The Viking Read Free

laddie.”
    “If ye are, the fault be mine for not having helped ye become a lad.”
    Stefan quickly glanced at the exhausted men laying between the benches and taking up every inch of available space on the deck. Only four of them were still sitting upright with their eyes held out watching for other ships and the dreaded sea monsters.
    “ ‘Tis that my aunt will not speak o’ her and I dinnae even know my mother’s name.”
    “Ah, well yer aunt loved her sister very much and ‘tis painful to speak o’ her. ‘Twas painful for me too, but I dinnae mean to neglect telling ye about yer mother. Her name was Sheena and she asked me to give ye this.” He tossed one side of his cloak over his shoulder, found the thin strap around his neck and pulled a pouch out from inside his tunic. All the men wore small pouches to carry a scrap of clean cloth, coins, flint, tender and a small piece of “c” shaped metal with which to strike the flint. But Donar’s pouch was larger and from it, he withdrew a gold medallion.
    Stefan ’s eyes grew wide. “Never have I seen such a treasure.” He leaned forward so his father could slip the long leather string over his head and then lifted the medallion with his hand to study its beauty.
    “Scotland has many great treasures. This was a gift to yer mother from her father.” He watched the boy admire the medallion for a while longer and then decided he might as well tell him all of it. “Yer mother made me promise not to let ye go to sea.”
    Stefan was stunned, “Why?”
    “Because she loved me.”
    “I dinnae understand.”
    “Then I will explain it. She was the most beautiful lass I have ever seen. Ye have her eyes, I think, and her shade o ’ yellow hair. Sometimes, particularly when something dinnae please ye, ye look exactly like I remember her when she was riled.” Donar paused to take a breath. “I love her still and there be not a day goes by I dinnae think o’ her.”
    “Ye were not there when she died.”
    Donar winced at the pain his son’s words brought. “I stayed away too long and yer mother was already in the ground by the time I came back, she and the bairn with her. ‘Twas a daughter or so the seer said. Yer aunt swore she would never forgive me for that as well as the other, but she did agree to keep ye until ye were grown. Ye were treated well?”
    “Aye, very well. What other?”
    Donar smiled at the memory, took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “It was a glorious battle, the best I have ever seen. The Scots put up a fierce fight and we might have lost had we not been better trained. Out o’ the corner o’ my eye, I saw a lass running from the village. I feared she would bring other forces against us, so I chased after her.”
    “Was it my mother?”
    “It was.”
    “She was Scottish?”
    “To the bone. Did yer aunt not teach ye Gaelic?”
    “Aye,” Stefan answered with a smile. “‘Tis not so different from our language.”
    “I too had a Scottish mother and we will practice it now. The lads dinnae speak it and this way we will have privacy.” He pulled up his sleeve, showed a scar and then pulled his cloak back around him for warmth. “When I laid hand on Sheena, she bit my arm hard and drew blood. I let go and she nearly escaped, but I grabbed her again and pulled her to the ground. She thought I meant to force her.”
    “Did ye?”
    Again Donar smiled. “My mother made me take a pledge not to and I have honored that pledge. Mother dinnae say, but as I grew up not looking at all like the man I called father, I believe she was forced.” He paused, giving his son a little time to absorb the revelation. “The lad I called father was unkind, so when I was o ’ age I killed him and took to the sea.”
    “Did yer mother scorn ye for killing him?”
    Donar nodded. “At first, but when I brought back gold and silver from England, I was quickly forgiven and in the end, she confessed she was grateful I killed him.”
    “Then I am