Page 66 of Lord of Fire and Ice

Katla recognized the vibrant blue of one of her dresses peeping from the top of a rucksack. Someone had taken her key, gotten into her trunk, and packed clothes for the voyage without her knowledge.

“I’m taking you home,” Brandr said as if that ended the matter.

“This is our home.”

“No, it’s not,” Brandr said. “It’ll always be your place. And no matter how long I bide here, I’ll always be Brandr the Thrall when folk think I’m out of earshot.”

She started to protest, but he silenced her with a piercing look.

“You know it to be true,” he said quietly.

Inga padded softly up and handed Brandr the basket of food he’d requested.

“Ask Inga,” he said. “She’ll tell you it’s so. Even once the iron collar’s gone, there’s a shadow about our necks no amount of scrubbing can clean.”

“I would travel with you as your servant, mistress.” Inga cast a darting glance in Katla’s direction then averted her gaze to the rough wood of the wharf. Her submissive demeanor spoke volumes. She felt the weight of her past keenly.

There were times when Katla had struggled with jealousy, but now she felt nothing but pity for her late husband’s bed slave.

Surely things would be different for a man. Brandr was well liked. She’d seen it herself. With time, her people would come to accept him as master here.

“Perhaps when we return, Inga, we’ll take you on the next trip. We won’t be gone long,” Brandr said. “Three or four weeks—five at most.”

Brandr strapped an oilskin over the cargo to protect it from the elements.

“Finn and your other brothers have agreed to wait till I can collect your bride price from my share of the bounty my friends and I brought back from Byzantium. We’ll return to Tysnes Isle before the weather turns and can stay for a bit, if you like,” he said. “Then we’ll sail back to Jondal to winter in my brother’s hall.”

Katla’s jaw gaped. “But it’s my duty to care for the people here. I can’t leave them.”

He climbed out of the boat and walked toward her. “I didn’t think I could be a thrall either, but a person can get used to anything. You might be surprised what your people can do on their own. Besides, your brother will see to the folk of this holding, won’t you, Finn?”

“Ja, of course I will.” Her brother drew himself up to his full, lanky height.

“Oh, Finn, you can’t even see to yourself, much less run a farmstead.”

Even though Finn wilted a bit as she said it, she stood by her assessment. He’d shown his quality of late, but she couldn’t trust him to carry on without her. Katla turned back to her husband.

If this was the first battle of wills between them, she was determined to win it.

“Brandr, I understand you feel you have to leave. My bride price has been agreed upon, and you must honor your debts,” she said primly. “I wish you safe travels, and will see you when you return.”

“Our honeymoon isn’t near done,” Brandr reminded her.

A month of loving and feasting and sipping the special bridal ale and mead was usual for the newly married. It wasn’t her fault they wouldn’t be enjoying their time together.

“It’ll be an odd honeymoon with you gone, but I’ll manage,” she said stiffly.

One corner of his mouth turned up. “And you think that ends the matter.”

“There’s no other way to see it.”

He shook his head and sighed. Then he grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder so her head hung down behind his back and her bottom smiled at the sky.

“What about now, wife?” he asked. “Do you see things differently from that angle?”

“Brandr, put me down!” She tried to squirm away, but he held her fast.

“Stop wiggling, or you’ll feel my hand on your backside,” he warned.