“Ja. You know I did.”
“And so I will do the same for the jarl and his family now.”
“But you were taken away from your own God!”
“No one can take me away from my God, child.” He smiled and laid a hand on his heart. “He lives in here.”
“So you’re saying you have no vengeful feelings or spite for what the Vikings did? They killed your people and pillaged and plundered your home and lands.”
“I don’t know about the Norse gods, Kadlin, but my God teaches to be forgiving.”
“So you forgive and forget all that’s happened?”
“I could never forget what I’ve lived through or what I’ve seen and felt, but I do not harbor hate or vengeance for the Vikings or anyone, my dear.”
“Brother Francis!” came a shout.
Kadlin turned to see Brandr leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed. The monk looked over to Brandr and nodded.
“Help the women with the meal,” he said in the Norse language, then added a few words in the monk’s language which surprised Kadlin that he knew any at all. “Meal, cook . . . help women,” he said and smiled at seeing Kadlin’s surprised reaction.
“How did he know how to say that?” She looked back at the monk.
“Sometimes gestures and expressions are more of a universal language,” he told her. “Although, these past few days, Brandr has been trying his best to communicate with me.” He looked over to Brandr. “Ja . . . Dagmál,” he said in the language of her people, surprising her, as he hadn’t spoken a word of her language in the past five years. “You see, I have learned a little Norse as well.” He picked up the wooden buckets of goat’s milk and headed quickly into the longhouse.
Kadlin turned to go, but Brandr’s hand on her elbow stopped her. “Walk with me, Kadlin.” He led her to the edge of the village and toward an open field.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” He didn’t stop until they were in a large field of beautiful, sweet-smelling Forget-me-nots, all in full bloom. “This is where it all started and now I want it to end here as well.”
“What do you mean?” She turned to look at him, and his arms came around her and his lips interlocked with hers. Her eyes closed and, for a moment, she believed she was that young girl again, being kissed for the first time in a field of flowers by a boy she admired. Her heart swelled and she returned the kiss, reaching up and putting her hands on his shoulders. It felt good to be with Brandr. It felt right.
“Have you had your answer yet from the gods telling you what decision to make about us getting married?”
“Nei. I haven’t been able to even use my runes since my head is so full of confusion.”
“Nothing can change what happened in the past, Kadlin, but we can decide how we want to spend our future. Now, will you marry me or not? I need an answer.”
“Brother Francis says that his God teaches that people scorned should forgive.”
“I don’t believe our gods would feel the same way. Still, I hope you will side with the monk’s God this time. If I could go back and do it over again, I would throw my body atop yours as a human shield and take one hundred piercing arrows to my heart to protect you and show you how much you mean to me. Please, you need to believe me.”
“Your actions have spoken for you,” she told him. “You never married and that tells me that your heart is still true to the promise we made that day.”
He bent down on one knee and picked a Forget-me-not and handed it to her. “Take this flower as a symbol of not only my undying love for you, but as a promise that I will never make such a mistake again.”
“Brandr, get up. Please.”
“Not until you tell me you’ll forgive me and give me another chance to make things right between us.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say.”
“That you forgive me?” His clear blue-green eyes looked up to her in hope.
“Nei, not that I forgive you, but that there is nothing to forgive.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You made a decision and did what you had to, and I can see now that I was the one who was wrong. I never realized how much guilt you’d harbored. That must have been nearly as horrible as what I’d lived through.”
“Don’t say that. Nothing could be as bad as what you endured.” He still kneeled before her and she knew it wasn’t in his nature to take such a subservient position. Like the monk said, sometimes actions spoke louder than actual words.
“I don’t need to consult the gods to tell me what to do or what decisions to make. Not in this case. I’ve decided you didn’t really break your promise – you just prolonged it.”
“What does that mean?”
She knelt down in front of him and took his hands in hers. “It means, I’ll still honor your promise. Ja, I want to be your wife and bear your children. I want to live at your side, the wife of a jarl whose husband is fair and forgiving. I am proud to be your wife, your lover, and most of all . . . your friend.”
They embraced and fell to the ground hugging and kissing, and there in a field of Forget-me-nots two people overcame the odds life threw their way and were brought back together once again. Never would either of them forget their vows to each other, because every time the field of Forget-me-nots bloomed, their words to each other would be brought to the surface to remind them. With the simple icon of a little, blue flower, a union was forged that day that would last forever. There was nothing that could happen between them from then on that would ever break A Viking’s Promise!
The End
From the Author
This was my first Viking novella and I am very honored to have been asked to be in this collection with such wonderful authors. If you’d like to see a series develop from A Viking’s Promise involving Finn – the Berserker, and the shieldmaiden, Asa, please either let me know in an Amazon review or email me at [email protected].
Please stop by my website to see my medieval, western, paranormal, and contemporary books at elizabethrosenovels.com. You can also follow me on twitter at ElizRoseNovels or like my facebook page at Elizabeth Rose – Author (don’t forget the dash.) There are other authors by the same name, but you can always tell my books by the rose on each cover.
Elizabeth Rose
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Collection
Kingdom by the Sea
Copyright Page
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
Banished
Copyright Page
Night of Feasting
Childhood Memories
Reunion
Duty
I Have Friends
Omens
The Chosen
Fight to the Death
Honor Bound
Burial
Pledges of Allegiance
Rune-Stone
Abingdon
To Sleep and to Dream
A Cruise down the River
A Near Thing
Bunkhouse
The First Recruit
Progress
The Waterfall
Poisons
The Baths
Streona
The Hero of the Hour
Sherborne
Boiling Salt
Whales
Beached
Dartmoor
Shucks
Pixies’ Thimbles
Sins of the Fathers
Crediton
The Cottage
Epilogue
Fact or Fiction
About Anna
Viking Hearts
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
The Bride Prize
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Thank You!
About the Author
A Viking’s Promise
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
From the Author
Sirens of the Northern Seas: A Viking Romance Collection Page 40