Zarabeth listened to Magnus and his father speaking; rather, his father was yelling and tugging at his hair.
“By Thor, that a daughter of mine could betray us thus! How could she do it? Does Orm have such an unnatural hold over her?” His question wasn’t meant to be answered. He fell into mumbling curses and shaking his head.
Helgi said in a low voice to Zarabeth, “No one suspected? You sensed nothing?”
Zarabeth remained thoughtful and silent, saying finally, “Nay. She was quiet when we returned. She stayed by herself for the most part. She did nothing to gainsay me. She made no snide remarks. Ragnar kept after her, teasing her, ordering her about, but she didn’t seem to mind it. Now, of course, when I think back, she was too quiet, as if she were biding her time, waiting.”
“But why?” Helgi struck her palm against her thigh and winced from her own blow. “If she wanted to remain with him, escape Norway with him, she didn’t have to save you! She did not have to pretend to strike him and flee with you.”
“I was certain that she struck him hard, Helgi. Now I don’t know. But she seemed overwrought when he pretended to want me and not her. He taunted her with it. I had believed she’d struck him more to punish him than to save me, to pay him back for humiliating her. But it mattered not, at least then.”
“But why plan this diversion—and that is what it was—and return to Malek? Why?”
“I will tell you why, Mother.” It was Magnus and he was standing over his mother, his shoulders squared, his face hard as stone. “Orm probably decided that Zarabeth would be too much trouble. She would never come to him willingly. He would have had to kill her, and he wanted revenge against me more than he wanted her or her death. He also wanted more wealth before he left Norway. He must have followed us back closely. I didn’t really wonder why he hadn’t stayed and fought me, for he had only two men to my five. He may be mad, but he isn’t a fool. It wasn’t ever his plan to stand and fight. He must have somehow gotten to Ingunn—that, or it was all a sham and planned to happen just as it did.
“Why else did he continue to divert from the direct route to the fjord and his vessel? I don’t know. Zarabeth told me that Ingunn continually pressed him to hurry, that I would come. There are many questions and no answers as yet. But I do know that all my jewels are gone. All my gold and silver ornaments and coins are gone. They were kept in a cask behind a hollowed-out log near the front of the longhouse. All Ingunn had to do was wait until there was panic from the fire, then calmly retrieve the cask. Why, had anyone asked her what she was about, she could have simply said she was saving the cask for me.”
“But you could have been killed!” Helgi turned away, her shame and rage palpable.
“And Orm was waiting outside the palisade for her to bring him the jewels and coins. He killed Hollvard and is responsible for five other deaths as well.”
His mother still looked stunned and ill, and Magnus hugged her to him. “I suppose we are lucky that Orm didn’t try to take Zarabeth again. Perhaps he waited after the fire was blazing to see if she would separate herself from me. But she didn’t. The bastard was out there, Father, watching all the destruction he had brought about. Ingunn must be punished for this. I am sorry, but she is no longer my sister. She is as much my enemy as is Orm. At least my vessel is intact. There were a dozen men working on theSea Wind,and thus Orm couldn’t take her or destroy her. I vow his death before the summer is over.”
Zarabeth felt weighed down with his hatred, with his vow, with the stolid endurance he practiced. He worked harder than she did, cleaning away the burned timber, looking to salvage, looking to repair.
At the end of a very long day, as they sat about the outdoor cook fire, all warm with the blankets Helgi had brought, Zarabeth thought she had never been so weary in her life. She could think of nothing to say. She lay on her side, her head on Magnus’ thighs, listening to him speaking to his father and the men, slaves and freeman alike.
She felt the strength of him beneath her cheek and remembered what he had done to her so few hours before. He had given her a woman’s pleasure and it had made her wild with feeling, torn her away from any barriers she might have erected against him. But when she had screamed with her pleasure, there had been other screams as well... She shuddered. Magnus gently stroked her arm, now listening to his father.
“A father should not have to bear this,” Harald was saying. “How many men will you take to the Danelaw, Magnus?”
“I cannot go after them yet. First we must rebuild. All must be secure before winter comes, else it will all be for naught.”
“Mattias and I will be here to help you with many of our men.”
“Thank you, Father.”
Zarabeth awoke, wincing at the hard ground beneath, yet wonderfully warm from Magnus’ body curved around hers. His hand was cupping her breast, her head resting on his upper arm. She nestled closer and he kissed her ear, whispering, “Nay, don’t do that, for I cannot take you now.”
She smiled and turned to face him, snuggling against him. “What will happen, Magnus?”
“We will rebuild. I promise that you will know no want, come this winter, Zarabeth.”
“All I want this winter is to have you with me.”
He felt himself swelling with pleasure at her words. He hugged her tightly to him, his arms enclosing her closely. “When the snow is higher than your head, you will want more than my warmth.”
“Perhaps. I also pray that we will have Egill returned to us as well. Magnus, I am so sorry. If I had not come here, if Ingunn had not hated me so much—”
“I doubt it would have made any difference to her,” he said sharply. “Bleat not, Zarabeth, for I won’t allow you to carry any guilt for this.”
“I pray you will cease likening me to a goat, Magnus.”
“A ewe, sweeting.” He kissed her mouth and hugged her tightly against him. “I want you very much. You can feel that, for I am obvious in my feelings. But I will make it up to you, Zarabeth, and to myself as well.”
Their people were beginning to stir and Magnus roused himself, coming up onto his elbow. He looked toward the burned-out longhouse, and rage seared through him again. His grandfather had built the longhouse and had seen that it was Magnus’ upon his death. Now it was gone. Still, it was only timber and waddle and daub and thick beams and thatch. Unlike a life, all the buildings could be replaced.
Magnus said aloud to Zarabeth, “I pray that Ragnar will live.”
