Page 99 of Shared By the Vikings

She nodded, relieved, then, “What if it’s a daughter?”

“Then I pity the boy who decides to bed her,” Gunnvar said, resting his hand over Ingrid’s, the one placed on her stomach. “For he will have four warriors to prove himself to, and we have very high standards for who our wife and daughter will associate with.”

She sighed and leaned closer to him. She was tired, and the gently bobbing water was rocking her into a dozing state, as was the sound of the waves lapping at the bow.

“Sleep,” Gunnvar said, kissing the top of her head. “Sleep, little wolf.”

She closed her eyes, happy to be in his arms and give in to the exhaustion a long journey at sea had created.

When she woke she was still wrapped in a thick pair of arms and pressed up against a warm hard body, but it was no longer Gunnvar, it was Raud.

Gunnvar and Tali were rowing, and the splash of their oars combined with the flicker of the sail. Erik was chewing on a piece of dried fish, and again staring out into the distance as though monitoring their course.

She stirred, her ass a little numb from being in one position for so long.

“Hey, you’re awake.” Raud smoothed her hair back from her face as she sat straight.

Her cheek held a line on it from his tunic, and she rubbed it, feeling the indentation.

“You must have been tired,” he said.

Yawning, she stretched her arms over her head. “I was.” She nodded at the two spare oars. “But I’ll row now.”

“There is no need.” He smiled. “Jarl Erik wanted us to adjust our course so Tali and Gunnvar are doing that.”

“Oh.” The horizon was still empty of anything other than sparkling flat sea.

She reached for a tankard of water and drank.

“Better?” he asked.

“Ja.”

“Good.” He held out his arms, inviting her back into his embrace.

She went happily. The sun was still high and there were many more hours left for her to pull her weight and row.

“You know,” he said, rubbing her arm, the small work-worn ridges on his palm a little rough on her skin. “I paid the seer a visit, too.”

“In Ravndal?”

“Ja.”

“You never told me.”

“I’m telling you now.”

“Go on.”

He paused, then, “What he said didn’t make sense, at all, which is why I never said anything, I suppose.”

“I could have helped you work it out.”

“I felt foolish, Ingrid, I couldn’t make any sense of his riddles and prophesies.”

“You should never feel foolish with me. I love you.”

“And I love you. But I am a man, a Viking warrior, it hurts part of my soul when the gods give me a puzzle my brain cannot decipher.”

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