I watched the creases on his face soften at the thought. That he could control me. That he could manipulate me into doing his bidding. The priest’s stubby hands nursed his ample circumference eyeing me greedily.
‘Did I not say that she would find her redemption here, Laird King? God has rewarded you for your faith.’
‘You did, you did Edward. God has seen fit to bless us.’ He turned to me. ‘I require the Jarl’s men. We need our borders to be defended.’
I did not need to look at Thorkell to know what my answer would be.
‘I cannot allow it.’
‘You cannot? Or will not? There is a difference, Olith.’
That was the first time I felt it, that I was no longer afraid of him. I was no longer his to command. I felt myself stand a little straighter.
‘No, Laird King you are right. I will not allow you to use our men. Those are your borders, not ours. Those are for your men to guard as you see fit. They are only raiders, they will look for food and gold and when they do not find it, they will move on. Sail to Northumbria.’
A darkness passed across his face then. I can still see it, clear as anything.
‘Makes no matter.’ He licked his wicked lips. ‘If you will not provide men, I have other means of securing peace at our borders. I still have one daughter left; she will make a good bride. I should meet with this Jarl Finnleik, I have no doubt he would appreciate your sister’s beauty.’
‘You must not think much of your daughter if you would give her to a monster like Jarl Finnleik,’ said Thorkell. ‘Do you know what he did to his last wife and son?’
‘What do you mean?’ I demanded. ‘Sigurd never told me he had a wife. He said that Finnleik decreed that his son should be killed and that he made his own brother do it.’
‘Hromund did have to kill the boy after he killed Aelfdene, Jarl Finnleik’s wife. Hromund had lain with her, there was no doubt that the boy was his. Jarl Finnleik made Hromund kill them both and then he slit Hromund’s throat.’
He carried on absently, picking at his nails with the tip of his blade. His words were soft and gentle. They did not convey the horror of what he had described. I could feel my heart pound in the base of my throat. I thought I had sacrificed myself to save my sister from their barbarism. I had taken her place here, with Sigurd, who was nothing but a good man, a kind man, for all his faults, and I had left her alone for my father to gift her to a monster.
‘This is the man you would give my sister to?’
‘I have my reservations, but as I said, I require your husband’s men. If not, I will find peace another way, it has been advantageous so far, has it not?’
I glanced at Thorkell. ‘Jarl Sigurd will not put his men to their deaths against Jarl Finnleik.’
I soon learned Jarl Finnleik was the leader of a great Danish army, an army that was feared amongst even the strongest of Danes. He held estates in the north and the south and had done much raiding in Northumbria. That did not stop me from wanting to use every last one of our men and burn him to the ground.
‘I am Jarl.’ Even as the words passed my lips, I felt their hollowness. I was Jarl in trinket only. It was my lips that fired the words, but it was Thorkell that hammered them into being. I could not disobey my husband, no matter the cost but there would be another way. ‘We cannot allow our men to be used for your disputes at your borders.’
I had watched my father my whole life. I had watched and I had learned. There was none as treacherous. I watched him strike bargains. Promise enough jewels that they would never have to work again and once he had what he wanted, cut them down and take it all back piece by piece.
‘As you wish,’ he said darkly.
It would take him a long time to travel home, even on calm seas. He would not have sailed to the northern isles just to talk of my sister and his Danish raiders. I did not doubt that his next stop would be the coasts of Northumbria to see if he could rouse King Ethelred to fight his cause. Many years later, he would march south with Owain the bold, lay a bloodied siege to Ethelred’s Durham, there were Scots heads on spikes as far as the eye could see.
While he sailed and plotted it would give me time to talk to Sigurd, to arrange to bring Donada back to Orkney, there were so many places that I could keep her hidden. He would never need to know.
‘Aye, my Laird King.’
I watched as he eyed the curve of my gown. ‘Is there any sign of my grandchild?’
I shot a glance to Ligach. It was better that he thought that I was with child than without. His greed in keeping the Jarl on a tight leash would see us safe if he thought I was carrying a Dane. She swept forward, taking a flagon and began pouring for the rest of the gathering.
‘We’ll soon find out,’ she said, making her way to the next table, near two of my father’s men. I caught the flicker of fear in her eyes, unsure of what her lies might cost her. ‘He’ll be here before the end of winter, no doubt.’
The air in the room shifted. There was not a man who was not admiring her exquisite paleness as she moved from table to table.
‘Where did you find such a rare beauty?’ said the Laird King, eyeing her greedily. ‘And a Scot, no less.’
‘Jarl Sigurd gave me employ as Lady Olith’s handmaid.’ Her lies slipped freely from her tongue. ‘The morning of your daughter’s wedding.’
