Pursued by a Viking Page 18

  “Cnut was a hard man,” he pleaded, “I didn’t have a choice,” he said.

  “And you would not harm me again?” Freya asked.

  “No,” The man said, his face disbelief that she was actually considering letting him go.

  “Then you tell the men that Freya was forgiving, and let you live,” Freya said to him, taking Skald’s sword that he had not given to the guards, and cut the man free.

  “Thank you, Freya,” he said, kissing her shoes, before scrambling to his feet.

  “You will forever have my loyalty,” he said, lowering his head.

  “Thank you. You can leave now,” Freya said.

  “Go home, Brunson,” Skald clipped the man over the back of the head, pushing him towards the door.

  “Skald,” Freya hissed, embarrassed at his behaviour.

  “I would have killed him,” Skald said, displeased.

  “I know,” Freya rolled her eyes, before turning back to a bemused Isla and Ivar. Ragnar stood to the side, amusement on his face at the entire situation.

  “As to your punishment,” Isla said to Skald.

  Ivar turned to her, his face hard, readying to protest. Skald stood, emotionless before the princess.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I would have you stay within Newcastle for the next year, until I can see that you can behave yourself around my Englishmen,” Isla said, looking at him, before continuing, “And Freya, as Skald is your husband, I would have you stay in this castle, close to me, so I can ensure that I get to know you better,” Isla said, looking towards her.

  “Yes, princess,” Freya said.

  “I would want to go back to my cottage by the lake-” Skald said, beginning to protest, before Freya elbowed him in the ribs, causing Ragnar to laugh.

  Freya thought back to the moment that Isla promised Freya that she would let her stay in Newcastle. The night that she had sent Cnut away as they sat by the river. She had used the death of her men as an opportunity to give Freya what she had promised, and avoided any real punishment against Skald, for an action that most men would be killed for.

  15

  SKALD

  One year later

  “You’re a free man,” Ivar said to Skald, as they walked the boundary of the castle.

  “I’ve never been more free in my life, this past year,” Skald laughed at the irony of his being confined to the castle, which did not feel like a punishment at all, for it allowed him to spend almost every hour of every day with his beautiful wife, and his new baby boy, Dane.

  “Do you think you could take your boy, Dane, away from our daughter?” Ivar asked, referring to his and Isla’s daughter, Princess Rose.

  “I don’t think it matters what I want,” Skald said, looking back at their wives, as they cooed and played with their babies, “Freya has fallen in love with this place. We will go back to our cottage from time to time, but Newcastle is our home now,” Skald said.

  “We have many good years ahead of us, brother.” Ivar said.

  “As do our son and daughter,” Skald said, smiling at his leader and friend.

  Freya

  Things could not have been more perfect. Freya had found a female friend, unlike any she had ever had in her life, with Isla. The two instantly connected, and their children had become best friends.

  They had their children at the same time, Freya’s son only being born one month before Isla’s daughter. The two babies had an instant connection, it was easy to see.

  “So are we still on for going to the cottage by the lake this weekend?” Freya asked Isla.

  “Of course, I’ve heard so much about it, and now we don’t need to keep up this silly punishment with Skald,” Isla laughed.

  In the next book…

  Ragnar

  Things in Newcastle were idyllic. Ragnar’s closest friends, Skald and Ivar, had borne small children with their beautiful wives, and there had not been any war for the last year. That was until news from home reached the shores of England.

  Raiding vikings had pillaged their way through Ragnar’s home town, leaving destruction in their wake. Ragnar knew his ageing parents would not have been able to defend themselves from the attack, and their slave, and Ragnar’s closest friend since he was a child, Hilda, would likely have been taken.

  But, sometimes fate had other plans for victims of raiding vikings, and land owners would be left alone, depending on the particular viking who raided their farm, Ragnar knew this.

  “I need one hundred and fifty men. I’m going to Norway,” Ragnar said to Ivar.

  “May the gods have mercy on your loved ones, and find the bastards who did this. You will need four good ships,” Ivar said to Ragnar.

  And so Ragnar’s journey would begin. At the onset of winter, he would prepare himself for a journey that few men relished. Open sea at winter. Cold and unforgiving, and a journey that often left many men dead.

  “I will fight my way through all the viking lands until I find the truth of what happened,” Ragnar said, the joy in his voice gone.

  Ragnar the Destroyer left Newcastle with one hundred and fifty loyal men, hungry for revenge and glory.

  Hilda

  Hilda meant ‘the fighter,’ yet Hilda was anything but a fighter. She had been torn from her family’s hands at an age of only ten or eleven, before she was bought by Ragnar’s family, to be put to use as an extra helper on their small piece of land. Ragnar had always been there to protect her, that is, until she left with Ivar the Cruel, and his father, Bjorn the Fearless, to go raiding lands across the seas.

  He never returned. And Hilda would never forgive him for that. He always swore to protect her. Even though she was a slave, he told her that he loved her and would come back for her. He did not. He lied. And now, she had been taken again. At the age of just eighteen years old, she would be sold to a rich man, who would likely abuse her and take her unwillingly.

  This is your fault, Ragnar. You should have been here. You should have protected your family.

  Freya’s wrists bled from the coarse rope that bound them, preventing her escape, as she was pushed onto a boat.

  “Where are we going?” She asked a huge, terrifying warrior.

  “Shut up slave,” he said.

  And so, Freya watched the township of Fyrkat shrink onto the horizon, the place that Hilda had known since she was a small girl, as they headed out into the cold, dark ocean, with horrible men who had killed their families. Children and women cried alike, for the loss of their families, and their new lives that were being forced upon them.

  Some of these people had never been slaves before in their lives, but Hilda had been through this before. She knew that she was lucky the first time, but she also knew that, often times, girls her age were bought for different reasons, and that this time, her experience would be different.

  She hugged at her stomach, as she huddled between women who were once above her, but now, were equal to her, with no status to hold to their name.

  Where are you, Ragnar?

  Mailing List

  In the next book, you will learn about Ragnar’s childhood, with flashbacks to his childhood with Hilda, and the relationship they formed, which compelled him to travel back to Norway, seeking retribution for his family, and in search for Hilda.If this sounds like a book you’d like to read, sign up to my mailing list to be notified when I release that book here.

  If you would like to join my ARC team, and read copies of my books in advance of release in exchange for a review on Amazon, send me an email at mail@tsflorence.com.

 

 

 
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