“She grew sullen and kept pushing Tormod to bring her more jewels, to strike out on his own. She wanted more status, more thralls, a better house. But Tormod, while ambitious, is also wise and was loyal to his father. He was waiting until the right opportunity arose.”
“And the siege of Alt Clut was that opportunity?”
Arne smiled but shook his head. “This was many years before Alt Clut. Anyway, Ingrid grew restless. Decided she didn’t want to wait any longer and would help her family instead.”
“Help them to do what?”
“To attack our village. I’m sure she hoped that it would rid her of Tormod as well. She doted on Einar, we all knew this, and so she pretended to fear for his safety. Over time, she watched the patterns of the guards, weaselled details from Tormod and passed them all on to her father.”
Gemma frowned, trying to put the pieces together and understand how it all fitted. “And was her previous lover involved in this?”
“No. Her family. Her father and brothers.”
Arne ran a hand down his face and sighed.
“And this was when you were scarred?”
He nodded. “The attack was unsuccessful. But I had seen Ingrid leaving the village when the guards first raised the alarm. Ifollowed her to an old hut in the woods, the place where… Just an abandoned hut. But it was a trap.”
“A trap for Tormod, rather than for you. Why did they do this to you?”
He looked at her then, the oddest expression on his face. “Ingrid didn’t care who had been captured.”
“And so they…?”
Arne stretched his hands out in front of him, staring at the scars. “They cut me all over. While she watched. And laughed.” He broke off and turned away from her.
She found herself choking back tears. To see his scars and think about what must have happened to cause them, what this flesh and blood man in front of her had gone through… It stirred emotions inside her she wasn’t sure she could cope with.
Tentatively, she reached out and touched him, pulling her hand back when he jerked back out of reach. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I would never do this… to anyone. Nor would I allow it to be done in my name.”
He said nothing but turned to look at her, his expression hard. “My brothers found me and killed everyone who had taken part—all except Ingrid. For weeks I lay at death’s door, lost in fever dreams, unsure whether I was alive or dead. As I recovered, no one would speak to me about her. I thought she was dead, but—” He broke off and shook his head. “Once I recovered, I left the village. I couldn’t stand to see her.”
“She was still there?”
Arne’s shoulders slumped. “She was a very accomplished liar.”
“Tormod… Tormod took her back?” Gemma found it hard to comprehend. Tormod and Arne were so close. Everyone spoke of them and Arne’s brothers as a group and of how, in battle together, they were invincible. Should Tormod have been able to forgive a woman who had done such a thing to Arne?
“It was more than a month before I was… before I was no longer consumed by the pain,” Arne said. “She had persuaded the others she was not involved.”
“But… but she was?” Gemma’s chest was tight and she could scarcely force the words out. The thought of what he had suffered, the fact Ingrid had almost got away with it, confused her. And made her want to wreak her own revenge on the woman.
“She was,” Arne confirmed. For a while he was silent. Unable to comfort him through her touch, she twisted her hands in her lap, trying not to weep for him. “The thing I remember most is her laughter.”
He barely whispered it, but the soul-deep devastation was clear to her anyway. Tears ran down Gemma’s cheeks, but she was too afraid to move to wipe them away. She didn’t want him to see, knew he would only resent her pity.
“She told them she had only led me there because she was afraid to disobey her father. He had got word to her he planned to attack our village and told her to leave.” He shrugged. “It might even have been true, except for the fact she wanted me dead.”
“She wanted Tormod dead?”
He glanced at her, eyes wide, then nodded. “Tormod. Me. I don’t think she cared, so long as one of us suffered. In all honesty, I do not know exactly how she persuaded Tormod of her innocence and I have no wish to ever know.”
Once more silence descended on the shieling, with only the occasional crackle of a log in the fire to remind them time was passing. Gemma’s thoughts swung wildly between horror at what had happened to Arne and anger about him treating her as if she were the same as Ingrid. She would never treat anyone like that. No matter what. She stood, faced him across the limited floor space of the shieling.
“And you think I am the same… asher?” She almost didn’t want to see his reaction, afraid she would have to accept that he saw her only as the enemy.
“No.” He spoke so quietly she hardly heard.
