Ligach had not left my side. Even the days that I had heaved until there was nothing left. The sickness would not abate, days I had eaten nothing but dry bread and milk. I had tried to give her as much freedom as I could without Halldora or the others becoming suspicious, but I did not dare let her out of my sight. Staying together with Thorkell was the only way to guarantee our safety.
This day, I sat plaiting my hair and watching a mouse skittering about the floor beneath one of the benches when the door burst open.
‘-trampled my grain stores again. I have had enough, Bodil. I want that aurochs head on my wall!’
‘Please Halldora,’ Bodil pulled ineffectively at her arm. ‘You do not need to involve anyone else. Please, have my grain…’
‘What is it?’ I stood to greet them. ‘What is it that troubles you Halldora?’
The thud of Thorkell’s boot against the stone told me that he was beside me. I did not think I would ever get used to the sight of women running their households and farming land, just as their husbands would but it did not take me long to see that the Danes knew better than the Christians on how their women should be treated.
‘The fence is down again!’ Halldora barked. ‘All my crops trampled into the ground. Nothing left. This is the second time in as many weeks.’
‘Someone left open the gate,’ said Bodil, ‘it will be one of her brothers, trying to get me into trouble.’
Halldora rounded on her. ‘Do not accuse my family, Bodil. I will not stand for it. Why would they leave the gate open for that great lolloping beast? So that it could eat the last of what we had and trample any shoots into the earth?’
‘No, but…’
‘I will consider everything you have both said.’ The beast was a menace, we all knew but after her husband had died she had struggled to run the farmstead. I thought for a moment. ‘And what would it take to make it right, Halldora?’
Over the years I watched my father make decisions just like these. I would watch from behind a pillar as he doled out his punishments, men kissing his hand pleading to his good nature. Even then I could not see that he had any. Whatever he did, he seemed to upset someone.
‘I want the beast dead. Gone. Carved up and given to my brothers, that we might be full and fat all winter,’ she said.
‘And you, Bodil. What would you have me do, to make this right?’
‘Please, he is my only bull.’ She did not blink. ‘I will pay them for the grain and will have my son repair any damage to their pens, but I cannot lose my only bull. With my husband gone, we could not afford another.’
With her compact piece of land, she would never be able to grow enough grain to be able to pay the debt. The thought gave me pause. I could not leave her and her young family without it but that would likely see Halldora and her brothers starved for the winter.
‘I am no Jarl. I cannot quote law to you as Thorkell can. If I decide that this debt is to be paid in grain, it will leave both families without–’
‘Then the auroch is it,’ Halldora said triumphantly. ‘We can eat well all winter.’
‘–if I have the auroch slain, it will see a family starve for the winter and all the summers to come with no bull to breed,’ I continued.
Halldora bristled.
‘You have a son old enough to work?’ I asked Bodil.
‘I do, Lady Olith.’
‘Then I propose that your son will work to mend the pens and clear the land that has been damaged.’
Halldora went to speak but I held up my hand to silence her.
‘I will pay you back the grain that has been lost, Halldora, from the Jarl’s stores. Bodil, you will keep your auroch and put him to breed. The firstborn bull of the herd will belong to Halldora, that will be the payment for the damage that has been caused.’
‘I am forever in your debt, Lady Olith.’ Bodil bowed. ‘I will make sure it is done.’
‘Does that please you, Halldora?’
‘It is fair,’ she said grudgingly. ‘I will take the bull.’
Both women crossed the room, calm now in each other’s company.
‘You are wiser than you look, Lady Olith,’ Thorkell said at my side.
