Page 72 of Shared By the Vikings

“I’ve finished this section,” Tali said. “Let us check the fishnets, Ingrid.”

She stood. “Ja, and gather driftwood.”

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Then we will start a fire and cook.” He slipped his arm around her waist. “And do not fear,” he said quietly. “I will get up early and check the beach yonder for signs of your Raud. And then, if I still don’t see him, I’ll climb that tree and search the horizon.”

She nodded at the oak she’d traversed the day before. “Be careful, it’s higher than it looks.”

“You know this how?”

“It’s the one I went up yesterday, to see the monastery.”

He laughed and squeezed her closer. “You are a woman of surprises, how many princesses can fire an arrow and ascend a tree?”

“I am no ordinary princess.”

“Oh, I know that.” He kissed the side of her head. “Believe me, I know that.”

As they walked, Ingrid wrapped her arm around his waist and enjoyed his hot skin against her arm. Tali was the quieter, younger of her three Vikings, but that seemed to increase his intensity, the meaning in his words. And there was something about his honesty and quick smile that was particularly alluring.

“Do you have brothers, Tali?” she asked.

“One, he is still a boy.”

“Sisters?”

“No, my mother took on my niece though, her parents were taken by fever. She is like a sister to me, though she has a bairn of her own now.”

“That was kind of your mother.”

“And my father, he provides. But it is what families do.”

“You’re right.” She paused. “Do you wish for sons?”

“Ja, doesn’t every warrior wish for that?”

She nodded.

He squeezed her a little closer. “I also wish for daughters, to help their mother, to be there for their mother.” He huffed. “Though I’d pity any man who hurt or took advantage of a daughter of mine.”

“Or Erik’s or Gunnvar’s.”

“That is true. We are not Vikings to be crossed.”

And she was glad about that.

They reached the net and tugged it from the water. It held four fat river fish.

“Good, we will eat like kings.” Tali unhooked them and then banged a stone on each of their heads.

“Let’s put the net back, then morrow we will have more, to take on our journey.”

“And we must remember the net to catch out at sea.”

Trepidation at the prospect of the long trip home caught in Ingrid’s belly but she pushed it aside. They had no choice. It was time to leave and she would have to face her father at some point in the future.

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