There is always a first time.’ Sayrid tilted her head to one side. She had to make sure that Auda was freed. ‘I will tell you the secret to getting into the harbour if you allow Auda to travel with us.’
‘You believe you can bargain?’
‘Yes.’ She tilted her chin upwards and met his gaze. ‘The well-being of my family comes first.’
‘Your sister will be safe with Kettil and his wife until we know the threat from Lavrans is gone.’ Hrolf began to stride away. ‘Bargaining with me won’t work, Sayrid. You will tell me because you will want to save your life.’
‘I can swim. Can you?’
He stared at her for a long while. ‘We shall have to see who blinks first, but you will be coming with me and you will reveal all your secrets.’
The tunic rubbed across her scars. Not all her secrets if she wanted him to desire her.
Chapter Nine
The afternoon sun sparkled on the water and a small crowd gathered at the harbour to see them off. Auda stood next to the jaarl’s wife and watched with large reproachful eyes. Sayrid’s heart sank. She hated failing either of her siblings. When Sayrid caught Auda’s eye, Auda gave a brave wave, but it made things worse somehow.
‘You will soon return home. I promise,’ Sayrid mouthed.
Auda nodded as if she understood and linked arms with the jaarl’s wife.
Kettil came over to the pair and put his arm about his wife. She said something up to him and he looked down at her with love and devotion. Something within Sayrid melted.
For once in her life she wanted Hrolf to look at her like that. She wanted to matter to her husband.
Annoyed at her thoughts, she adopted her fiercest face and put her shoulder against the boat, preparing to help push it out to the sea.
‘What are you doing, Sayrid?’ Hrolf thundered.
She braced her feet more firmly against the sandy shore. ‘Helping to launch the boat.’
Strong hands lifted her up and carried her forward, before dumping her unceremoniously into the ship. The entire crew erupted into laughter.
She swiftly rose to her feet and glared at Hrolf. ‘There was no call to do that!’
A smile played on his lips, but his eyes were deadly serious. ‘My women do not do heavy work.’
‘I’m your wife, not your woman.’
The laughter in the boat instantly died.
Hrolf leapt over the side and retook his place by the oar. He gave a maddening smile. ‘All the more reason why you should be honoured instead of being made to work like a thrall.’
Sayrid squared her shoulders. ‘Where should I sit, then? Do you expect me to row?’
‘Where you like, but do not hinder the oarsmen,’ Hrolf called from where he sat beside the steering oar. ‘The tide favours us.’
Sayrid counted sixteen oarsmen and no other warriors. It was larger than the ship she normally used, but very well maintained and designed for skimming across the water. The oarsmen were placed in such a fashion that they would get maximum thrust from the oars. Sayrid had learnt to her cost on her second voyage that it mattered a great deal where the oarsmen were positioned.
Despite her determination not to be overawed, she couldn’t help but be impressed. She could tell from the way it was built that it would glide over the water, unlike the sluggish pace her own ship used.
Inga and her nurse obviously had been assigned places near to where Hrolf manned the steering oar. Sayrid hesitated until the nurse gestured that she must sit with them.
‘My father can walk the oars while the men are rowing,’ Inga said, tilting her chin upwards. ‘Can you do that?’
‘I’ve never tried,’ Sayrid said. ‘My father used to boast of it, but it never made sense to my mind. What practical purpose does it serve?’
The girl shuffled over to make room on the bench. ‘Well, he can do it. He has very good balance. And it is ever so exciting to see. It means that the men can all row together or so Far says.’
‘I hadn’t thought about that,’ Sayrid admitted.
Inga gave a pleased smile. ‘Basic seamanship, or so my father says.’
‘Walking the oars is not what is required now, Inga,’ Hrolf called out from where he sat. ‘Stop trying to make me seem better than I am. Allow Sayrid to judge my seamanship herself. She is an expert sailor.’
‘Inga is rightfully proud of her father. Allow her to boast,’ Sayrid called back. ‘I used to think the same of my father when I was her age. And I can tell from the lines of the ship that the journey will take next to no time.’
Inga squeezed Sayrid’s hand. ‘I’m sorry I thought you were a giantess. You’re far too friendly to be a frost giant in disguise. They’re always cross. I should have remembered that. Maybe you’re another sort of giantess, the friendly sort. And if I’m very lucky you will give me some magic potion and I’ll grow big and strong like you. Then my father will have to notice me.’
Sayrid’s heart did a little flip. She could well remember that feeling. In the end the only way her father had noticed her was when she challenged him with the point of a sword. There had to be a better way for Inga. ‘What changed your mind?’
The little girl shrugged. ‘You didn’t get angry with me about the trick I played with the threads and sewing. A frost giantess would have turned me to ice.’
She gave a little pretend shiver.
‘But it wasn’t a very pleasant trick, particularly as I’m not very good at sewing.’
Inga’s big eyes became solemn. ‘I can teach you. Sewing is easy if you concentrate hard.’
‘I’d like that.’
‘Are we going to your house? Will I become big and strong like you? Will I be able to wear clothes like that?’
Sayrid blinked. Delicate Inga wanted to wear trousers like a man? ‘Why would you want to?’
Inga glanced toward
s where Hrolf sat, making the final preparations. ‘I want Far to be proud of me. He gave you his clothes and he has never done anything like that for me. Or any other lady.’
‘I suspect it is because other women wear gowns.’ The words hurt far more than she thought they would.
‘Will you tell me the secret of the magical harbour?’ Inga gave Sayrid’s hand another squeeze. ‘I overheard Magda’s nephews talking.’ She gestured towards where Hrolf’s bodyguards sat. ‘You cast a spell and the ships drown. You won’t do that to us, will you?’
Sayrid knew in that instant what an empty threat it had been. She couldn’t put Inga’s life in jeopardy.
Sayrid opened her mouth to explain that it wasn’t magic but sunken boats, but there was something akin to hope in Inga’s eyes. Little girls should believe in such things, she decided. There was plenty of time for Inga to learn about the real world when she was older. ‘When the time comes, I will see you safely through.’
The little girl nodded gravely.
‘When he was a little boy, his father had a hall, but he lost it because when his wife died, he lost interest in everything,’ Inga said after a short silence. ‘My father had to fight, fight, fight and he gained more gold than anyone, but he has never allowed any woman to be close to him. You are the first woman he’s married. Is it because you don’t act like a woman?’
‘No idea.’ Sayrid forced her voice to sound light. She hated that even now her heart was busy dreaming dreams about Hrolf and what could never be. ‘You will have to ask him.’
‘We have to be quiet now,’ Inga whispered when Hrolf gave her a dark look. ‘Far needs to tell the oarsmen a story.’
Hrolf began to recite one of the sagas, putting an emphasis on the last word in each line. Each time he did, the men pulled their oars in unison. The method might be unorthodox but he appeared to have timed the strokes just right, taking full advantage of the turn in the tide to add extra speed.
Once they had cleared the harbour wall, he gave a nod and the oarsmen fell into a steady rhythm.
The spray as they left the harbour hit Sayrid in the face. She had forgotten how good it felt to be on the sea. Her clumsiness always seemed to vanish once she was out on the water. It just seemed strange to be sitting and doing nothing. For as long as she could remember, she had taken the steering oar, guiding the ship and calling out the time.
‘I like it when we go fast,’ Inga exclaimed, spluttering as another wave hit. ‘Magda doesn’t understand. We have to outrun the sea monsters. And the women on a boat have to sit still or they get in the way. Far’s orders.’
‘Funny, I’ve always found it difficult to obey such orders.’ Sayrid crossed her arms. Hrolf might be an excellent navigator, but he was going to need her help to get through the blockade. She only hoped that he would listen. ‘Does he allow anyone else to steer?’
‘Never.’ Inga gave a quick shake of her head. ‘The boat only obeys him. It is how the magic works.’
* * *
Hrolf carefully steered the boat around the rocks of the headland, keeping the boat close enough to the shore to follow the contours, but far enough away not to run the risk of ending up on the rocks. The departure had gone smoothly. Kettil had made a good show of it and anyone who was watching would not suspect his real intentions of securing the headland so it could not be used against them.
The wind was strong, but not overly so. They would make Ironfist’s hall before the sun fell.
His new life had begun, the one he’d sworn he’d have on his first battlefield, when he was covered with mud and gore, and one that he swore anew to have at the end of each voyage and battle. He had regained all that his father had lost and more. And he was not about to make the same mistakes his father had. Not with ships and certainly not with women.
He adjusted the line of the boat. The pull he felt towards Sayrid would go once he had properly bedded her. It always did. He knew where the boundaries lay. He had followed his uncle’s advice and made something of his life. Falling prey to the same folly as his father was not going to happen. Except Sayrid kept making him wish the boundaries were not as clear-cut.
He glanced towards where Inga and Sayrid sat. Inga had fallen asleep with her golden curls splayed out on Sayrid’s lap. Sayrid’s face wore a slightly panicked expression as she struggled to keep the little girl comfortable. When she thought no one was looking, she stroked Inga’s head in a maternal way.
His groin tightened just looking at her and the way the sea breeze blew her hair from her face revealing the curve of her neck.
‘Soon,’ he whispered. ‘Soon.’
‘Hrolf!’ Sayrid called out, shifting Inga on to Magda’s lap and standing up. ‘There is something on the starboard. Fast approaching.’
Hrolf quickly glanced towards where Sayrid pointed. A small movement against the blue sea, but all of his muscles tightened. He silently cursed his own inattention. He should have noticed it before Sayrid.
‘Could be nothing. The wind playing on the waves.’ Silently he prayed he was correct. Even Lavrans would not take the risk this far from a friendly harbour.
‘It is moving far too purposefully.’
Hrolf shielded his eyes. Every sinew of his body strained. They were too far from the harbour to make it back and outrunning a fully armed boat would be difficult, but not impossible. Perhaps he should have heeded Kettil’s advice and waited for Lavrans to make his move. But it was far too late for regrets. He would protect everyone on board ship.
A white spout of water caused his neck muscles to ease. His daughter was not going to be in the heat of battle. ‘We have nothing to fear from a pod of whales. They are busy about their business.’
A tiny frown developed between Sayrid’s brows. ‘Whales? Really? At this time of year?’
He watched the magnificent creatures move before steering the boat closer towards the group. ‘Whales can appear at any time.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ Sayrid grabbed his arm.
‘To show you what they look like. Surely you don’t consider them to be sea monsters like Magda?’ He gave a half smile. ‘I know how close I can go. I consider them to be part of my luck, a good omen. I have fought some of my best battles after seeing whales.’
‘I know what whales look like. Occasionally a body washes up after a storm.’ Her face took on a wistful expression, banishing the hardened-warrior face she often wore and giving him a glimpse of the woman she should have been. ‘Once there was even one who was alive. My father said we shouldn’t try to save it, but I had to.’
‘What happened?’ he asked softly, willing her to say more.
‘I kept it wet and waited for the high tide, praying to any god who might be listening. It seemed such a shame to allow a magnificent creature to die without a fight.’ Her eyes blazed defiance. ‘It did go. My father said it was a waste as we could have used the whale for many things. And that the whale would just die out at sea and be good for no one.’
‘But you did it anyway.’
The story told him a great deal about Sayrid’s relationship with her father. He wished that he could have known the brave girl who dared defy one of the most fearsome warriors in Svear before she had developed her armour of indifference to femininity. He would unleash her from that armour, he silently promised. This morning her guard had been down and she had nearly yielded.
‘I like to think it is out there swimming free,’ she admitted with a shrug. ‘I was younger then. I would probably be more inclined to my father’s way of thinking these days.’
‘Perhaps this pod has your whale.’
Her tongue flicked over her lips, turning them a kissable red. ‘We still need to avoid them. One wave of the tail and this boat could be swamped.’
‘I reckon I know what I’m doing.’ Hrolf steered the boat closer. Concentrating on the boat and the whales would allow him time to control his reaction to her. His body ached with the need of her. He struggled to remember when a woman had
last had this effect on him. He needed to bed her soon and get her out of his mind so he could concentrate on more important matters, like defeating Lavrans.
‘Then I should get back to where Magda and Inga are.’
He captured her wrist and tugged. ‘Stay. They are both sleeping. Magda would only panic about sea monsters. She is not a very good passenger and Inga often gets seasick. I’ve learnt to let them sleep.’
‘Spoken with an experienced voice.’
‘I’ve travelled a few times on the sea.’ He stared at her, willing her to believe in him. ‘Trust me with my boat. I won’t put anyone in danger.’
She sank down beside him. Together they watched the progress of the whales. One surfaced near them and another went under the boat, but Hrolf gave quiet commands to his men who instantly obeyed them.
There was a final spout of water before the animals dived deep and disappeared. The entire boat sat in total silence with resting oars as the sunlight played on the water.
‘Yes, I do believe you know how to handle a boat,’ she said, breaking the almost reverent silence. ‘The whales will bring luck.’
‘High praise indeed.’ Hrolf gave a command and his men began to row in earnest. ‘The whales are a good omen. Are you willing to admit that?’
‘I’d forgotten how magnificent they could be,’ Sayrid admitted with a half shrug. ‘If I had been in charge of the steering oar, we wouldn’t have seen that and it is something I will remember for a long time.’
Hrolf put his hand over hers. It trembled. ‘The entrance to the fabled harbour is coming shortly. Kettil explained the landmarks so I wouldn’t get lost. Will you share its secret, even though I was unable to bring your sister with us?’
‘The entrance is blockaded.’ She spoke to the oar. ‘Even Kettil doesn’t know the pathway through. I changed it before I left for the Assembly.’
Hrolf went completely still. She had confirmed what he suspected. ‘I can pick my way through. It is why the boat rides high in the water. I’ve made my way through narrow passages before. I can post a man on the prow as a lookout.’
‘There are only three people who know how to make it through—Regin, Auda and me. We have sworn never to utter the directions out loud or write them down.’
Taming His Viking Woman Page 13