“Nay!” Magnus said. “My sister will stay here where she belongs.”
Gunnar stroked his beard again, still staring into the chests. “She will go with you, and you will keep her safe until you return here to fulfill Saga’s requirement. Nothing in that has changed. If Vigdis wishes to go with her sister, I will support it as long as Saga is married before she leaves here. Tomorrow is Friday, a good day for a wedding feast. You will have to delay your return journey by another day.”
“I cannot believe you are letting them take our sisters,” Magnus said. “Saga will not leave here if she knows we are under threat.”
“Then she will not know,” Gunnar said.
Unease settled into Giric’s heart. While he agreed he wanted to keep her safe, she was a warrior like the rest of them and believed that it was her place to protect her people. He was not comfortable beginning their marriage by lying to her. He would not do it.
“She will be told, or I will not allow her aboard my ship,” he said.
Both Gunnar and Magnus turned their heads quickly to him. “You will break our agreement?”
“No. But I will not risk her finding out about the threat while we are at sea and attempting to return. Your sister is headstrong. You know I speak the truth.”
Gunnar nodded. “She is headstrong. I will tell her myself,” he said.
The two brothers left the hall leaving Giric and Osgar and the cooking women alone.
“This business will end badly,” Osgar said. “The king will never get involved now.”
“I believe he will, but it will take more effort than before.”
“We did not come here to make enemies, rather forge alliances. Now by allying with Gunnar, we make an enemy of Short-Beard.”
“Aye, but as Magnus pointed out, Short-Beard does not have the means to pay his men to attack. And if there’s one thing I have learned about these people, they do little without a well-formed plan.”
“But Magnus did not have a plan.”
“No, he does not appear to. But I believe there is more than meets the eye with that man. I think he knows more about Short-Beard’s plot than he is letting on. Did you notice he did not elaborate on how he acquired the treasures? Are we really to believe he walked into the hall and said I’m taking everything, and they said here you go?”
Osgar shook his head. “There is much here we do not understand.”
Very much indeed. And Giric would find out as much as he could before he left. The last thing he would do is bring a Viking war band back to the mainland on his heels. Agreement or no, he would be certain of the situation here before leaving. Something in the pit of his stomach told him he would not be leaving with Saga either way.
Chapter Nine
Freydis’ opened her door and quickly pulled Saga inside before she had a chance to knock. Bjorn lay sleeping on the cot and so Freydis placed her finger to her lips.
“Your brother has returned,” she said. “And you are now betrothed.”
How Freydis knew so much so quickly in this village would never cease to amaze her.
“He has and will not give his blessing for my betrothal.”
Freydis shook her head. “Do not mind him. He has always been stubborn. He will come around.”
“I hope you are right.”
“You are worried. I have seen it, that is why I was expecting you,” she said. “You must let me read the runes.”
Saga had only allowed Freydis to read them once before, believing that the gods had a will that was not meant to be meddled with even in knowing what that was.
“I will permit you,” she said. “There is too much here that I cannot foresee. What if Magnus convinces Gunnar to break the betrothal? What if Giric changes his mind?”
“The gods will tell us what we need to know. But I must ask you to answer truthfully, do you want to marry this man Giric?”
Saga looked over to where Bjorn slept. She supposed he was the only man who had ever mentioned marriage to her and so was the only man to whom she could compare Giric. And in her heart there was no comparison. There was something about them together that made sense. She recognized great honour in him despite the differences in their ways. She was certain. She wanted him and him alone.
