Sigrun's Secret (23 page)

We stared at one another, eyes locked, a silent struggle taking place. I knew Thorvald had felt some remorse or discomfort for my sake yesterday when he took Leif from us. I’d seen it in his hesitation and his apology to me, and the amulet had helped me sense it. He owed me a debt and he knew it.

‘You’re a cursed troublesome healer-wench,’ exclaimed Thorvald at last. ‘If you get me into trouble with my father, I’ll kill you myself. Wait here.’

Thorvald slammed out of the room. I clasped my hands together to stop them shaking. After only a few moments, Thorvald came back, a bunch of keys at his waist. ‘I’ll take you to see him once only,’ he said. ‘But on two conditions. You tell no one of the visit and you never speak to my father of my connection with that Saxon girl.’

‘If you were telling the truth, I’ll never need to,’ I said.

‘I suppose that’ll do. Let’s go,’ he said and strode out of the room. I followed him closely, out of the back of the house, down the length of a narrow street and around the corner. There was the lock-up, guarded by two men standing just inside the door; swords hung at their waists.

‘The king’s business,’ said Thorvald curtly, and led me into the prison.

The place was dirty, cold, and vermin-infested. I was appalled at the thought of Leif here. Thorvald unlocked a heavy wooden door and nodded for me to step inside. I stepped into a tiny, dark room, with only a small hole high up in the wall to let a little light in.

‘Sigrun!’ cried Leif as soon as he saw me. He came towards me, arms held out, and swept me into a hug.

‘Touching,’ remarked Thorvald sardonically. ‘You have a short time to talk, and I shall have to lock you in here.’

I agreed and he went out, securing the heavy door behind him.

‘I’m so glad to see you, I can’t tell you,’ said Leif. ‘Is everything sorted out? Have they found Leola?’ He released me and looked at me eagerly. I shook my head.

‘I’m sorry, Leif. They haven’t. I persuaded Thorvald to let me see you so I could discover what you know.’

‘I? I know nothing. I already told the king. I saw Leola that afternoon, was thrown out of the house and didn’t go back. I can’t imagine where she could be. I’m so worried about her.’

I took Leif’s hands and drew him to the bed which was the only place to sit down in the room. ‘That’s the honest truth? It’s very, very important you tell me everything you know,’ I said earnestly. ‘It’s the only way I can help you.’

‘I wouldn’t lie to you,’ Leif promised me earnestly. ‘I meant what I said yesterday. I love you like a sister.’

‘I’m so relieved,’ I said. ‘I was so afraid that perhaps in a desperate moment you may have persuaded Leola to run away with you. It didn’t seem likely, but I couldn’t be certain.’

‘Does the king believe me though?’ asked Leif eagerly. ‘Will he let me go?’

I shook my head sadly. ‘I’m very sorry,’ I said. ‘The king has gone away. You’re locked in here until he gets back. I mean to search for Leola, but I need you to tell me all the people she knows, because I don’t know where to start.’

Leif was bitterly disappointed. He got up and paced the cell restlessly. ‘I’m to be shut away until some time in the future when the king gets back?’ he demanded angrily. ‘Where’s he gone? It’s the middle of the winter! It’s not the time for travelling or war.’

‘I don’t know; no one’s told me,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry. I keep saying that, but I am. I feel so helpless.’

Leif resumed his pacing, clenching and unclenching his fists. ‘We’re very short of time,’ I told him apologetically. ‘Thorvald will be back any minute.’

‘Leola knows everyone!’ exclaimed Leif impatiently. ‘Every young man of good family in Jorvik is in love with her, and more besides.’

‘Is there anyone specific?’ I asked.

Leif frowned. ‘Thorvald himself is one of her favourites,’ he said. ‘Perhaps it’s him, and that’s why he’s been so keen to lock me up.’

‘I thought so too,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think he knows where she is.’

Leif threw up his arms in despair. ‘I just don’t know,’ he said. ‘I have no idea. I thought Leola favoured me.’

‘I’m afraid that looks unlikely,’ I said as gently as I could.

The key rattled in the lock behind us, the door opened and Thorvald stood there.

‘That’s all the time I can allow you,’ he said firmly. ‘You must leave now.’

I hugged Leif tightly in farewell. ‘I’ll do everything I can,’ I promised him. I felt dreadful leaving him in this desolate place. But Thorvald was already ushering me out, hurrying me from the building.

‘He knows nothing,’ I told Thorvald. ‘Is it really necessary to keep him imprisoned here?’

‘Until we know where Leola is, he stays here,’ replied Thorvald. ‘Anyway, if I let him out, Eadred would kill him.’

That was a frightening thought. And quite possibly true. Poor Leif. He’d drawn such consequences on himself and all he’d done was fall in love unwisely.

‘You’re keeping him in such squalor,’ I complained as we reached the outer door. ‘It’s freezing cold, he has no covers and the place is filthy. Does he even get fed here? He could die waiting for justice.’

‘I’ve done enough for you, healer,’ said Thorvald abruptly. ‘If you want to send him food or furs you’ll have to bribe the guards like everyone else.’ So saying, he left me outside the door of the prison-house and strode away.

‘Where in Thor’s name have you been, Sigrun?’ my father cried when I got home. ‘We’ve been looking for you! Thrang and Erik are still out trying to get word of you. I was worried sick.’

Maria stood beside him looking reproachfully at me.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘It took much longer than I expected.’

‘You’ve been gone for hours, and without Maria! Promise you won’t go out alone again. Or at least without leaving word where you’ve gone.’

‘I promise, father. But it was important.’

‘It’s not safe for you to wander the city alone, going into people’s houses as you do. It’s bad enough worrying you’re going to catch some infectious disease from all those poor people you tend. There are all sorts of dangers in a city like this, Sigrun, that you have no idea about. It’s not like at home where the greatest danger is the weather.’

‘I said I’m sorry, father,’ I said, trying to stem his flood of angry words. ‘I do understand the dangers. I was quite safe today.’

‘How can anyone be safe when a girl has disappeared from her own home? I can’t stop thinking about it. You’re all I have left here, Sigrun.’

My father pulled me into a hug, holding me close. Then he held me at arm’s length to look at me. ‘How you’ve grown up,’ he said. ‘When did that happen?’

I smiled slightly, and felt myself blush. I touched my father’s cheek lightly with one finger. ‘I’m the same person I’ve always been,’ I said. ‘Just, as you said, a little older.’

At that moment Thrang returned. After his exclamations of relief were over, we all sat down by the fire. I gathered my courage to tell them where I’d really been.

‘I have news of Leif,’ I said. They all looked up at once.

‘What news?’ asked Thrang urgently.

‘You’ve seen him?’ asked my father astonished. ‘How?’

‘Thorvald let me in to see him. He’s cold and hungry, but unhurt. We need to get him some warmer clothes and some food. But most importantly, he swears to me he knows absolutely nothing of Leola.’

There were questions, exclamations, more reproaches for putting myself in danger. Thrang wanted to go immediately to see his son too, but I had to tell him that any further visits had been absolutely forbidden.

‘I knew he was innocent,’ said Thrang. ‘I knew the stories of him and that girl were invented.’

‘Eadred isn’t lying about what he saw,’ I said. ‘Leif admits that, and it’s what makes him look guilty. But he didn’t see her again, and had nothing to do with her disappearance.’

‘Who took her then if it wasn’t my son?’ asked Thrang.

* * *

The talk went on most of the day on and off. Who could be behind Leola’s strange disappearance? We discussed every possibility, including that Leola could have run away alone. When father and Thrang had gone out on business, I turned to Maria.

‘You probably know as many of Leola’s secrets as anyone. Can you think where she could be?’

Maria looked at me helplessly. ‘I think and think,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know.’

‘Who are her particular friends? Does she have any favourite admirers?’

Maria threw up her hands. ‘Friends? Not really. Admirers? Half the city. The men half.’

I bit my lip. ‘Yes, that’s what Leif said. But it makes it very hard to trace her. Was there no one she favoured above the others?’

‘All of them,’ said Maria. ‘She make all men think they are favourite.’

I thought back to the feast at Eadred’s house and I knew what Maria meant. This was going to be even more difficult than I’d imagined.

The winter became colder, but there was no change in Leif’s situation. I asked in every household I visited if anyone had any clue to Leola’s whereabouts, but no one did. It was as though she’d vanished from the city altogether.

Snow fell and turned black and slushy in the busy streets. I walked with Maria through the wet and the dirt each day, to take food to Leif. We had no word from him, but the guards assured me he was well. I didn’t trust them and wondered how much of the good food they ate themselves.

‘If only the king would return,’ I said to Maria on the way home one overcast, windy afternoon. ‘He might decide Leif is innocent.’

‘Or maybe punish him,’ said Maria, and I shivered inside my heavy cloak. She was right, but it was a possibility none of us wanted to face.

‘How is it possible for her to be so well hidden?’ I said. ‘It’s been weeks now.’

‘Perhaps Leola murdered,’ said Maria. ‘By jealous woman. And buried somewhere.’

We’d talked about this many times. We knew Leola’s disappearance might never be solved, and Leif might perish unjustly. ‘If anyone killed her though, it was her uncle, in a fit of rage,’ I said. ‘And he’s just pretending to be distressed.’

‘Possible,’ agreed Maria.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ I sighed. ‘There’s no guilt in him. Only anguish. I don’t think he’s pretending.’

‘How you know that?’ asked Maria.

‘I feel people’s moods,’ I admitted. I thought of the amulet still hidden inside my kirtle. I’d never told Maria what it meant to me or how powerful I believed it to be. It was my secret.

‘All healers do that?’ she asked curiously.

‘I don’t know,’ I said truthfully. ‘My mother reads auras.’

Maria looked puzzled so I explained: ‘Everyone has a cloud of colours around them, especially around the head. They change all the time with moods and thoughts and health. My mother can see them and read them. She tried to teach me, but I’m no good at it.’

The thought of my mother made me feel homesick. I wondered how she was. If I’d made a good job of setting her leg, she’d be walking normally again by now. How I wished I could see her just once, to be assured she was well.

We reached home, and pulled the front door open, trying not to look at Unn who was using the latrine at the front of the house. I still hadn’t accustomed myself to the outdoor latrines in Jorvik, where the user was clearly visible to all passers by above a waist-high woven fence. I tried to visit it myself mainly in the hours of darkness.

We poured ourselves a drink of whey and warmed a little porridge and sat down.

‘It comes down again to who was missing from the Yule feast that night,’ I said as we ate.

‘No one missing except Leif,’ said Maria. ‘We ask Bjorn and Thrang many times.’

‘I know,’ I sighed. ‘We keep going over the same ground. But the alternative is to give up, and I won’t do that.’

Father and Erik came down the stairs and joined us. ‘This is taking its toll on Thrang,’ said father, hearing what we were talking about. ‘He’s looking years older.’

‘And no one but us is trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her,’ I said, bitterly.

‘That, Sigrun, as we’ve said before, is because everyone is sure it’s already solved,’ said my father. ‘As far as the king and Eadred are concerned, Leif has spirited Leola away, and the only thing keeping him alive is their hope he may say where she is.’

There was a knock on the door, and Unn struggled down the stairs to say I was needed to deliver a baby on the other side of the city. I hurriedly gathered the medicines I might need, while Maria fetched the cloaks we had only just taken off.

‘I’ll be out when you get back,’ said my father. ‘I’m invited to tell stories at a feast again tonight, and Erik’s coming with me. I’ll listen out for any gossip about Leola as always.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I said. ‘We’re both city people now, working for our living, aren’t we?’ I felt a mixture of pride and sadness at the thought. We were both successful at what we did but this wasn’t the life I’d choose to lead.

‘Indeed,’ said my father. ‘I’d never have expected to see you so sought after. You always seemed so timid and reluctant about your trade at home. Your mother told me she feared you lacked confidence and perhaps even talent.’