The Viking Read Free Page A

pleased too.”
    “Aye, he deserved to die for what he did to her.”
    “What did he do to her?”
    “Whatever he wanted. A lass who be forced has few choices. She, and the child if one be conceived, will starve if she dinnae marry the first lad who will have her, even if she knows him to be unkind. For a lad, pleasuring himself takes but a few minutes. For the lass he forces, the misery dinnae end until the day she dies.” Again he kept quiet for a time hoping his son was old enough to grasp the true meaning. “Now I will have yer pledge never to force a lass. Do ye give it?”
    He waited for Stefan ’s nod and then continued. “As to yer mother, I held her to the ground, made her promise not to hurt me again and let her up. It was then I saw how beautiful she was and I believe it was then she began to love me.”
    “Because ye did not force her?”
    “Aye, she said as much later. There was little time, so I picked her up and carried her toward the ship. When she realized what I was doing, she folded her arms and glared at me. ‘I’ll not go without me sister,’ she said. I only meant to take her away from the fighting and talk her into going with me. But she told me which was her sister and then hid behind the rocks until I returned.”
    At first Stefan was astonished, but then he began to smile. “Ye took them both and for this my aunt hates ye.”
    “She does indeed. Sheena said she was pledged to marry a deceitful lad and if I wanted her, I had to spare her sister a dreadful marriage.”
    “But my aunt dinnae see that?”
    “Nay, she believed she was in love. Even now that she loves her husband very well, she still thinks I robbed her o’ the life she was to have. Her betrothed was a laird and she would have been his mistress.”
    “His miserable mistress.”
    “True. A lad must learn to know what be best for those he cares about. He must be stronger and wiser even when everyone else disagrees.” Donar studied the worried look on his son ’s face for a moment, found a more comfortable sleeping position and closed his eye. “Fret not, I will teach ye.”
    *
    Stefan did not keep count but believed crossing the sea took more than a month. His days were spent sailing, watching for sea monsters, learning to row in sync when the wind was slack, eating and sometimes slipping over the side to bathe in the ocean. He learned to read the stars and to discern the placement of the sun by watching the shadow cast beneath a round disk affixed to the top of an iron peg in the deck. His chores included taking a flask of water from man to man quenching their unrelenting thirst and seeing that not a drop was wasted. His was also to open the water barrels to catch the rain during storms.
    In times of lull when the wind was lax and the men tired of rowing, they delighted in telling Stefan stories about the years of Viking conquests in places as far away as North Africa and the Middle East. They described fierce battles, the weapons used against them and how they managed to stay alive. Yet they all agreed the plight of the Vikings was becoming more dangerous and less rewarding, which was why they now preferred d estinations closer to home.
    Invariably, the discussion turned to a debate between the men who preferred a plump lass to a thin one, and then to the abilities and attributes of all women, half of which Stefan was not at all certain he believed. Occasionally, he looked to his father to see the truth of it and welcomed his slight nod or the shake of his head.
    After that, the men struck a more somber note as they remembered the fallen and told of carving their names in the Snoleved Stones back home so eternity would remember them.
    It all sounded glorious and Stefan was mesmerized. But when he and his father spoke Gaelic, Donar was careful to tell his son the truth about war, death and dying in great detail so he would not find it quite so enchanting. “A lad must know what be worth dying for and what be not.