Loki's Daughters (34 page)

"It is truly a wonderful gift, Ronan," she said. "I am sorry I ruined it for you."

Slowly a smile spread from the small crinkling at the corners of his mouth. She did not resist him when he wrapped his arms around her, giving her an affectionate hug.

"Nay, you did not ruin it. I'm glad you like it." Then he snuggled his lips in close to her ear. "-Wife," he whispered, and took a nibble at her earlobe.

She didn't resist that either. But she felt a crimson blush rise in her cheeks when she saw the raised eyebrows on everyone but Liam.

And Liam just grinned.

***

"Smells like burnt feathers," said Mildread, her nostrils flaring.

Birgit giggled. Arienh narrowed her eyes at her sister, hoping her frown would be enough to earn her silence. But Elli and Selma giggled too. So then, the story was out.

Arienh stirred the fire in her hearth, seeking a bit more warmth
 
for the gathered women on this chilly night. And it was better than giving credence to their jokes.

The Vikings would be drinking their mead and telling their wild tales. The children were all safely out of earshot and bedded down in Selma's cottage, with her older cousin watching them. Old Ferris was no problem since he probably wouldn’t be coming back, and Arienh had seen that Father Hewil was kept busy by sending him off to try to cajole Ferris out of his pout
 
This was women's business, after all.

Anticipation hung in the air as heavy as smoke. Arienh rose to her feet. "Well, what did you learn, Mildread?"

"That they are not so big after all."

"You didn't."

Mildread laughed. "Nay, I tease you, Arienh. I have not tried Olav out, even though I think he would fit just fine. But that could be more because he doesn't trust me. I am having to work on that."

"But did you ask him about the other things?"

"Aye. It is true, they do foster fatherless boys, if they have good possibilities. He says sometimes a man feels he has more claim on a nephew than the mother does. He told me that story you already know about Ronan."

Silence hung thickly in the small cottage.

"And he thinks Egil plans to take Liam, eventually."

"But they don't always do it," Birgit said hopefully.

"Well, I suppose not. Apparently a man must be willing. They take it very seriously. Like Selma took her cousins."

"But what about Grandfather and Birgit?" Elli asked, her brow furrowed like the newly plowed fields. "Are they safe?"

"Well, I could not tell, exactly. He said he knows it is done. I didn't understand exactly, but it sounded like it was something an old man might choose to do when he felt his time had come. But I have been thinking, Elli. We have hidden the truth about Birgit, but we cannot hide Old Ferris's age, and they have not done anything to him."

"But maybe it is only something they do when times are hard," Arienh countered. That was not enough surety for her.

"Aye," said Elli. "Maybe they will not do anything until they are sure they have us where they want us. Then it will be too late for us to object. I do not think they will be patient with us much longer, anyway."

"We have to know," Selma said in a very quiet voice.

Arienh nodded. Selma also loved Old Ferris, for all his bilious nature, for he was her father's uncle, and had taken her in when she was very young and had lost her parents, then her two little cousins as well, until Selma had grown old enough to provide for them, herself. And Selma was cousin to Arienh and Birgit on her mother's side. Young as she was, Selma had suffered as much as any of them from the raiders. Yet she had the softest heart.

"Your Olav is much too serious, Mildread," Selma proclaimed. "I do not trust him."

"Nay, it is because he is so serious that I think he may be trusted," Mildread countered. "He may not believe as we do, but he is very strong in what he does believe. I think he is an honest man. And a hard worker."

"Swings an axe well," Selma agreed with a grin, batting her thick lashes. "With his jerkin off, too, Mildread?"

"That has nothing to do with it. Even if he does have a fine back."

A chuckle rippled through the clutch of women.

"Mildread would like a hard worker," said one.

"She deserves one, for a change," said another.

Mildread shook her head. "But that is not the point. It is his honesty that counts here."

"Nay, what we need is more information to compare," Selma said, flouncing her long curls. "I will see what I can learn from Tanni. He is very friendly, not so suspicious or serious. And not quite so big."

Arienh didn't like the way the discussion was going. She had never thought Mildread would show interest in the Vikings. Certainly not Selma. Yet she could see why. These big men were purely masculine, and as attractive as any Celt she had ever seen. And no man could work harder than they. But surely they all remembered the pain the Vikings had brought to them, and would not look at their kind with anything but disdain.

Of course. The way she looked at Ronan. Lascivious disdain, that was it.

"Selma, be careful," Arienh said, frowning. "You are not as old as the rest of us, and you could be easily misled. That Tanni is a charming one."

"Aye, he is, isn't he?" Selma's eyes sparkled.

An excited cooing sound spread through the women.

"You wouldn't be thinking of trying him out?"

"Well, someone is going to have to do it. That's the other thing we have to know, if they're too big for us. And we have already seen they are pretty big."

To Arienh's consternation, no one seemed to be disagreeing.

"Tanni is a smaller man than most of the others," Elli said.

"So, what kind of test would that be?"
 
Mildread asked.

"He isn't small in that way," Selma protested. "I looked."

Mildread folded her arms, then stroked a finger across her chin, the way a man would do. "Well, it should not be a virgin who tries them. A virgin might not know the difference between that and the usual pain of the first time. It would not be a good test."

Arienh struggled to keep her calm and her silence. She could tell them. And then she could end up married.

Of course. That was it.

"You don't realize the risk," she said. "If you lie with them, they could claim you as wives. You would be stuck. And that would only encourage the others. And the closer you let them get, the more likely Birgit will be exposed."

"Well, that is true," said Mildread. "We will have to be very careful. After all, we don't want to marry them."

So Mildread had already made up her mind. And probably Selma had, too. Arienh doubted she could change that. But she could use them to bolster the claim she had made to Ronan
 
Ah, good idea. "You could tell them it isn't a marriage without a public vow at the church steps. It isn't that different from the way we did things before the church burned."

"True," Mildread agreed. "But not everybody did that."

"Well, we don't have to tell them that." Now, that would take the sting out of Ronan's threat.

But Mildread shook her head again. "No, Arienh, it simply isn't true. It would be a marriage, and we all know it. Unless one of the two was already married, or if it was a rape. And it would not be rape. Or, if we made it clear before the act that we were not consenting to marriage."

"Aye, that's true, Arienh," Birgit agreed. "The act itself has always been considered consummation of marriage. Even Father Hewil would agree to that, Vikings or not."

"I think the entire thing is too risky. But if you are so determined, you'd best make it clear, or be prepared to be married to one of them." She felt her jaw tighten. It was a good thing she hadn't told them.

But what was going to prevent Ronan from telling? Why hadn't he already?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The last of the thatch was being tied onto the slanting roof of the weaving gallery. Arienh glanced sideways at Ronan as he surveyed his accomplishment. It was sturdy and square. He truly was the fine carpenter Egil had claimed.

Birgit's new loom stood waiting for its stringers and heddles, a marvel of fine, delicately drilled holes and smoothly polished wood. The pile of retted nettles grew daily, waiting to be stripped, spun, and woven. Birgit's impatience was barely controlled, and growing difficult for others to bear. Yet for Arienh it was as wonderful as Liam's ill-contained energy. Birgit was suddenly young, like she had been so long ago.

And the way she secretly looked at Egil, thinking Arienh did not see. Arienh smiled and said nothing, wishing Birgit could have a love that could grow and become wonderful.

Was there some way Egil could be persuaded to accept Birgit as his bride, even knowing how helpless she would become? Arienh tried to imagine Birgit with a new babe. She knew the love the child would receive. But would she be able to care for an infant? Possibly now, but not if things got any worse. When Liam was born, they had not realized that Birgit's sight was already fading. But by the time the boy was toddling, his mother had to keep him very close, lest she not be able to see him.

Even as a very young child, Liam had to learn to accommodate his mother. Sometimes he rebelled. He was far too curious for his own good, so the risk of trouble always lurked. That was why Arienh took him with her whenever she could, and why Egil was so good for the boy.

Would Birgit's sight continue to fade, or had it gotten as bad as it would get? Who could tell? How could a blind woman be a wife? Life was too hard as it was.

This morning, Arienh had watched Liam go off with Egil, with his eyes focused in adoration on the big Viking. And there was no doubt of Egil's delight in the boy. How old did a Viking child have to be, before he was taken from his mother?

Arienh felt a prickling sensation on her neck and knew its reason even as she turned. Ronan. While she had not been looking, he had come up behind her, standing close enough to touch. She felt the heat of his body close, too close. His smoldering gaze roamed over her, seemed to speak in silence of the ways he wanted to touch her. Or perhaps that was only what she wished him to be thinking, the way she wished to be touched.

Did it matter? Since she could not let it happen? If he called her wife in anything more than a whisper in her ear, he would gain the power to decide what happened to Birgit.

She could not have him.

"Come and see." His sensual voice and breath tingled against her cheek.

She nodded, afraid to speak aloud, lest any word she uttered betray her. With Birgit, she stepped out from beneath the gallery into the sunshine, back far enough to survey it thoroughly.

A scream lashed through the air, from the stream.

Liam!

"Liam!" screeched Birgit. She dropped her spindle and ran.

Arienh's heart lurched as she bolted after Birgit, Ronan beside her. From the clutch of birches along the bank, Egil burst forth at a run, carrying the writhing child.

"Mama!"

"Give him to me," Birgit screamed, her arms begging for her child.