Chapter 6
Freydis
Arriving in the dining room, that evening, I sat down on the chair next to my father.
"Heil faðir," I greeted, turning to my mother and greeting her as well.
There was different types of food ranging from venison to beef, ale, and fine white bread.
Just as we finished praying to God, the door opened and Ragnar walked in.
He wore a dark leather tunic, finely stitched to suit his sinewed muscles.
His trousers were made of soft dark wool.
Unlike the King, he had pale skin from living under the snow in the North. When he sat down at the table and grabbed the horn filled with ale, I saw the veins and muscles in his arms bulge.
He had broad shoulders that curved into his tunic. His hair was so long and dark I had the urge to run my fingers through it. He had low, dark, arched brows, and his eyes were as black as the night sky.
I could tell that every woman in the North would be enthralled by him.
I stared at him, and just as I was about to look away, he turned to me. In that moment, I felt my breath stolen away. I was defenseless under the intensity of his gaze.
But when he finally looked away, all my senses returned. I looked down in embarrassment, taking a bite from the piece of beef on my plate.
How am I supposed to control myself when he's staring at me with those eyes?
I swallowed those thoughts and tried my best to focus on the food in front of me. I could only pray that he wasn't still staring at me; my cheeks were flushed now.
"Tell us about the North," Father broke the silence. "Is it always snowing?"
"By the gods," Ragnar swore. " Tis cursed in the North with cold. And the weight of the Crown..... It's a heavy burden."
Father laughed.
" I've been pondering for long.... to leave all behind and stay here in Fellur," Ragnar jokingly said.
"I believe you mean it, Ragnar," Father smiled.
"Aye, I do," Ragnar nodded. What say ye Harald? Just two of us, hunting the woods for Hounds.."
"We could," Father said. "But I have a family now. We're not the boys we were many years ago."
"In truth, you were never a boy Harald," Ragnar spoke with a smile. "Always had women in your bed. What was her name again? The fiery haired one? By the gods I saw how ye look at her. Ye loved her so much. Ye told me her name once..... was it Porrun?" He chuckled. "Don't give me that look Harald. Ye know what I'm speaking of. The thrall you put a child in?"
The smile on Father's face faded.
"Ragnar."
"It must have been Porrun," Ragnar said. "Tall and fair, she was. Ye always liked them tall. Ye laid with her and she carried your seed."
"You don't speak of her here," Father said.
After Father made my mother the Queen of Fellur, he left with Ragnar to continue the war. Mother said he wasn't there during her pregnancy and that she thought he was dead. But he came back five years later, and she barely recognized him. She hugged him, crying, but when he brought her a boy almost the same age as me, she wept again.
He told her everything—about his relationship with the thrall, Porrun.
Porrun wasn't always a thrall; she knew how to treat wounds. When she was captured during the war and made a thrall, she helped Father care for his injured men. That's how they grew close; and how she got pregnant.
But during labor, the gods turned their backs on Porrun and my father. She died giving birth to her son. Before she died, she made my father promise to take their bastard home.
My mother prayed when the boy started living with us. She refused to look at him and begged the gods to take him away. Fortunately for her, the gods heard her prayer. The boy fell ill with a fever and died a week later.
"The only woman who ever stirred madness in your heart," Ragnar said.
Father slammed his fist against the table. "Leave it, Ragnar. For the love I bear you, do not speak of her again, or I swear by the gods, I'll carve out your tongue and feed it to the crows."
"When anger takes you, even the gods would flinch," Ragnar smiled.
"I am the queen here, and you will not disrespect me in front of my husband, Ragnar," Mother said. "Speak one more word against me, and I'll curse you so deeply Harald will forget you ever lived."
She stood up, her food untouched, and walked out of the room.
Once the door shut, Ragnar burst into laughter, and Father joined him.
I shook my head.
"By the gods, I'm afraid of her, Harald."
"I fear her too," father whispered with a laugh, and both men drank from their horns.