“What in the name of God is this God-damned dog doing in my house?” Brede roared.
Eirik and Estrid looked up at him, the former smiling lightly and the latter wide-eyed. Kottr, knowing himself to be the cause of this outburst, dipped his tail between his legs and sunk his head.
“Estrid, what’s wrong with you?” Brede shouted. “Bringing this dog into the house with the babies!”
“Kottr won’t hurt…” she began timidly, but then the door to Brede’s uncle’s room swung open and slammed against the wall with a crack that frightened a yip out of the dog. The priest stood glowering in the doorway.
“Oh – ” Brede swallowed another oath. “I should have known! If ever I am in danger and far from aid, I shall need only blaspheme and you will be at my side!”
“You might worry more about the danger posed to your children’s everlasting souls by the example you set them, than about any dog,” the priest growled.
“Why, oh, why couldn’t you and my father have portioned the sanctitude between you, rather than giving it all to you?”
“Brede!” Estrid scolded softly.
“It was so that I could give his part to you, for you are as sorely in need of it as he ever was!”
“How dare you compare me to my father?”
“You are as like unto him as a graven image, and as unholy!”
“Brede!” Estrid wailed.
“Get this dog out of here!” Brede shouted, turning back to his wife and her brother.
“Which one?” Eirik asked coolly.
Brede was silent, though he trembled with the desire to say, “Both of you.”
“Never mind, boy,” Eirik said as he rose. “We both go. Come, Kottr.” He patted Estrid on the cheek. “I see you later, Kitten, or tomorrow, or someday, if I am permitted.”
“Oh, Eirik…” she murmured miserably.
Eirik took his dog and went out, and a moment later the priest returned to his room and closed the door. Now Brede was alone with his wife.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped.
“How?”
“As if I’m the felon.”
“Well? You act like a beast today.”
“I? Who brought the da – the dog into my house?”
“Your house! My house also!”
“Estrid, you’re mad! You’re mad! With the babies here!”
“Kottr won’t hurt the babies! What nonsense! My uncle has dogs everywhere at home.”
“Your uncle! At home! Watch yourself, Estrid. Don’t call your uncle’s house ‘home’ and then tell me this is your house.”
“Oh, Brede!” she sighed in exasperation. “What a bother you are! And why are you so mean with your uncle, when he is thinking about the babies?”
“My uncle is thinking of one thing, and that is telling me everything he wishes he had said to my father, and doing to me everything he wishes he had done him! I can’t bear it!”
“Oh!” she scoffed.
“Anyway, you know perfectly well why I’m such a beast lately. When is that brother of yours going home? He’s supposed to be living with Sigefrith, but he’s here more often than he is there!”
“He only misses me! What a brute you are! He’s always so nice with you!”
“You know that isn’t true! You know it! He mocks me with every word, with every glance – and half the time you do see it, I know you do!”
She turned her eyes away, and he was satisfied. She did know it.
“And what were you thinking,” he continued, “letting Synne alone with him like that this morning?”
“She wasn’t alone with him!” Estrid cried. “Hilda’s brother was there the whole time!”
“Hilda’s brother! Fine! So Eirik will simply initiate him into his depravity!”
“Brede!” she gasped. “How dare you?”
“How dare I? I feel I may permit myself anything with him, after the liberties he took with my sister!”
“Your sister! Oh! And what did you not do with his sister?”
“I did not do what he did!”
“No, but you would have if I had let you! It’s all you ever wanted!”
“But you wouldn’t do it! I knew you wouldn’t. Perhaps I wouldn’t have, if you had let me. I don’t know…”
“Oh! You would have! You would have! What nonsense! It is a good thing I would not!”
“Sigi ‘would not’ either, but that didn’t stop him!”
“What?” she shrieked.
“Synne says he forced her! Synne says her laces were torn when she came home on Midsummer Eve!”
“Never!”
“Synne saw!”
“I don’t care what Synne saw! So! Sigi know what happen, if she go into the woods with a boy on Midsummer Eve! Everybody know! And she meet him after, so! I guess she like it!”
Brede was shaking again with anger, though this time it was against his wife. He did not like the feeling. On the other hand, he knew whom he truly had to thank for it.
“When is he going home?” he cried.
“My brother? He isn’t going home.”
“What?” he wailed.
“No, I mean he isn’t going home to Nidaros. So, he stay this winter with Whitehand in his island.”
“What about Sigi?”
“What about Sigi?” she shrugged. “She has everything she need.”
“But she hasn’t seen him since July. And she won’t see him until spring or later.”
“And? So? She has her baby already. Maybe he go home in the spring and make another. She married a Norseman. He doesn’t stay home all year and work on a farm.”
Brede thought he heard a trace of disdain on her voice which could only have been directed at him.
“Perhaps you would like it if I went away and left you for a year or so?” he sneered.
She opened her mouth to snap at him, but she closed it again slowly and gave him a mournful look, as if she had only just thought about the question.
“But, Brede,” she whimpered, “we just have our first fight.”
He very nearly gave a sarcastic reply. Then he too thought about the question.
“Oh, poor Pussycat,” he sighed and embraced her.
“So, I don’t want you to go away, ever,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “You forgive me?”
“Of course I do, Puss.” He knew he had Eirik truly to thank.
I wish I knew where I downloaded it. And I hope I never lose mine!
Chapters
Brede must stop to be so protective with his little sister or she will end in doing something stupid just to show him he was invasive. Estrid has a magnificent gown, anyway...