Bjorn, Tyra, and Erik stood outside the door of Strian and Gressa’s home, glaring at the crowd that dared to follow the wounded woman as her husband carried her.
“I see my own people have joined in watching,” Erik snarled. “You shame me to see you take pleasure in watching a woman attacked by three men. Not a one of you came to her rescue when we all heard her screams. Not a one of you offered her aid. You disgust me.”
Erik crossed his arms as he glared at a crowd comprising tribe members who lived on the homestead and those who fought for Rangvald, having traveled with Erik and Rangvald to Ivar’s village.
“We feel the same shame as we look at our own people. We warned you that Gressa was under the protection of those who lead Ivar’s forces. You swore fealty to your jarl which means you are to obey those who represent him. Ivar has said more than once in the great hall that we welcome Gressa back into his family as the daughter he and Lena thought they lost just as they had so many of their own blood children. I have never seen such enmity towards one of our own.” Bjorn stood with his hands on his hips as he scowled.
“Before anyone is foolish enough to argue Gressa is not one of us because of who her mother was, remember her father captured her mother just as Gressa was after the enemy wounded while she fought our battle. Gressa was raised among us, remained with us and marry one of us. She fought alongside us as soon as she could raid. She nearly died defending our home, our people, and our safety. She has chosen us over and over, yet you still question her loyalty and her right to live among us. You are nothing but fools who would rather gather like a gaggle of hens clucking and spreading rumors. You are a disappointment to the honor we have pledged to live by.” Tyra spat at the feet of the group of onlookers.
Lena, Sigrid, and Rangvald’s wife Lorna pushed through. While Lena and Sigrid ducked into the longhouse, Lorna remained outside. She scanned the crowd, her upper lip curling.
“Those of you who are my people know how I came to live among you. You arrived in Scotland to slaughter my clan. I watched as you killed my mother, my father, and my last brother. But yet, I trusted Rangvald when he offered me a new life among you when I had nothing left to keep me in Scotland. I, too, was an outsider you ignored and spoke out against, but your jarl chose me as his bride and has remained faithful to me since that day. You have accepted me as your frú, seen me fight alongside you, and trust me. Yet I stand here now, seeing my people complicit in hatred of a young woman who has more right to the Trondelag home than I do. You are a disgrace to our clan, and you offend me as someone who was once an outsider. Gressa grew up on this homestead. She is a Norse woman just as any standing here. I will be judge and executioner to any of my people who dare stand against her again. I suggest you make yourselves scarce before I seek you out, one by one.”
Lorna’s tone brooked no disagreement, and the crowd thinned as those who belonged to Rangvald and Lorna’s tribe rushed away. Lorna now turned her scorn on Ivar’s people who were foolish enough not to escape while Lorna’s people hurried away.
“From what I understand, you blame Gressa for being Sami. Did she choose that any more than you did to be Norse or me a Highlander? Did a one of you choose your parents? I know I did not choose mine. The stories I’ve heard tell of a woman who grew up beloved by her adopted family. A woman who trained hard to earn her title of shield maiden and fought valiantly as she defended your honor and avenged the loss of your people, who included her husband’s mother. I’ve met a woman who would protect her husband, a man twice her size, before giving up. What more can you ask of her? She has bled for you time and again, but that doesn’t satisfy you. You would rather hold on to a hatred that makes no sense to feel superior. A smart tribe would have welcomed her home, celebrated her courage and a strong will to survive, and would appreciate the knowledge of an enemy who refuses to be defeated. There is much Gressa can teach us both on and off the battlefield. You are not the people Rangvald and I thought we allied with.” Lorna passed one last disgusted look over the crowd before slipping into the longhouse.
“Lena?” Strian whispered as he looked at his wife whose eyes had remained closed since he lifted her into his arms.
“She’ll be well soon enough. She’s drained from the fight. Her mind needs time to rest after the fear and the need to survive. Give her time. The cut to her throat is not so deep, and it will heal with the help of the salve I’ll leave with you.”
Strian looked doubtful but nodded his head.
“Strian,” Sigrid’s soft voice called for his attention. “She will defeat these suspicions, but you will try to stop the only way she has. You have the power to change that fate that I saw, but you must trust her to know what she’s doing.”
Strian nodded. He believed every vision Sigrid had since she shared the conversation she had with his dead father while she spirit walked. She had told him things that no one but his father could have known, and she had never met him while he lived. Strian wanted to ask her about further into the future, but he did not dare without divulging a secret Gressa had fought so hard to keep.
“You’llallreturn home.” Strian heard the stress Sigrid put on the word “all.” He glanced up to see her gentle smile before her slight nod. He stood and kicked off his boots before walking to his side of the bed. He laid down on top of the covers but as close to his wife as he dared.
“Thank you. All of you. Thank you for caring for my wife.”
“We didn’t just care for her. We care about her,” Lena stroked hair away from Gressa’s cheek just as a mother would. “Ivar and I may not have been blessed with many children who survived their birth, but Gressa is as much my daughter as Leif and Freya. She is the daughter of my heart. I have tried to let her find her way since she returned. I have tried to honor your right, as her husband, to protect her. But my failure to show our people that she is my daughter, one I grieved over losing just as I did each babe I lost or died in my arms, has allowed people to believe she can be a target. That ends now. She cannot remain a captive here, a bodyguard with her at all times, nor can she live here with a rightful fear of being attacked. I end this now.”
Lena leaned over and kissed Gressa’s forehead. “Get well, my little flower. I’ve missed you too much to let you go again.”
The women left Strian to care for his wife. He draped his arm over her waist as he kissed her temple. Gressa shifted closer in her sleep, seeking the warmth and safety he provided. While Gressa slept, Strian’s mind would not cease replaying the scene he had come upon. He could not suppress the memory of two men pinning Gressa to the ground as one tried to violate her. He was proud of Gressa for the fight she put up, but his head pounded with a deafening cadence as he remonstrated himself for letting her come to harm. His arm tightened around Gressa as he laid his head on his pillow.
“Stop thinking about it,” Gressa’s murmured. “It was no one’s fault but those men, and they got the death they deserved.”
“I have failed you over and over, Gressa. I have not been a worthy husband.”
Gressa’s eyes snapped open as she rolled to face him. She fisted his tunic and pulled with a strength that surprised Strian, the collar biting into his neck.
“Just as I won’t tolerate anyone, including you, to say you are a coward, I will not stand for you to think you failed me. I won’t have it, so don’t ever let those words come out of your mouth again. You have protected more times that I can count. You harp on the handful of times you couldn’t but overlook the many more times you have.”
“Those handful of times you so casually mention were times that nearly got you killed. You nearly died because of my failure.”
Gressa hissed as she pulled harder on his tunic.
“Stop it,” she bit out.
Strian could not believe the strength Gressa possessed after being unconscious only minutes ago. Her fierce defense warmed his heart, but his mind was not ready to release his guilt.
“I can’t control what you think any more than I can those who wish me ill, but it infuriates me to hear you doubt yourself. It overwhelms me to know I’m the reason for that doubt.” Gressa’s eyes filled with tears. “Freya told me what you were like after Ivar and the others tied to the mast and forced you to leave me behind. She told me how you lived, how you withdrew for so long. You have lived with guilt and grief long enough. We both have. What life will either of us have, even if it’s together, if we can’t loosen our hold on the past?”
“It’s your future I fear.”
Gressa lifted her chin and brushed her lips against Strian’s.
