The Road To Jerusalem Read Free

expected, he stopped short to give her a searching glance, looking for the smile she always wore when she was teasing him in her own special way. But he soon realized that she was completely serious, and then anger overcame him with such force that he probably would have struck her for the first time if they hadn’t been standing in the midst of kinsmen and enemies and all the common folk.

    “Have you lost your wits, woman? If you hadn’t inherited Varnhem you’d still be withering away in the convent. It was only because of Varnhem that we were married at all.”

    He managed to control himself and speak in a low voice, but with his teeth firmly clenched.

    “Yes, all that is true, my dear husband,” she replied with her eyes lowered chastely. “If I hadn’t inherited Varnhem, your parents would have chosen another wife for you. I would have been a nun by now in that case. But Eskil and the new life I’m carrying under my heart would not have existed without Varnhem.”

    Magnus did not reply. Just then Sot approached them with Eskil, who ran to his mother at once and took her hand, chattering excitedly about everything he had seen inside the cathedral.

    Magnus lifted his son in his arms and stroked his hair lovingly as he regarded his lawful wife with something other than affection. But then he put the boy down and barked at Sot to take Eskil with her to watch the players; they would join her again soon. Sot took the boy by the hand and led him off whining and protesting.

    “But as you also know, my dear husband,” Sigrid resumed quickly, “I wanted Varnhem to be my bridal morning gift, and I had that gift deeded to me under seal, along with little more than the cloak on my back and some gold for my adornment.”

    “Yes, that is also true,” replied Magnus sullenly. “But even so, Varnhem is one-third of our common property, a third that you have now taken from Eskil. What I can’t understand is why you would do something like this, even though it is within your right.”

    “Let’s stroll over toward the players and not stand here looking as if we might be quarreling with each other, and I’ll explain everything.” She offered him her arm.

    Magnus looked around self-consciously, forced a smile, and took her by the arm.

    “All right,” she said hesitantly. “Let’s begin with earthly matters, which seem to be filling your head the most right now. I will take all the livestock and thralls with me up to Arnas, of course. Varnhem does have better buildings, but Arnas is something we can rebuild from the ground up, especially now that we’ll have so many more hands to put to work. This way we’ll have a better place to live, particularly in the wintertime. More livestock means more barrels of salted meat and more hides that we can send to Lodose by boat. You want so much to trade with Lodose, and we can easily do so from Arnas in both summer and winter, but it would be difficult from Varnhem.”

    Leaning forward, he walked silently by her side, but she could see that he had calmed down and was starting to listen with interest. She knew that they wouldn’t have to argue now. She saw everything as clearly before her as if she had spent a long time planning it all out, although the whole idea was less than an hour old.

    More leather hides and barrels of salted meat for Lodose meant more silver, and more silver meant they could buy more seed. More seed meant that more thralls could earn their freedom by breaking new ground, borrowing seed, and paying them back twofold in rye that could be sent to Lodose and exchanged for more silver. And then they could repair the fortifications that Magnus was always worrying about, since Arnas was difficult to defend, especially in the frost of winter. By gathering all their forces at Arnas instead of dividing their efforts between two places, they would soon grow richer and own even more land with all the newly broken ground. They would have a warmer, safer