Eirik has a good idea
Sigrid gasped and nearly cried aloud, for a hand had shot out of the alcove as she passed and caught her sleeve for an instant. It was Eirik, and he briefly held a warning finger before his lips.
Synne ran on ahead – she hadn’t seen him in the shadows.
“Synn!” Sigrid called, her heart still pounding at the base of her throat. “Go on without me, I have to go back down and get something.”
Synne shrugged and trotted on. Sigrid knew she thought only of rejoining Malcolm and Colban in the sitting room, and probably would have preferred that her sister not be there at all.
Sigrid stood and stared after her, afraid to look back at Eirik.
“Siri!” he whispered. “Who is coming?”
“No one,” she said after a glance up and down the corridor.
“Come!”
He took her hand, ran with her along the passageway, and pulled her into a tiny servant’s room that held only a bed and a small table with an unlit candle. Thankfully, to her mind, a window let in the dim blue light of a summer evening that still resisted darkening into night. But the sight of the bed with its coarse blankets unnerved her. She hadn’t yet prepared even to refuse that, much less… much less…
“Oh, Siri,” he whispered mournfully. “My dog, he tell me since days that I am a bad pig, and not even a pig-dog, because he don’t want me to be even half of what he is. He say, you should never kiss that girl, because now she don’t come to see you or me.”
“But I couldn’t come!” she whispered. “My brother won’t let me go to the brook alone any more.”
“Your brother! You’re not angry at me?”
“No.”
“Not a little?”
“No.”
“Oh, Siri! I’m so glad! I mean – that’s fine! My dog will be so glad!”
She smiled.
“That’s better, if you smile at me,” he whispered, and he traced the curve of her lips with his thumb. “I missed this smile. Did this smile miss me?”
“Yes.”
He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. Then he leaned his head in towards hers, and she closed her eyes to await a kiss, but he stopped and whispered, “Are you certain you’re not angry at me?”
“Yes.”
He leaned still closer, until his lips brushed her own, but he hesitated again and asked her, “Not a little?”
“Not at all.”
“So, that’s fine,” he whispered into her mouth, and he kissed her.
It was fine! Not an hour had passed in the last days without bringing with it some thought of him. Even at night she believed she dreamt of him. If only they could see one another freely! She would even have been happy to see him in secret, if only it were possible to see him at all. Her brother watched her like a hawk now when he was around, and she thought that her uncle had been asked to keep a close eye on her as well. It was only because she had been with Synne and was going directly to rejoin the other children that she had been allowed to go upstairs at all.
“We can’t stay here,” she whispered when she next had the opportunity.
“Why not?” he asked, and she could not help but glance at the bed behind him. He turned to look, and then he shook his head firmly and said, “I tell you, Siri, brass dogs don’t bite. Are you afraid of me?”
“No! No, no, but if someone finds us here…”
“No one will find us,” he whispered, and he kissed her again.
It was sweet! But she couldn’t allow it. How long would her sister wait before coming to look for her? She prayed that she had found Malcolm and Colban after all. With them to distract her…
“What is it, Siri?” he asked suddenly, and stroked her cheek. “You are thinking of something else. Are you thinking about my dog? I’m jealous.”
“No,” she giggled. “I was thinking I have to hurry away. My sister will be looking for me, and then my brother.”
“Oh, Siri, Siri, Siri, silly Siri,” he whispered. “Oh! What did I say?”
“Silly Siri,” she smiled.
“Oh! That’s all right, then. You are silly. You must be, a little, if you like to kiss an old brass pig-dog like me.”
“A brass dog,” she said. “An Eir-rakki.”
“So, you think I am all dog, and my dog think I am all pig. I like you better.” He tried to kiss her again, but now she pulled her head away.
“Eirik, I can’t stay!” she whispered.
“Can’t, or don’t want to?”
“I want to – I wish I could – but I can’t.”
“All right,” he sighed. “But tell me first, when can I see you again?”
“I don’t know…”
“I have to see you again, because I can’t stop thinking about you, and it drive me crazy. I never knew a girl who do that to me before. Always before, I see a girl, I like a girl, I go away from her, I forget all about her. But now, when I go away from you, I think about you all the time, and I don’t like it.”
“You don’t?”
“No, I only like it when I can see you. My dog, he tell me, forget about that girl, she won’t like you anyway, because you are only a stupid pig, and she is too pretty for you. But I think he say that because he want you for himself,” he winked. “But, so, it is true, I think I should forget you, because I can’t see you, but it only make me want to see you more. Do you understand, or do I tell only nonsense again?”
“I understand,” she assured him.
“Perhaps it is because you are my cousin, or perhaps because you are half-Dane and half-Norse, as I am. Perhaps we understand each other better, for that. Perhaps we are made for each other. But, so, I have to see you sometimes. Tell me how.”
“I don’t know!”
“Can’t you get outside at night?”
“No! I would have to walk past my brother’s bed, and past my uncle, who sleeps in the hall.”
“Can’t you get outside in the day?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how.”
“Listen, Siri!” he whispered excitedly. “I have an idea. So, do you know my cousin, Lady Hilda?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Do you like her? If you go to see her, perhaps she will help us. She like me a lot, and she always say I need to find a nice girl. But I think she don’t believe me if I tell her I find a girl as nice as you. But, so! Listen – if Lady Hilda invite you to her house to sew, then you come, because it mean she will help us. I talk to her tomorrow and ask.”
“That’s a good idea, if she will!”
They grinned at one other for a moment, and then he caught her up for a last, long kiss.
