The furyck saga the firs.., p.31
The Furyck Saga (The First Three Volumes), page 31
Isaura shook her head, trying not to blink. ‘I suppose not.’
Ivaar closed his eyes, arched his back, and pressed himself into her again, hard. ‘No, my father made a big mistake sending me here. And he will be making an equally big mistake bringing me back. He just won’t realise it until it’s too late.’
Ivaar bent low over her, his head towards the pillow, and Isaura allowed her face to sink back into misery. Returning to Oss was everything she had once wished for, but Ivaar was right, seven years was a long time. Too long, she feared, convinced that everything would have changed; certain that nothing would be as she had left it.
‘What is that smell?’ Jael gagged, screwing up her face as she guided Leada and Tig towards the stables. She had convinced Thorgils to let her speak with Eadmund alone. He had not lost any of his furious anger during their ride back to the fort, and she didn’t think his mood would help things at all. Thankfully, Thorgils was not blind to his own madness and had seen the wisdom in that, although he had urged her to find out the truth of it quickly.
Biddy looked up irritably, her brown and grey curls blowing about her face. She was squatting in the snow, under the shelter that linked the stables to the house, trying to control both puppies who she had trapped in a wooden tub. The sight of Jael was too much for them to bear, though, and they wriggled out of her grasp, splashing out of the tub, happy to leave the cold water behind.
‘The smell, you are about to find out, is them!’ Biddy grumbled as she stood up and tried to catch her escaped prisoners. They weren’t keen to go back into the tub, however, and avoided her angry arms.
‘Down! No, no, get down!’ Jael snapped as the puppies jumped up her legs, spooking the horses, who skittered about wildly.
‘I caught them in the stables, rolling in all the horse shit before Askel had a chance to change the hay,’ Biddy sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. ‘For some reason, they love the stinking stuff, but nothing has ever smelled worse, and I’m not letting them back into the house until they’re clean, no matter how cold the water is!’
Jael ushered the horses inside the stables and shut the door. She scooped Ido up in one arm, and Biddy captured Vella. ‘I’ll help you. Then I’ll sort out the horses. Eadmund will be here soon.’
‘What?’ Biddy almost dropped Vella. ‘What do you mean here? Why is he coming here? What for?’ She was suddenly on edge, anxious about the state of the house; the fire which had probably burned down to nothing, the lack of food, the mess she had been in the middle of clearing up. She ran it all over in her mind, and it set her nerves jangling.
‘He’s coming to visit Leada. I think he might start riding her soon.’
‘Oh,’ Biddy sighed, relieved. ‘Well, perhaps he won’t go inside the house then, just the stables?’
‘What?’ Jael dumped Ido into the cold water and started scrubbing his shivering body with a lump of soap. The smell was unbearable, and she had to turn her head away. ‘You think he should stay out in the stables? In this weather?’ She cringed as Ido shook all over her. ‘I think he will certainly go into the house. He must be curious about it. I’m not sure he’s even seen inside it before.’
Biddy looked anxious as she wrestled Vella into the tub. ‘Well, let us hurry up then as everything’s upside down in there. I was cleaning before these two monsters put a stop to it. It’s a complete mess!’ She snorted, trying to clear the shit smell out of her nostrils.
‘Ha!’ Jael laughed as she lifted Ido out of the tub and was promptly showered with icy water as he shook all over her again. ‘Perhaps you haven’t seen Eadmund before? He’s a mess! He’ll feel very comfortable if everything’s all over the floor, I’m sure.’ Jael smiled to cover her own anxiety; she felt oddly nervous about him coming too.
She wrapped the shivering Ido in a blanket and took him inside to the fire, happy to be out of the blizzard at last. Rubbing him briskly, she set him free.
‘See what I mean,’ Biddy gestured around the living area. ‘It looks as if a herd of goats lives here!’ She handed Vella to Jael. ‘Here, you dry her, and I’ll get started.’ She rushed to hang her cloak on the back of the door and grabbed her apron, tying it around herself.
Jael glanced at Biddy’s wet clothes as she rubbed Vella’s wriggling body. ‘Hadn’t you better put something dry on first? You’re a little wet.’
Biddy looked down at her sodden dress but didn’t have time to worry now. She ignored Jael completely as she sat down to take off her wet boots, her eyes racing around the room, deciding where to begin.
Jael let Vella go, laughing as she chased Ido around Biddy’s legs, much to her annoyance. She headed outside to tend to the horses, wondering exactly how she was going to ply Eadmund for information about Evaine.
He wasn’t coming.
Jael and Biddy sat around the fire in silence, the puppies fast asleep, warm, fluffy, and snoring gently on a pile of rugs by their feet. Jael sipped on her tea and sighed.
‘Should I make us something to eat?’ Biddy wondered quietly.
‘I’m not hungry.’
It was well past midafternoon now. The day had grown increasingly grim, the storm taking a determined hold on Oss. It was almost completely dark outside.
There was a sharp knock at the door. Ido and Vella woke with a start, barking with a slightly confused excitement. Both women stumbled to their feet. Jael straightened her favourite black tunic as she walked to the door and looked around at Biddy, who was standing awkwardly behind her, smoothing down her apron. Jael swallowed slowly and opened the door.
It was Eirik.
III
Into the Storm
26
Thorgils couldn’t settle. He had tried sitting at the table in his mother’s house, listening to her mutter and moan, but he’d wriggled about and been so uptight and irritating that she had kicked him out. Into the blizzard. And now, here he was in the hall, unable to sit still, his eyes anxiously darting around, wondering what Jael and Eadmund were talking about.
There were not many in here today, which didn’t surprise him. A blizzard tended to gather everyone into their cottages. Families grouped together, keeping each other and their livestock safe. Most of the men in the hall were single and alone, with no one to care for. Thorgils felt guilty. Perhaps he should go back to his mother’s to make sure she was alright? The wind was high-pitched wailing now and who knew how deep the snow would get.
‘There’s something funny going on,’ Torstan whispered as he came to sit beside Thorgils.
The hairs on Thorgils’ neck stood on end; he didn’t look at Torstan. ‘What do you mean?’ he whispered back, just as cautiously. There was no one within hearing distance but still...
‘I don’t know, just things. Things that make me think something has happened,’ Torstan murmured. He wasn’t normally the most perceptive man Thorgils knew, but the peculiar look on his face told him that something was wrong. ‘Eydis is in her bedchamber. I can hear her crying.’
‘What about Eirik?’
‘I haven’t seen him, or Morac all day, not in here anyway. Nor Eadmund.’
Thorgils glanced around quickly. Everyone appeared relaxed. There were no sideways glances or whispered conversations. The men sitting around the fires were talking and laughing openly. But something was wrong, and Thorgils could feel it in his chest. ‘You wait here,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll go and speak to Eydis.’
He left a worried Torstan by the fire and strode off towards the back of the hall, looking for answers, afraid of what he might find.
Eirik looked tense as Jael ushered him inside, out of the snowy gale. His usual spark of good humour was gone, replaced with a sullen glare.
‘This is a surprise,’ Jael smiled cautiously. ‘We were expecting Eadmund.’
The puppies sniffed about Eirik’s legs, satisfied that he wasn’t an enemy. Jael wondered if they were right in their hastily-formed assumption.
‘Were you? What for?’ Eirik made no move to step any further into the house; his back remained to the door.
‘Would you come and sit by the fire?’ Jael wondered politely.
Eirik said nothing as he followed her to a stool she had placed out for Eadmund.
‘Something to drink?’
‘I had an interesting visit from your little Brekkan friend this morning,’ Eirik stated, ignoring her offer as he sat down. ‘It was early, too. He couldn’t wait, I suppose, after all his hard work. He couldn’t wait to lay it all at my feet, to enjoy his gloating at my expense. I’m sure he can’t wait to tell Lothar about it either.’
Jael’s heart was racing now. Eirik spoke as though she wasn’t there, and she could feel everything slowly starting to fall down around her.
‘So, that little bitch got herself pregnant,’ he spat bluntly.
Jael heard Biddy’s stifled gasp from the corner of the room.
‘You don’t look surprised,’ Eirik noted, glancing towards Jael for the first time. ‘Did you know?’
She took a deep breath and sighed. ‘No, not really but I guessed. I was hoping to talk to Eadmund about it, to find out the truth.’
‘Were you now?’ Eirik looked to the fire, his tone flat and defeated. ‘So, you are talking to him now? Not lying with him, not sleeping in the same bed, but talking to him?’
It was Jael’s turn to ignore him. ‘It doesn’t matter that she’s pregnant, does it? Truly?’
Eirik eyed her sharply. ‘Doesn’t it? Not to you? You don’t care that your husband will have a child with another woman? You feel relieved, do you?’
‘It has nothing to do with me,’ Jael said coldly. She felt anger spark inside her then, somewhere deep, where it had been simmering a long time. ‘I didn’t ask to come here, to be in this place with your son. What he does with other women... what control do I have over that? What has it got to do with me?’
‘You’re his wife!’ Eirik growled, standing up, his fury overwhelming him. His face reddened as his voice rose. ‘I brought you here to be his wife! To have his sons, to bring your name to my heirs! To be a wife! Not to ride around with other men, to fight with your sword, to do everything and anything you wanted, to avoid being his wife!’ His eyes bulged angrily at her.
Jael stood and stepped towards him, her own fury on the edge of consuming her reason. She saw Biddy’s worried face out of the corner of her eye, and that checked her a little but not enough to stop her. ‘You are angry at the wrong person, Eirik!’ she began loudly. ‘Your son spent the first part of our marriage drunk! Nowhere to be seen! I never even knew where he was, let alone had the chance to speak to him. How was I going to be a wife to a man I couldn’t find? What did you expect me to do, hunt him down? Drag him out of her bed and into mine?’
‘Why not?’ Eirik countered. ‘You certainly could have if you’d wanted to!’
‘Of course, but why would I want to?’ Jael was wild now. ‘I didn’t even want to come here! I never wanted to be married to anyone! Ever! That was the choice I made, but you and Lothar decided that I didn’t deserve a choice! You took it from me and forced me to come here, gave me this new life, which I didn’t want. You took me from my family and my home. You made me come here and be a wife to this hopeless drunk, who could barely even stand. And what was I supposed to do? Fix him? Turn him into the son you wished he was? How was I to do that when none of you could?!’ She shook with anger. ‘I am no goddess. I have no powers to do anything like that. What you asked of me was too much. It is Eadmund who needed to save himself, not me!’
Jael sat down, not wanting to go on. Weeks and weeks of pain was rushing, tumbling out of her, and she needed to stop. She wasn’t really angry at Eirik, or even Eadmund, she just felt furious about so many things that had nothing to do with her and that she could do nothing about. Yelling at Eirik wouldn’t change anything, no matter how good it felt.
Eirik sat quietly down beside her, his face stripped of all anger now; he just looked sad. ‘You are right, of course,’ he said quietly, his voice trembling. ‘It was always Eadmund who needed to change himself.’
‘And he has!’ Jael implored, turning to her father-in-law. ‘Haven’t you seen how hard he has tried lately? How different he looks? He’s been drinking less. He’s started training with a sword, and today he was even coming here to look at his horse. It was a start. It could have been a beginning.’
Eirik looked bereft. ‘It’s not enough.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Tiras, that vile bastard. He had a lot to say,’ Eirik sighed, looking away. ‘About your wedding night.’
Jael frowned. ‘What about our wedding night?’
‘That nothing happened between you and Eadmund that night. That your marriage was not consummated. That it has never been consummated. That Eadmund hasn’t even set foot in this house since your wedding. That he slept through that night on the floor!’ Eirik stared at her intently, challenging her to deny Tiras’ accusations.
Jael thought that over. How would Tiras know all of that? Did he sit outside the house all night, with his ear to the wall, listening to Eadmund snore? She clenched her teeth furiously; she hated that spying little maggot. ‘It’s all true,’ was all she could say.
That set Eirik off again. He lurched to his feet and paced around the fire, scratching his hands fretfully through his long, white hair. ‘But that’s the worst kind of luck there is! Not to consummate a marriage on the wedding night? That is ill fortune right there. The gods will curse such a misformed union! Nothing good can come from your marriage now. Nothing at all!’
‘You’re wrong,’ Jael insisted, standing up. ‘You’re wrong! There is hope in Eadmund, in both of us.’ She instantly regretted her words, no matter how true they might have been. ‘Just give us a chance.’
‘It’s too late!’ Eirik glared at her, his mouth set in a decisive line. ‘It’s too late, Jael. That was Eadmund’s last chance with me. I warned him. He knew it. He only had that one chance, and now it’s gone.’
‘Why? What have you done?’
‘I have had Morac take the girl away,’ Eirik said coldly. ‘And I’ve sent for Ivaar.’ Eirik removed all feeling from his face as he turned to leave. ‘I wish you luck with your marriage, Jael. Both you and Eadmund. You are going to need it. But it is no longer any concern of mine.’ And he opened the door and left without another word.
The door banged loudly in his wake, and Jael made no move to go and shut it; she was frozen to the spot.
‘Have you told Jael? About Isaura?’ Eydis wondered shyly.
Thorgils sat in front of her on a chair that was far too small for him, his bushy, red head cradled in his hands. His mind was filling with painful memories he never imagined having to face again. ‘No.’ His voice was dull, muffled.
Eydis sniffed. She had spent most of the day sobbing after her father had raged at her about Evaine. She’d never felt so much anger in him, mixed with so much disappointment. He felt betrayed, she knew, but he was reacting harshly and too quickly. She’d pleaded with him to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say. He felt that she was a conspirator, that she’d kept things from him, important things, that he needed to know. It was too late, he warned her, too late for Eadmund.
‘I thought you would be happy, to see her at least?’ Eydis suggested hopefully, the cold emptiness of the room consuming her words.
Thorgils lifted his head up, his eyes morose. ‘Oh, Miss Eydis,’ he smiled ruefully. ‘But you know nothing about love, do you? Who knows, maybe you will, one day soon.’ He sighed deeply, reaching out to grasp her little hand. ‘You see, love can feel as though your heart will burst with happiness. And love can feel as though your heart will break with pain. With true love, there is no easy middle ground between the two. Just happiness or pain. And with Isaura, we had happiness. More than I ever thought to deserve. We were so happy that I foolishly thought we would always be that way.’ He looked wistfully at Eydis, trying to picture Isaura’s face. His eyes drooped sadly because he couldn’t. ‘So, when your father took her from me and gave her to Ivaar, I thought I would die from the pain. Just like Eadmund, when he lost Melaena. He had the pain of knowing she would never return to him, and me... I had the pain of knowing that Isaura was only a ship ride away, married to your bastard brother. And there was nothing either of us could do to stop it. There still isn’t.’ He hung his head.
‘Isaura didn’t want to go. She had no choice. She would never love Ivaar.’
Thorgils smiled uncertainly. ‘No, I don’t suppose she’d ever love Ivaar. Only Ivaar could truly love Ivaar.’
‘So, that means she still loves you,’ Eydis said encouragingly. ‘And if there is still love, then there is still hope that you can find happiness together again, isn’t there? Unless of course, you’ve given up?’
Her words were a challenge, and he thought on it. He had given up, he realised. His frown cleared as Eydis’ words turned over in his head; his thoughts drifting and then forming shape. He had given up. On Isaura. On hope.
‘But now she is coming back. And even though no one wants Ivaar to come, at least it gives you another chance with Isaura. Somehow, maybe? If you don’t give up,’ Eydis smiled confidently. She could feel Thorgils’ pain so intensely. She wanted to help him, guide him in the right direction. Towards possibility.
But in her mind, she saw Ivaar coming, and her heart turned cold.
Isaura’s hopes sunk as she watched the ship being pulled up onto the beach, her one-year-old son, Mads, grizzling on her hip. Her three daughters ran down to the shore, filled with excitement; they didn’t often get visitors to Kalfa, especially during the Freeze. Ivaar’s face glowed with satisfaction as he waited expectantly beside her. She could feel the vibrations in his body as his shoulder brushed against hers. His long-awaited revenge was about to be delivered to him, by the very man he dreamed of destroying.
