Page 13 of Viktor at Sea

“Be confident,” Crosby repeated. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“With solid advice like that, I can’t imagine you have any trouble with the ladies, except…” his voice trailed off, and his eyes widened as if he feared that he was overstepping the boundaries. He probably was. The same way that I had overstepped them when I had given him unsolicited advice regarding his love life.

“Except, I’m not married. Like you, I’ve met the love of my life, but I haven’t spoken to her father about her hand in marriage yet.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why wait?”

“Because she hates me,” I chuckled, though the sound wasn’t light-hearted enough to be convincing.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you,” he tried to assure me, and while I appreciated the gesture, I was sure that Astrid hated me just as sure as I was that the sea was blue.

“Oh, she does,” I chuckled, the sound a little bitter. My heart clenched painfully at the admission, but I pushed forth. “I’ve always been attracted to her, but it was only until recently that I realised it was so much more than that. That it was love.”

“Then what are you doing sitting here with me? Go tell her that you love her and ask her to marry you!”

“It’s not as simple as that,” I sighed wistfully. “When I say that she hates, I mean it. She really, really hates me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she considered me an enemy….actually, I’m certain she considers me an enemy. I probably top the list.”

Crosby’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why does she hate you so much?”

“Because I’ve always been rather rude and obnoxious to her. I’m close to her family, but we’ve never gotten along. We’vealways bickered and argued and never seen eye to eye. There’s just something about her that makes me want to tease her every time I see her, and she doesn’t take kindly to being teased. Though she’s very good at giving just as good as she gets,” I laughed, the sound disguising the truth.

Astrid didn’t just hate me because I teased her. She hated me because I nearly killed her father.

If I was her, I would hate me, too.

I was new to Jorvik and out on my first sea mission. It was a rather short one, set to last only a few weeks–a month at the very most. Daewon had accompanied me as part of the crew for guidance and to help if needed. He promised to only step in if it was absolutely necessary, and as I had been Captain of a ship a few times before, I wasn’t the least bit worried. Except, I should have been. And I knew it was that cocky attitude which got us into trouble in the first place.

We didn’t have Odin on the ship, and under my instruction, we had steered off course. It wouldn’t have been an issue if I had accepted help from Daewon when he offered it. Instead, I was stubborn and continued sailing us in the direction of trouble.

In this particular case, trouble came in the form of a pirate ship much larger than ours, just waiting around for unsuspecting ships to infiltrate. I had all but led us into their clutches, and we had only narrowly escaped when I had captured the Captain’s son and pressed my dagger into his neck, threatening to end his life then and there if they didn’t let us go.

I may not have a map ingrained into my mind like Odin, but I did know that we couldn’t trust a pirate. Not only did we tie them all up and place them into the cellar of our ship, but we traded ships and returned home with their far larger, greater one.

That was how we acquired The Serpent.

That was also how Astrid started to hate me, despite Daewon’s insistence that it wasn’t my fault, and there was noway of knowing that pirates awaited poor ships like us further west.

She had taken a strong dislike to me then, and it didn’t help that I aggravated her to no end every time I saw her, forcing the gap between us even more.

“Surely, you can leverage the fact that you’re close with her family and get her father’s permission to marry her?” Crosby asked, craning his neck to get another look at the group of women.

“Yes, but I’d much prefer it if she chooses to marry me because she wants to and not because her father has ordained it,” I murmured and stood up, dusting the sand off my trousers. “I need to get going now, Crosby, but I look forward to seeing more of you. Keep up the good work.”

Crosby grinned and saluted me. “Aye, aye, Captain!”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Iwas early, and if I hadn’t restrained myself by forcing myself to go for another swim, I would have been here over an hour ago. The one good thing about arriving early–there were many bad things, the major one being that I would reek of desperation–was that I could catch Astrid before she tried to sneak out.

Because I knew her, and she would definitely try to sneak out of the house just to avoid me.

As I had come from my hut, and there was a shortcut via the back, I needed to round the side of the hut to get to the front. I was very tempted to find a pebble and throw it at Astrid’s window, giving her something else to hate me for, but the thought left my mind when I overheard a conversation that probably wasn’t meant for my ears.

“What do you mean he’s asked for her hand in marriage?” Katarina shrieked in disbelief, and if I weren’t eavesdropping on their conversation right now, I would have shrieked along with her.

“I mean exactly what it sounds like, my dear,” Daewon chuckled. “He came up to me when I was walking home and asked for her hand in marriage.”

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