“YES.”
“Well, what are you being punished for exactly?”
“You know what.” Finn threw his head back and laughed. “It’s not funny!” she insisted. “Every one of these babies has come about when they shouldn’t and they’ve all been boys.”
“No, certainly not.”
“In truth! We concived little Roe when I was supposed to be tending to Dalla’s birth, Geir came about in Grim’s bed, and Erick was during the vote for Jarl. We’d barely finished when thirty people burst into the kitchens to tell us that you’d won again. And this one—“
“In Helga’s kitchen.”
“EXACTLY! Right by that giant window where anyone could have walked by.”
“Hmm.”
“We have terrible timing. And the gods have cursed me with four unruly men.”
“That’s interesting. Maybe we should call him Fengi.”
“DO NOT BE ABSURD.”
He smiled at her. “I like our lack of control. It’s interesting that two of our four children have been made in kitchens. Do you think there’s anything to that?”
“FINN, I SWEAR—“ Disa bit off her sentence as the pain cut across her once again.
“Ok, now, ok,” he said soothingly as if she were some sort of horse. If Disa could have spoken she would have fit him with a curse or two but she had to settle for a glare instead.
“Well, punishment or no, I believe this might be just you and me,” he confirmed as he glanced at the empty doorway and nudged her knees further apart. “There have been half a dozen guests darkening our hallways all week waiting for this very moment and now they’re nowhere to be found.”
Disa laughed, the sound turning into a cry of pain as she got ready to push.
She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t nervous. She didn’t really think the gods were punishing her. In fact, she was quite sure they’d blessed her beyond all reason and was hoping very much they wouldn’t notice any time soon.
Disa locked eyes with the man she loved. “Just you and me,” he said. “Ready?”
Disa smiled through the pain. They were together. Everything would be alright. Everything was already alright.
“Ready.”
The end.
But it can’t be over yet! I have too many questions! What happened while Disa and Finn were stranded on that rock? Where has Grim been? Did those southern brothers get what they deserve, the bastards?!
Never fear, dear Reader! See the story from a different view in the second Viking Blood book coming Spring 2018!
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Blood and Loyalty Page 26