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‘I know, sweetling.’ Hrolf absently brushed the girl’s hair. ‘I did promise. This was your last big sea voyage.’
‘And you always keep your promises.’
‘That’s right.’ Hrolf’s gaze caught Sayrid’s. ‘I always keep my promises. Sayrid is your new mother. Sayrid, my daughter Inga, who is six.’
Sayrid swallowed. Turning her back on the child was an impossibility, particularly when she sounded so hopeful about having a mother. She could remember being like that and it all going wrong when she spilt a beaker of wine on her new stepmother.
‘I’m pleased to meet you, Inga Hrolfdottar.’ Sayrid crouched down. ‘I hope we can become friends.’
The little girl backed away, her eyes as wide as porridge bowls.
‘What do you say, Inga?’ Hrolf asked with underlying steel in his voice. ‘How do you properly greet your new mother?’
‘But she is an ugly giantess!’ Inga held out pleading hands to her father. ‘She can’t be my new mother. She just can’t be. She’ll eat me up like in the stories my nurse tells. My new mother is supposed to be beautiful and be able to sew a fine seam, cook brilliantly and weave pretty patterns.’
‘I’m not a giantess,’ Sayrid said between clenched teeth. Inga’s remark cut deeper than she’d have liked. She knew her limited charms and they weren’t sewing linen, weaving and cooking. If Hrolf had to have a child, why couldn’t the child have been a boy? She could have trained a boy.
‘Your face is marked!’ Inga’s screams reverberated in Sayrid’s ears. ‘Giantesses always have that sort of mark. It is in all the stories!’
‘Be quiet!’ Hrolf gave her a little shake. ‘Who put you up to this? You know how to behave! Sayrid’s face is bruised from the battle I won. I explained how I won my wife and our land.’
The little girl gave a hiccup as she hid her face in Hrolf’s knee. ‘I decided myself. Magda said it was a matter for me and the gods. Should I have decided differently?’
‘You should decide to support me.’ Hrolf knelt by his daughter. ‘Now tell Sayrid Avildottar you’re sorry.’
Inga shook her head.
‘Where is your nurse?’ Hrolf asked in an annoyed tone. ‘Why were you allowed to run out on your own?’
‘I ’scaped.’ Inga pointed towards an elderly woman who was advancing at speed.
The woman came up and started loudly apologising as she caught Inga about the waist. Her words were heavily accented, but Sayrid understood that her knees were far from good and she found it hard to run.
Hrolf’s face settled into imperious planes. ‘I know what Inga is like. She is excited to meet her new mother properly, but this is unacceptable. Keep better control of her or else.’
‘Just so.’ The woman bobbed a curtsy. ‘She longs for a mother.’
‘Excited or not, she waits until after the festivities are concluded. Hopefully by then she’ll have learnt some manners.’
Sayrid gulped hard. Excited was not the word she would have used. The poor girl looked petrified. And there was nothing she could do about her height. She hunched her shoulders.
The nurse flushed and said something unintelligible in a foreign language.
‘Inga was very rude,’ Hrolf said, drawing his brows together. ‘I will have no more tales of giants eating children. And you are to speak my language now, Magda. We are in Svear, not Rus. Take her away now!’
Magda said something sharply to Inga and the child gave a reluctant nod.
Sayrid’s instinct told her to bend down and speak to the girl in a reassuring tone, but Hrolf had given an order. Defying him in front of everyone would be a poor way to start the marriage.
The nurse led the protesting girl away.
‘I’m sorry you witnessed that,’ Hrolf said into the silence. ‘Magda obviously put Inga up to it. She thinks I have been bewitched and no good will come of this union . She is a superstitious old woman.’
‘Your daughter?’ she asked, taking a step away from him and wrapping her arms about her waist. She wished she was wearing her trousers and tunic instead of this thin gown. Her entire being seemed to be made from ice. ‘You never said you had a child.’
‘Her mother claimed I was the father. I saw no good reason to doubt her word.’ A muscle jumped in his jaw. ‘I took the responsibility.’
Sayrid firmed her lips. Hrolf was taking care of the child out of duty. And he didn’t fully believe the girl was his daughter. Despite everything, her heart panged for the little girl. She, too, knew what it was like to long for love from your father.
