“Aye, so.”
“A man, he cares for the hound. He feeds it. Gives it a home. It then protects him and his.”
“Aye?”
“I ask you to let us—us and theFreya—be your hundr.”
“Freya?”
“It is the name of our ship.”
“I—”
“The bargain I seek is, you will give us room here, a place of harbor, and we will guard you, ja?”
“Guard us.”
“Like a hundr.”
Quarrie shook his head.
“Chief Quarrie, there are other Norsemen who visit these shores, ja? Some who come in great numbers. Like I pretended to you before, only in truth. They will come. As the season ages they will, for targets will become scarce. A hundr could keep these from your door.”
“A hundr could also turn and bite us.” Was she truly suggesting what he thought?
“Not a loyal one. It would never bite the hand that feeds it.”
“Mistress Hulda, you are suggesting I afford ye a foothold here. On Scottish soil.”
“Only a small one.”
“From whence I can but assume ye will set out to attack my neighbors to the north and south.”
“You have agreements with them?”
“They are Scots. How should I bargain over their safety with a Norsewoman?”
“You must think of your own people first.”
She was right in that—he must.
“So you suggest I set a fierce guard dog at my gate that I…what? Loose at the dark of night to maraud against my neighbors?”
She sighed. “Have you heard of—what is it called—Black Pool in Ireland?”
“You meanDubh lin.”
“Dublin in your language, Ja. It started as a Norse enclave. It is now a powerful holding that dominates all eastern Ireland.”
Before he could speak, she rushed on. “I do not ask this of you. I will not take your settlement. It is assuredly yours. But it would be enough of an advantage to us, to have a home port from whence we can come and go with—with felicity, that we are willing to keep other marauders, as you call them, from your shore.”
“You could do that, could ye?”
“I can. It is a good offer.”
It was, in its way. Only his neighbors might well then turn on him, and he would have to cede Scottish land. To a Norsewoman.
“I do not know that my people would agree to such a scheme.”
