Page 62 of The Heir
“How do we deal with men who mistreat women in the Northlands?”
Bjorn seemed to sober up and his Adam’s apple moved in his throat. “We punish them… harshly.”
“Do you understand that you’re scaring a woman?”
“No. Nora isn’t like that. She likes it when I get rough with her.”
“Look around you. See the frightened people.”
Bjorn’s gaze darted to the crowd. “I didn’t touch them.”
“I don’t fucking care. Your behavior is unacceptable here and it’s unacceptable in the Northlands too. If you scare or abuse Nora or any other woman, you can consider yourself banned from the Northlands. Go back to your place, take a cold shower, and get your shit together.”
Bjorn looked shaken to his core and kept blinking. “You can’t ban me from the Northlands.”
“Fucking try me! If we hear the smallest peep from you, we’ll ask the French to tranquilize your ass and drop you off somewhere outside the safe zone. You’ll be on your own.”
Bjorn made a whimpering sound when Thor pushed at him harder.
“You’re representing all of us Nmen and right now you're making us look stupid.”
“I'm sorry.”
“You’d better be! We had prepared you for this possibility. The French don't do love. They fuck and that's it. Block her from your contacts and move on. Either you can handle it here or you can't. So which one is it?
“But I love her.”
Freya had moved closer. “Bjorn.”
“Yes.”
“We could give you a ride home when the summit is over. Having a broken heart is excruciating. Maybe living in France isn't the right choice for you.”
“Nooo.” Bjorn’s shoulders and head fell. With his anger gone, he looked like a broken man.
“If you want love this is not the place to get it,” Freya said. “I’m afraid that the French don't have that capacity.”
Victor protested, “Stop talking about us as if we are heartless people.”
With his eyes screaming of pain, Bjorn cried out. “You are!”
Called by his suffering, I moved over to touch Bjorn’s shoulder and talked to him in a soft voice. “Bjorn, we see your pain and we are sympathetic. How about you go home, sleep on it, and then tell us in the morning if you want a ride back to the Northlands.”
With moisture in his eyes, Bjorn pleaded with us, “But Mason married a French woman, and Banni and Sparrow married too. Why can't I have Nora?”
Victor snorted, “Because Nora isn't stupid like Belle and Banni. No sane person would trap themselves in a marriage contract. The whole concept is a farce.”
“Oh, shut up, Victor,” Freya said.
He sucked in a breath and I expected him to spew something back at her, but instead Victor moved to the onlookers and waved his arms. I didn’t need to understand French to know that he was telling them to go home.
As the crowd dispersed, Victor walked off too.
“Where are you going?” Freya called after him. “We don't know our way around here. How are we going to find our way back to the tower?”
He threw a hand up and shouted over his shoulder. “I’ve had enough of Northlanders for one night. Your menace of a friend lives here, I'm sure he can show you back to the tower. It's not that hard to find.”
Freya looked to me and then back to Victor. “Leaving us here is rude.”
