Sayrid put on what she hoped was a confident smile, but inside she knew she would blame herself for the rest of her life if anything happened to Inga.
They rounded a corner and Sayrid saw them, standing at the cliff’s edge. The wind whipped Blodvin’s hair, making her look quite wild. Inga was pale but resolute.
‘There they are. And Inga is alive. See.’
Hrolf threw his arms about her. His face showed utter relief. ‘I am in your debt for finding them. I would never have considered a bead trail.’
‘Our daughter’s doing.’
He started running towards the pair.
‘They are too close to the edge,’ Sayrid called.
Hrolf immediately checked his movement. Sayrid was right. In his haste to protect his daughter, he had nearly ruined everything. They would need to be coaxed away from danger.
‘What do you suggest?
‘Get their attention and keep it focused on you. I will go around the other way. We don’t want Blodvin getting scared and accidentally jumping off the cliff.’
Hrolf nodded, seeing the sense in Sayrid’s words. He wanted to tell Sayrid not to take the risk, but he knew there was no stopping her, just as there had been no stopping her when they had fought off Lavrans and his men earlier. His wife was fiercely loyal and protective. And she had taught him that women were much more than ornaments to be protected and admired.
‘Keep safe,’ he said as a lump came in his throat. His heart was far too full to begin. ‘You’re precious to everyone.’
She made a little disparaging gesture. ‘I plan on doing that. The same goes for you. When I get close, you distract Blodvin. Once I have Inga, we will worry about that witch.’
Without giving him time to reply, she turned her back and strode off.
He watched as she moved, marvelling once again at the economy of her movements.
‘Inga!’ Hrolf shouted when he figured that Sayrid had nearly reached the place where there was no cover. ‘Come here. Come to your father. All the bad men are gone. We want you to come home now.’
Blodvin turned towards him. Her blonde hair whipped in front of her face in snake-like tendrils. Suddenly her face transformed and became simpering.
‘Hrolf! Thank Sif and all the goddesses, you are safe. Someone has attacked the hall. Inga and I—’
‘Don’t believe her, Far! She is a troll wife!’
‘Ha! Ha! Your daughter and I are playing a little game.’ Her smile became wider, but he noticed she gripped Inga’s wrist. ‘You understand? A game to pass the time while we waited? A most enchanting child. Full of stories about ghosts, witches and trolls.’
‘It is over now, Blodvin.’ Hrolf advanced steadily.
Inga struggled against Blodvin’s grip. ‘She is lying. She is a troll wife!’
‘You see what I mean.’
‘Release my daughter, Blodvin. Lavrans is dead.’ Hrolf advanced slowly towards them. He had never killed a pregnant woman before and he had no intention of starting, but if she put Inga or Sayrid in any more danger, he refused to be held accountable for his actions.
The woman shook her head. ‘He can’t be. He is…is invincible.’
‘I killed him in a fair fight.’ He gauged the distance. ‘The game is over, Blodvin. We know what you have done. I found Regin.’
‘You know nothing.’ The woman took a step backwards towards the cliff edge. Several rocks tumbled down. Blodvin lost her balance and began to circle her arms while Inga started screaming.
‘No!’ The raw sound emerged from Sayrid’s throat. She dashed forward just as Blodvin took another step backwards off the cliff. With one flying leap she grabbed Inga’s ankle before the little girl was dragged off.
Blodvin’s and Inga’s screams rang in her ears. She fought to pull the pair up, but her muscles screamed in protest. She felt Inga’s ankle begin to slip from her grasp.
In a heartbeat Hrolf was beside her. ‘We will save you. Hang on!’
‘I’m trying, Far!’
Hrolf’s large hands closed about Inga’s legs. ‘I have you. Sayrid and I have you, Inga.’
‘Hold on, Blodvin,’ Sayrid shouted. ‘We can save you and your baby.’
The only answer was a piercing shriek, but she kept hold of Inga.
Working together, they pulled the pair back up. Sayrid was half an inch from Blodvin’s hand when the woman shook her head.
‘No, I can’t do it. I can’t live if I’ve lost everything.’ Very deliberately she let go of one of Inga’s wrists.
Sayrid leant a few extra inches. Her fingers clamped about the woman’s wrist as Blodvin dug her nails in, scratching and clawing at her. ‘You are not getting away that easily.’
Hrolf bent down and hauled the woman up. ‘Bind her arms.’
‘But…but…but…’ Blodvin spluttered. ‘I’m pregnant.’
‘That will be something Kettil will take into consideration when he decides your fate,’ Hrolf replied. He reached into his pocket, retrieved the horn and blew three blasts. ‘We will wait here for the others to arrive. You are my prisoner now. Sayrid, look after Inga.’
‘My pleasure.’
Hrolf tied Blodvin up. All pretence to gentility had vanished. Blodvin fought him until he secured her hands behind her back and tied her feet.
In very little time, several of his men appeared and took charge of the now-deranged prisoner.
‘You’re safe,’ Sayrid murmured against Inga’s hair as they set off towards the ruined hall. ‘My brave daughter, you are safe.’
The girl turned a tear-stained face towards her. ‘I was brave like you. Do you think my father will love me now like he loves you?’
It was on the tip of Sayrid’s tongue to tell her that Hrolf had no great feelings for his wife and that it had all been about the land. But she swallowed the words. The little girl needed her illusions of romance. ‘Your father loved you before. After all, he brought you to this land so that you could be near him.’
Inga’s brow knitted together. In that instant, Sayrid saw a female version of Hrolf. ‘I never thought about that.’
‘You look very like your father when you frown like that.’
Inga coloured. ‘Do I really?’
Hrolf picked his daughter up. ‘How you could ever doubt I love you, Inga, is beyond me. And Sayrid is right. You take after my late mother, a very brave woman who loved her family. I never saw that before. Remind me to tell you about her sometime.’
Sayrid noted with a pang that he said nothing about loving her, his wife. She was wrong to hope. But it was a start. He was speaking about his mother.
‘And Blodvin?’ Inga asked.
‘Going where troll wives go,’ Sayrid answered shortly. ‘She will never bother you again.’
‘Good.’
Hrolf watched his wife stand slightly apart with her ash-white hair blowing in the wind. Her dress was marked and torn. Her face was covered with a mixture of soot, dust and sweat, but she had never looked more beautiful.
This was what she was born to do. And he was wrong to think otherwise. She needed to be able to visit other lands and be the sort of woman she was meant to be.
He’d been wrong to try to change her. He’d been wrong to try to tame her.
‘Sayrid,’ he said, intending to tell her some of it.
She shook her head. ‘I know…I know…we need to get back. There is a lot to do to secure the remains of the hall.’
She started to move brusquely down the hill. Hrolf sighed.
‘You should tell Sayrid that you love her,’ Inga said, snuggling her head down on his shoulder. ‘It is the sort of thing ladies like to hear.’
* * *
Sayrid stared at the smouldering pile of wood that had been her childhood home. Tomorrow would be soon enough to start rebuilding. She dreaded to think what had been lost, but it was nothing compared to what had nearly been lost.
A bone-tired weariness swept over her. She wondered if she’d have the heart
to start again. She’d missed what must have been obvious to everyone, that her brother was a traitor. She had to wonder what else she’d missed. And how could Hrolf feel anything for her now? She had put his beloved daughter in danger. Her blind refusal even to consider the possibility of her brother’s guilt had nearly destroyed them all.
She started to move some of the wood.
‘Leave it, Sayrid,’ Hrolf said, coming to stand beside her. The setting sun turned his hair golden. ‘There will be time for that tomorrow. You look absolutely exhausted.’
‘Magda reported that she thinks my brother should survive,’ she began before he could say anything more damning. ‘She has given him a sleeping draught. I know I said earlier that it would be easier if he died, but he is my brother.’
‘It is good to know.’ His brow creased. ‘He will have to face trial with Blodvin, but I will speak in his favour.’
‘You will?’
He nodded slowly. ‘A man will do a lot for the woman he loves and his child. In the end he tried to do the right thing and he certainly did not know the extent of their plans. It is thanks in part to him that we were able to save Inga.’
Sayrid dropped the wood with a loud clunk. It amazed her that Hrolf was willing to forgive her brother even a little bit. The ache in her heart was too raw.
‘I wanted to apologize,’ she said before she lost her nerve. ‘You were right and I didn’t want to see it. I never considered my brother to be capable of such a thing.’
‘It is a measure of how much you love your brother and sister that you couldn’t. I see that now.’
Sayrid nodded.
‘Blodvin confessed everything while you were with your brother.’ He shook his head. ‘Once she started talking, she found it impossible to stop. I made sure that three of my men also heard the confession. She and Lavrans planned it all. They were going to murder you and your brother and claim the land through the baby. I underestimated her cold-bloodedness.’
‘We all did.’ A shiver ran down Sayrid’s back. She had unknowingly harboured a viper. She had come so close to death. And she was as guilty as Hrolf about underestimating people. She had assumed that because Blodvin played the pretty and helpless female that was what she was. ‘Where is she now?’
‘I have sent her under guard to Kettil. It is over, Sayrid. You will not have to suffer from that troll wife again.’
‘I see where Inga gets her colourful language.’
‘Inga is right about her. Troll wife fits.’
‘How did Blodvin know Lavrans?’
‘Her father has been in his pay for years. You were right about that.’
‘But why did he want you to marry Blodvin? Surely he knew what would happen!’
‘They had a falling-out over Blodvin as her father wanted her to be Lavrans’s wife, not his concubine. Lavrans disagreed.’ Hrolf’s face became grim. ‘From what she said, they became lovers shortly before Blodvin seduced your brother. Lavrans wanted to exact his revenge on your family in the most horrible way imaginable.’
Sayrid shook her head. The knowledge gave her no pleasure. ‘Poor Regin. He had terrible judgement when it came to falling in love.’
Hrolf stood awkwardly at her side. ‘Love will make a man do many things. It makes what I have to say awkward.’
Sayrid put a hand to her head. Her heart splintered into a thousand shards. The events of this morning should be pulling them closer together, but all she could think about was how her brother had betrayed them and how her husband had very nearly lost his daughter.
She’d once scoffed at Regin about love, but she understood now how one person could take over your life. ‘Awkward?’
He pulled her closer, preventing her from moving. ‘I’ve done you a disservice. I thought that you needed taming and that no woman could ever enjoy battles. That women needed protecting.’
‘It is what I’m good at. Far better than sewing.’ She wrapped her arms about her waist. ‘Once I thought it would be my whole life and now…I see that I allowed fear to rule me. I am capable of many things. All I had to do was to try. You gave me the courage to do that.’
‘Did I?’ His face suddenly became very hopeful. ‘Do you want something more, Sayrid?’
‘Why are you here, Hrolf?’
‘I was coming to apologize and to offer you a place on my next felag.’
‘Your next felag?’ Sayrid’s heart pounded. He was going to leave. His alliance with Kettil had been to guard against Lavrans and now that the sea king was dead, there was nothing to stop Hrolf from going back east. And she hadn’t even begun to conquer the womanly arts like they had agreed. ‘Where are you going?’
‘I was thinking about Constantinople. I believe you expressed an interest in going there.’ He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. ‘If that is where you want to go, it is as good a destination as any.’
Sayrid stared at him. Her heart pounded so rapidly that she was certain he must be able to hear it. ‘When the time is right, I would love to go to the East, but not for glory or gold. I want to honour your bodyguards and see where Inga came from.’
‘When the time is right? Sayrid, I want you as you are, not some perfection of womanhood.’
A lump came into her throat. He was offering her the chance but she looked around her and knew she couldn’t. ‘I can’t abandon everyone here, you understand. I love my home even when it is a smouldering wreck, especially when it is a smouldering wreck. I am good at organising things as well as fighting. You’ve shown me that. So you go and I will stay here, making sure this estate prospers.’
Hrolf’s face swam in front of her. She was aware that he still had her hand. She tugged, but his fingers held her tighter. ‘Hear me out, Sayrid, and then decide.’
She nodded briefly.
‘I told you a lie the other day. I told you that I could never love and I was wrong.’ He pulled her close. ‘I was wrong about many things and I’m sorry. I want you to be happy and if that means taking you off on a felag, then that is what I want. If it means staying here, rebuilding and bringing up our children, then that is what I want, but I want to be with you. Always to be with you.’
Her heart stopped in her throat. Hrolf was speaking of love. A tiny seed of hope grew within her breast. ‘You love Inga, that much is obvious.’
‘I can admit to loving Inga because one very maddening woman taught to me to love.’ He brushed her hair away from her forehead. A flame flickered in his eyes. ‘Today I died a thousand deaths because you were in danger. The reason I fought so hard was because of you. And I bitterly regret changing your life so much. You are a great warrior, Sayrid. One of the best I have ever fought alongside. And I should be proud of that. But I want a wife, a woman in my bed as well. Is that greedy of me?’
‘Which woman?’
He leant forward and nipped her nose. ‘You, but you how you are. I don’t care if you burn food or mix up threads as long as you are there for me. You make me think. I fell in love with you the instant you escaped from me and swam out to that blasted boat. You have been in my dreams ever since.’
‘You dreamt of me?’
‘I’m happy to say that the reality of you far outweighed any dream. You are the only woman I want. You are the heart of my life.’
‘I want to stay here with you. I want to rebuild this hall and make it a place of prosperity so that our children do not have to raid. And then I want to visit the far places I’ve dreamt about with you.’ Sayrid placed her head on his shoulder, marvelling at his words. Hrolf loved her, truly loved her. ‘Once, my ambition was to be a great warrior above all things, but now I want to be a wife and mother. I might be the heart of your life, but you are the one who gives me life.’
‘Just as I want to be a husband and a father before being a warrior.’ He traced the outline of her lips.
‘We can work together to create a household where all are valued.’
He brushed his lips against hers. ‘Sayrid Avildottar, will yo
u be my shield maiden forever?’
‘I would rather be your wife.’
‘You are both.’ He captured her lips and for a long time, they allowed their bodies to express their love for each other.
Epilogue
Two and a half years later
In the dim light, Sayrid sat next to the double cradle, absently rocking her sleeping babies as she listened to the dying sounds of the feast.
Earlier, the rebuilt hall had rung with applause when Inga had recited her first saga in honour of Auda’s marriage. Sayrid thought the saga owed a lot to the events surrounding her own marriage to Hrolf, but Inga swore that no one else would notice. Inga also included a bit from the journey they had taken a year ago down to Constantinople.
Sayrid was very glad that she hadn’t realized about her pregnancy until they were nearly home. Once he knew, Hrolf had worried about her all the time.
It had done her heart good to see Auda settled with a younger warrior whom she had met on the trip to Constantinople. It was clear that they loved each other very much. Hrolf, in his new role as jaarl, had settled some of the land that had once belonged to Blodvin’s father on the couple as a wedding gift.
‘I thought I’d find you here with our sons.’ Hrolf came into their private chamber, holding two goblets.
‘I wanted a bit of peace after today’s events.’ Sayrid gave a small laugh. ‘My stepmother’s decision to stay away because Auda’s chosen groom wasn’t worthy did not detract from the day one bit.’
‘It amazes me that you could forgive her.’
‘Holding bitterness in my heart helps no one.’ Sayrid shook her head. ‘I refuse to become bitter and twisted like her. Auda made such a lovely bride.’
‘The loveliest bride I have ever seen was my wife, who wore a crown of wilting flowers and a dress which revealed far more than it concealed. I wanted to slit every man’s throat who looked at you that day.’
‘You like to exaggerate.’
‘I never exaggerate where you are concerned.’ Hrolf handed her a goblet. ‘I’ve brought you some of the Frankish wine which Regin sent in honour of Auda’s marriage.’
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