Page 23 of Astrid at Sea

“Quiet!” Garth demanded, his voice travelling through the entire square, and for a moment, he was granted the silence he had so unceremoniously requested.

One man stepped forward, having the nerve to sneer at us. “We do not need you and your silly inventions! Leave our men and get off our land!”

Before any of us could reply, a voice of authority beat us to it.

“What’s going on here?” A loud, booming voice asked. At the sound, we all turned our heads in his direction.

Although the man was small in stature, his manner of walking down the steps, with his head held high and a pompous expression, told me he was the Chief of Mann.

When Viktor and the rest of the crew followed after the Chief, I exhaled in relief. Hopefully, they would be able to talk some sense into these people. With how strong-willed and stuck in their misogynistic ways they were, it would undoubtedly be a difficult task.

Viktor’s dark eyes fell on me, brimming with concern. “Astrid?” He called out, his eyebrows furrowing together as he weaved through the crowd to get to me. Hammond, Odin, Manny, and Gustav were quick to follow after him, looking just as concerned as Viktor.

I couldn’t blame them. We must be quite a sight, all worked up like this, with these two men still held captive by Roscoe and Dagfinn.

“What happened?” Viktor asked, his eyes lingering on me for a few seconds before he turned to assess the rest of the crew. His eyes narrowed, demanding an explanation.

Garth was the first to speak up. “These two men had the nerve to get onto the ship and insult us all.” He pointed at the two offenders. “Before you react, wait for me to finish, okay?” There was a hint of warning to his tone, and he sent Viktor a pointed look. “They repeatedly called Astrid a whore and hadthe nerve to try and buy an hour of her time. You’re already mad, Viktor, so I won’t tell you how lewd and insistent they both were.”

“Astrid? A whore?” Viktor questioned in a low, gravelly tone, making me worry about all the dangerous thoughts running through his mind. Before I could reach out to him in hopes of calming down what could very well possibly turn into a horrible situation, he turned his attention to the two men we were still holding as prisoners. “Please let go of these men,” he addressed Roscoe and Dagfinn in a scarily calm tone. “I’d like to have a word with them.”

“Sure thing, Captain,” Dagfinn grinned and turned to Roscoe, indicating to watch him. Roscoe nodded, and we all watched as Dagfinn kicked the dark-haired man forward, laughing when he fell face-first into the ground.

The crew laughed, but the angry shouts from the island people made it apparent they didn’t enjoy it as much as we did.

A man stepped forward from the Mann islanders. “Now, that was unnecessary, don’t you think, Captain Viktor?”

“No, I don’t think it was unnecessary at all, Njal,” Viktor scoffed and shook his head before turning his attention to Roscoe. When he received the signal, Roscoe kicked his leg forward, and the light-haired man fell to the same fate as his dear friend. It was the least of what they deserved for their disrespect.

The two offenders were quick to scramble to their feet, but surrounded by us, they couldn’t escape.

“This is Astrid.” Viktor stepped forward and aside, giving everyone an unrestricted view of me. “Not only is she part of the crew, but she is also my wife. She is not the ship whore. Even if she was a regular crew member, that does not give anyone the right to come onto the ship,my ship,and speak to one of us that way.”

The Chief, Njal, clapped his hands together. “Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s head back to the hut and finalise the deal.”

“I’m not finished here,” Viktor scoffed, not budging. “These men disrespected not only my wife but my entire crew. They must be punished.”

The crew voiced their agreement, and the two offending men glanced around, their eyes wide, desperate for someone to step in and save them.

I was never one to encourage violence, but these two men deserved it.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Njal denied, a cocky smirk on his face as he turned to glance over at me. “I mean, it was a simple mistake. An easy mistake.”

“An easy mistake?” Odin snorted.

“Women never travel on ships.” Njal shrugged nonchalantly. “And on the rare occasions that they do, it’s because they’re the ship whore. My men made a mistake, and they’ve apologised. Let’s drop this here and return to work.”

“This is not something you can just dismiss,” Viktor growled, a dark look on his face. “They have disrespected my wife. They deserve to be punished for their disgusting behaviour.”

“Just let this go, Viktor,” Njal groaned. “Let’s go back to my hut. The sooner we finish, the sooner you can leave and get back on the sea.”

“I don’t think so,” Viktor frowned and turned to face his crew. “Let’s all get back on The Serpent. We have a lot of sailing ahead of us.”

None of us questioned Viktor as we turned around to leave the island called Mann. Stopping here was a waste of time as we had to go out of our way to get here in the first place, but alas, we would never make this mistake again.

“Where are you going?” Njal called after us. He and a few of his men were hot on our tails as we headed back to the shore where The Serpent was docked. “What about the trade?”

“It won’t be happening,” Viktor scoffed, not sparing a single glance over his shoulder. Instead, he squeezed my hand gently and subtly pulled me closer to him. “My crew and I refuse to do business with men who treat women, namely my wife, so horribly.”

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