Sigrun's Secret (32 page)

I reminded myself how much more confident I’d become during the months in Jorvik, and touched my amulet for luck. I would find the courage I needed and I’d succeed. I was determined.

When the sun reached its highest point in the sky, Arnor led the way down to the meadow where we’d met Halfgrim before. I stopped in surprise. It had been transformed. Posts had been driven into the ground and rope tied between them, marking out a large circle.

‘What … ?’ I began.

‘It’s like a
Thing
; an assembly,’ Arnor told me enthusiastically. ‘This is how we hold the spring assemblies. We’ve even found a rock for the speakers to stand on. We thought it would be more impressive, more binding a settlement, if we make it look as formal as possible.’

I looked around me in amazement. Everyone was laying aside their weapons as they entered the circle, leaving them with friends or slaves who formed an outer circle at a distance. The clouds parted for a moment allowing the sun to gleam on the mountain tops, its bright light spilling over them, reaching out towards us, turning the sky blue and filling the landscape with richer, deeper colours. I felt a moment of awe. It was as though the whole of the world, gods and all, were smiling on what Arnor had organized.

The men around me fell quiet, but not because they were silenced by the natural beauty around us: Halfgrim was riding up the hill. He got down from his horse at the edge of the circle, glaring around suspiciously. He looked pale and unsteady, but his colour was better than the last time I’d seen him.

‘What’s this?’ he demanded, his voice weak but angry. ‘Am I on trial for some crime?’

Arnor stepped forward. ‘No one is on trial,’ he said. ‘This is an assembly formed to settle a dispute. You have the right to choose representatives, as does Sigrun. If you agree, they will hear what you have to say and take a decision which you will both abide by.’

Halfgrim let go of his horse and took an angry step forward towards the edge of the circle. Two men stopped him.

‘Your weapons, please, before you enter,’ they said.

‘Curse you!’ shouted Halfgrim. ‘I’m not giving you my sword!’

‘My sword,’ I muttered angrily under my breath, seeing it was Foe Biter he wore at his waist.

Halfgrim fell back and bent double, panting after his outburst. Several men stepped up to him, speaking quietly so that I couldn’t hear what was said. It took time, but to my relief, they convinced him to hand over the sword and enter the circle.

The sunshine was warm now, making the ground steam, and many of us cast off our cloaks. I sat down on mine, and others did the same. I had real hope, looking around me, that we could achieve something.

I chose Arnor and one other neighbour called Thorbjorn as my representatives. Halfgrim also picked two. I wasn’t sure if these were neighbours he knew or not; he didn’t seem to be acquainted with many of the men present. Arnor and Thorbjorn took me aside to discuss the terms I was proposing.

‘I’ve brought payment that I’m willing to make in recompense for the goods my parents stole,’ I said.

‘And what will you ask in return?’ asked Arnor. ‘The killing of your father was unlawful, whatever Halfgrim says. He’d agreed to accept exile.’

‘Apart from wanting my father’s sword back, I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘That’s my unresolved point. It needs to be something Asgrim will consider satisfies his honour.’

‘You could do with some kind of surety,’ Thorbjorn suggested. ‘Something that will prevent Halfgrim from attacking you again.’

‘That’s exactly what I think,’ said Arnor enthusiastically. ‘And I think I’ve come up with just the thing. We should suggest that your family foster Halfgrim’s son. That way he won’t be brought up to hate you.’

‘His little boy?’ I asked, rather shocked at the thought of tearing him away from his home and his father at such a tender age. However loathsome
I
found Halfgrim, I was sure little Bjorn loved him. ‘But he can’t be more than five winters.’

‘It’s a very usual arrangement,’ said Thorbjorn at once. ‘Even without a dispute to settle, boys are often fostered. Your family give him his education and in return, once he’s older, he works for you. Halfgrim is spared the expense of raising him.’

I looked from one to the other of them, remembering Ulf, our neighbour’s child whom my own parents had fostered when his father couldn’t raise him alone. But his father had lived just across the bay and had visited frequently.

‘The child looked rather neglected from what I saw,’ added Arnor. ‘It would be a highly suitable arrangement.’

‘Is it likely to satisfy my brother?’ I asked dubiously.

‘I’ll do my best to get him to see the sense of it,’ Arnor assured me. ‘The child will be a type of hostage after all. A guarantee of Halfgrim’s intention to honour the settlement. He can hardly burn your house down with the lad inside, can he?’

‘Very well,’ I said slowly. ‘I certainly see the benefits. I just hope he won’t be too unhappy.’

‘He’ll soon adjust,’ Thorbjorn assured me.

Arnor opened the meeting and spoke first. Standing on the low rock, he talked of our new country finding its feet, becoming a land of fairness and justice, without kings or taxes, a country where the people chose the laws and decided how to live together in peace. It was stirring, and made me feel proud to be part of the young nation emerging on this wild, beautiful island. Then he turned to me.

‘Sigrun Bjornsdottir has come to me because she wants to find a way to live in peace with her countryman Halfgrim Bjornsson, despite a troubled past. As she’s bringing this action, I’m inviting her to speak first. Sigrun Bjornsdottir, do you swear by Odin the all-seeing to speak only the truth?’

I felt my mouth go dry and my hands go cold, as my fear of speaking before people returned. I got up, aware I was shaking. I stumbled as I tried to step up onto the rock. Could I speak coherently to all these people?

Waves of nauseous panic rose in me. I put my hand to the amulet and thought of Ingvar and of my mother. I was doing this for them. So that there would be a future for Ingvar and me. So that our children need not grow up fearing vengeance.

Feeling calmer, I looked out at all the upturned faces and began to speak.

‘I swear,’ I said. Then I took a deep breath. ‘Between my family and Halfgrim’s,’ I said, my voice shaking a little, ‘there’s been a history of wrongs stretching back twenty years and more. His father persecuted and stole from my mother’s family, and took my mother forcibly from them when she was just my age. Halfgrim’s father, Bjorn Svanson, killed my aunt, and in retribution, my father killed Svanson and stole his ships and possessions.’

I hoped I’d pieced the history together correctly from the snippets my father had told me. But of the next part of the story, I had no doubts: ‘Halfgrim attempted to burn our house down last summer. This spring, he killed my father even though he’d agreed to go into exile.’ I looked at Halfgrim as I spoke. I was trying to be fair. But I couldn’t help the sadness that welled up in me as I remembered, nor the anger that burned in my veins.

I paused, and looked around at my audience, my courage growing. ‘But the time has come to put this behind us,’ I said. ‘I want to make a settlement we can both live with. One that doesn’t disadvantage either family or harm their sense of honour.’

I stumbled over the last word, knowing it meant something different to all the men present than it did to me.

‘In recompense for my father’s theft, I offer two chests of valuable treasure. They would make Halfgrim a man of wealth and standing. In compensation for my father’s death,’ I said, ‘I demand the return of the four horses Halfgrim stole from our farm last summer, and of my father’s sword which came to him from my mother’s father, and which he gave to me. Furthermore, I ask … ’

My voice failed as I tried to mention Halfgrim’s son. I didn’t know how to put a demand that was likely to make him furious. I looked pleadingly to Arnor, my tongue suddenly glued to the roof of my mouth, my whole body trembling with the strain of saying so much. Arnor must have recognized the desperation in my face, because he got up and came to stand beside me.

‘As Sigrun’s representative, I propose a further measure to recompense her family for the loss of her father and to ensure lasting peace between the families,’ he said clearly. I envied him his confident manner and his strong, carrying voice. ‘I suggest that Halfgrim gives his son to be fostered by Sigrun’s family.’

A buzz of talk rose around me and then faded again as everyone waited for Arnor to go on. ‘Little Bjorn would grow up with his new family, forming a bond of love and duty that would ensure this feud doesn’t continue into the next generation,’ Arnor said.

Halfgrim jumped to his feet. ‘He’s my only son, you she-dog,’ he shouted at me. ‘This is your idea!’ I could feel his rage as well as hear it.

‘You’ll have a chance to speak in a moment,’ said Arnor sternly, frowning at Halfgrim.

‘Bjorn was my only father,’ I said quietly, mastering my impulse to shout back, to vent some of my rage and grief. ‘You took his life brutally and against the agreement you’d made. I, on the other hand, intend to care for your son.’

Arnor helped me step down from the rock. I was trembling but relieved. I’d done what I could; it was out of my hands now.

Halfgrim got onto the rock. I could feel his anger had faded and a look of cunning had come into his face.

‘My father never stole from her family,’ he said. ‘He was a wealthy man and her mother was merely a slave. But she and the impostor murdered him and stole everything my father owned, leaving me practically penniless. The penalty for a slave that kills his master is death. The only recompense she can offer is the farm, and everything in it, slaves included. That’s my birthright.

‘I refuse to hand over my son. She’d teach him to hate me. But I accept in principle that we should tie the families to avoid future bloodshed. It seems fitting that Sigrun and I should wed. Then she doesn’t lose her home when I claim it.’

I caught my breath with shock and horror. This appalling proposal took me utterly by surprise.

‘I also want to know what guarantees you can give me that your brother will abide by any settlement we make here,’ Halfgrim concluded. He stood down looking pale and exhausted but pleased with himself. He got off the rock and sat down heavily between his representatives, passing a shaking hand over his face. He was struggling to keep going with his wound barely healed and the poison of it still running in his blood.

I felt sick and my stomach was tying itself in knots. Marriage to Halfgrim? It was enough to make me abandon this whole plan. If that was the way the decision went, I would be begging my brother and Ingvar to kill him.

At this point, our representatives and another group of men chosen to adjudicate the settlement stayed in the circle whilst the rest of us withdrew. I paced restlessly, some distance from the fire in our camp, wringing my hands in distress. This turn of events had shaken me badly and I was now in mortal fear of the outcome. I’d come here with the hope of settling the dispute, of securing Ingvar’s safety, not of sacrificing myself to the brute who’d killed my father. The mere thought of marriage to him was repulsive and abhorrent. But Halfgrim was cleverer than I’d expected. They were unlikely to award him the farm, but they might well think his suggestion of marriage was a good way to unite the families. And I’d agreed to abide by their decision.

It was late afternoon when one of Arnor’s men came with a summons to the assembly. I walked down with him, trembling and afraid. Halfgrim arrived from the other direction, and joined us. I averted my eyes from the face I hated.

‘We have a few questions to ask you both on points we think need clarifying,’ said one of the men, a tall, fair-haired neighbour, who seemed to have taken charge for the time being. ‘I’ve been appointed the speaker. Sigrun, is it true, to your knowledge, that your mother was Svanson’s slave?’

I shook my head. ‘Absolutely not. My mother has often spoken of her childhood. Her father was a wealthy and respected man, but was later persecuted by the local chieftain: Halfgrim’s father. Father told me she was taken forcibly from her family because he needed a healer in his settlement. He was ill-treating her and that’s what provoked my father to kill him. That and the fact that he’d murdered his sister earlier that day, even though she was with child.’

There was a gasp of outrage from several of the men, and even Halfgrim looked taken aback. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said at once, but was hushed by the speaker.

‘Are you currently betrothed or promised to anyone?’ he asked me.

I hesitated. What could I say? I’d sworn by Odin to tell the truth, and I could not honestly say that I was.

‘I was, but broke it off when I found my … he’d committed himself to avenge my father,’ I said, blushing deeply. ‘If only this dispute can be resolved, we would … ’ I broke off in embarrassment, hoping they understood my tangled speech.

‘Do we take it then, that you don’t favour the suggestion of marrying Halfgrim?’ asked the speaker.

I hesitated, wanting to find the right balance between making the strength of my feelings clear without antagonizing anyone.

‘I don’t want to marry the man who murdered my father,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t be a proper wife to him.’

‘Do you hate him?’

I glanced across to Halfgrim who was clearly enjoying watching me squirm.

‘When I think of my father, I do,’ I said, a note of bitterness creeping into my voice.

‘In that case, how can we be sure you can be trusted with his son?’ asked the speaker.

‘I can answer that,’ said Arnor from his place in the circle. ‘If I may?’

The speaker nodded and Arnor stood up.

‘I’m witness to the fact that when we arrived here, Halfgrim was very sick of a festering wound. Despite her dislike of him, Sigrun nursed him. If she hadn’t done so, he might be dying by now.’

There was a murmur of approval, and Halfgrim scowled fiercely. Arnor’s words had made me look noble and forgiving, and I was only glad they couldn’t see into my heart to the angry, resentful feelings I had.