by Terry Spear
It didn’t matter that Gunnolf had no interest in a wife. He didn’t want her to have to wed a man who stood by and wouldn’t protect her father when he had fallen so he could take power.
Beyond that, being alone with Brina again could cause other difficulties for Gunnolf, despite what her father had said. Gunnolf didn’t think the old man had any notion that he would marry Brina and then take over the clan. But what if Robard did?
Gunnolf returned to the main room to see that Brina was eating a steaming bowl of porridge. “Your father wishes to speak with you again, lass.”
Brina’s eyes widened. “Is he…is he going to be all right?”
As tough as the old man was, Gunnolf thought he might just very well pull through. “Ja.”
“Is he…angry with you?”
“Nay. We must leave as soon as we eat though.”
“I wish to stay with my da.”
“I am to take you to Craigly Castle.”
Her lips parted. “He told you this? My da?”
“Ja, lass. ‘Tis what he wishes.” Gunnolf was glad too. He wouldn’t have returned her to her castle if her father had wished it, though he was glad to have his permission to take her to Craigly Castle.
Then she frowned. “What of my da?”
“Speak to him and then we must be on our way.”
Brina quickly finished her porridge, then left the room, and while she spoke with her father, Gunnolf explained to the others what her father wished of him.
“I will give you some food to take with you.” Mara wrapped up some bannocks, dried fish, and cheese.
“I can travel with you for a few miles to get you started on the right path,” Cadel said.
“I would go with you as well,” Rory said, “but my place is with the chief.”
“I understand. Is there anyone else who could go with us?” Gunnolf was still concerned about Seamus and his men and the fight he’d have if they came across them, and about the lass being seen alone with him. Before, they’d had no choice. A man had shot an arrow at her. And Gunnolf had to protect her at all costs. Now, it was a different story.
“Nay,” Rory said. “If we fetch her maid to help chaperone her, the word would spread that we have found Brina. For what reason would she would need her maid then? To run away again? Not only that, but another lass would slow you down.”
“Another fighting man?” If Gunnolf had another man at his back, he could fight three or four men much better than six. He hadn’t planned to take another lass under his wing.
“We have no idea who is still loyal to the chief. In the past, we would have known. Seamus is so ruthless, many are more afraid of disobeying him than they are of our chief. And with him injured so… they know that Seamus would be the more dangerous man to cross. If you are worried that Robard will wish you to wed his daughter, you have every right to be concerned.” Rory cast him a small smile.
Gunnolf didn’t think the man was jesting.
“You have already been alone with the lass, though it appears you have only had her best interests at heart. The chief will want naught less concerning the matter,” Cadel agreed. “He does what he believes is in the clan’s best interest.”
“I do not understand,” Gunnolf said.
“Marriage, man. He will want you to wed his daughter.”
“He said naught of this to me,” Gunnolf said, annoyed. He hadn’t saved the lass to be forced into a marriage with her. Not that he didn’t enjoy sleeping with her, a necessity to keep each other warm. But he knew she wouldn’t want to be married to him without having some choice in the matter either. Though often a lass married whom her father chose for her, so it wasn’t usually a matter of love. Especially in the case of a woman who had some position in the clan.
“He wants you to take her to safety. You were escorting her to Craigly Castle, aye?” Cadel asked.
“Ja.”
“Well, you will have earned the right to marry her, if you keep her out of Seamus’s grasp, and you manage to stay alive.”
“I have no intention of marrying the lass,” Gunnolf said, then paused as Brina came out of the room where her father was and shut the door, wiping fresh tears away.
“Have you eaten enough? We must go,” she said.
“Is he…?”
“Alive, tired. He needs to rest and you and I must leave at once.”
Cadel grabbed his cloak off a peg on the wall. “I will go with you. Hopefully with three of us traveling on horseback, Seamus willna realize Brina is with us since she left on foot.” They bundled up and Cadel warned, “Remember what I said, Gunnolf. You have no choice. Dinna believe that you do.”
Gunnolf and Brina did have a choice. That was why he was taking her to Craigly Castle because it was the right thing to do. Her father might still not survive, and then she could choose whom she wished to wed, and she would be safe with her own family. Though he wondered who was left of her mother’s family.
“You canna take the pup,” Mara said. “He will be too much trouble for you.”
“He will warn us if we have unwanted company, and I willna leave him behind.” Brina was fiercely protective of the pup, holding onto him even tighter.
Cadel led Brina and Gunnolf outside his cottage.
“The horse is Rory’s. The chief said he would gift Brina’s horse to him because she borrowed his without his knowledge.” Cadel went to help her into the saddle, but Gunnolf did the honors instead.
Gunnolf took the pup from her and tucked him into his tunic. He regretted the lass would not be riding with him like before. He’d enjoyed how they’d warmed each other, but he was certain she hadn’t had a wicked thought on her mind. He hadn’t been able to help himself, thinking how warm and soft and sweet she would be beneath him in the throes of passion. But it would be better this way because two riders on one horse would tire it faster.
He knew when they bedded down for the night, his holding her close was only to keep them both alive and well. Which was the mission her father had given him.
So why was he even thinking of bedding down with her again?
They rode for several miles, and when Gunnolf saw the remnants of the Roman tower up ahead, he frowned. “We stayed here last night.” As they drew closer, he could see several horses’ tracks all around the area now.
“Aye, just go that way. Follow the river east, then when you come to a shieling, cross the river, and head north. By tomorrow you should be on MacNeill lands. Dinna think that will stop Seamus or his men though. If he tracks you onto MacNeill lands and finds you before you can get the lass to safety, he will attempt to kill you and take the lass back. Just dinna let them catch you,” Rory said.
Gunnolf had no intention of it, but sometimes a situation like this was completely out of his hands.
For a second time, Brina and Gunnolf stopped at the Roman ruins. Cadel bid them good luck and left for his shieling. Gunnolf hoped Cadel didn’t run into Seamus’s men and have to explain what he was doing out here all alone. But then he saw Cadel headed away from them in a different direction, probably to disguise the fact that he had been traveling with two other riders for a time.
They rested the horses and Gunnolf and Brina drank ale and ate bannocks, while letting the wolf pup explore a bit.
“You were upset when you came out of the room after speaking with your da the second time. Do you wish to talk about it?” Gunnolf asked.
“I fear for his health and that if Seamus learns he is still abed, he may kill him. Especially if he learns my da sent me away with you. You do know why he did it, do you no’?”
“To protect you from Seamus. Your father wants to take over the rule of the clan again and exile Seamus. But he fears the man would try to take you to wife before Robard is strong enough to prevent him.”
“Nay. My da does it to punish Seamus for not coming to his aid when the enemy warrior tried to kill him. My da never does anything out of the kindness of his heart. Because of Seamus’s betrayal, my d
a hopes to ensure I dinna marry him as a way of punishing him.”
Not knowing her father, except for this one brief encounter, Gunnolf could see Brina’s point. “No matter the reason, leaving as you did is the right thing to do, dinna you agree?”
She looked up at Gunnolf and nodded. But he thought she appeared unsure of the road ahead. Which was understandable. Until they reached the safety of the MacNeill lands, their success could be hard won if not impossible to manage.
In truth, Brina prayed her da would survive and eliminate the traitor in his midst. She fervently hoped she and Gunnolf would make it to the MacNeill holdings and safely, because she knew Seamus and his men would kill Gunnolf if they caught up to them for daring to take her anywhere. Even if he’d returned her to the castle, Seamus would have had Gunnolf executed. He would be angry that Gunnolf had been alone with her for any length of time no matter how innocent their encounter.
If her da returned to rule the clan and managed to destroy Seamus and his followers, she would be torn between returning home, or staying with the MacNeills—if she was even tolerated there. She might not like the people, despite how Gunnolf believed she would be accepted. At her da’s home, she was the chief’s daughter. At her mother’s? Possibly, she could be a kitchen maid like her mother with a tarnished reputation. Even though she wouldn’t be carrying a child, she could imagine people watching her, seeing if she had a bairn growing in her belly. The Viking’s bairn. Her mother’s actions would reflect on her as well. She wasn’t sure that the MacNeills would welcome her with open arms.
If her da returned to power, she knew he would insist Gunnolf marry her. He needed a strong right hand. And if he couldn’t get him to agree any other way, he’d force the issue by saying Gunnolf had taken her for his wife and must return her home. She was certain of it. As honorable as Gunnolf seemed to be, she suspected he would feel obligated to do so. Not willingly though. She had overheard his claim that he didn’t want a wife.
They again mounted and rode off. She was glad she had her own horse to ride. Not hers, exactly, but a good horse named Baldur. She thought it odd that Rory had named him after a Norse god of peace and goodness. But there had been rumors that Rory had ancestors who had been Vikings too.
She and Gunnolf were quiet, not speaking as they walked alongside a creek through a narrow gorge. All she saw was a white hawk flying high overhead, a cold gray sky, misty clouds moving lower and headed in their direction again, though earlier the fog had lifted into the sky for a time. Now, it was again swallowing everything up until she and Gunnolf were surrounded by thick mist. Snow draped the pine branches and the ground, though the temperature was warming up a bit and the snow was dripping, the top layer glistening. But everything from the ground up was now white.
The water gurgled in the creek as their horses clip-clopped on the snowy bank, and she heard a hawk screeching way above, hidden in the blanket of mist.
She listened to the stiff breeze blowing through the trees, trying to make out any other sounds, like that of voices carried in the wind, or of hoof beats clomping in the frozen snow anywhere nearby.
She followed behind Gunnolf, wondering how the wolf pup was doing. They’d fed him scraps of bread and cheese and he’d washed it down with cold water from the stream. But would the MacNeill clansmen take him in? She was afraid they’d kill the pup, fearful of what he would do to their sheep. But if he was raised around the sheep, she thought he would learn that they were friends, not food. Then again, what did she know? She’d raised a wolf pup along with the hunting dogs, so they had all gotten along as if the wolf was part of the hunting pack. She wanted to raise this one too.
It made her think of her mother’s plight, fleeing Craigly Castle and losing her baby. That she had been all alone in the world. Then she frowned. Why had her family not stood up for her? Protected her better? Maybe they couldn’t have stood up to the laird at the time.
She sighed. What if she didn’t have any family left there? That her mother had not had brothers or sisters. That her own parents were dead. She wanted to talk to Gunnolf and discuss her concerns, but she knew it was safer to ride in silence.
When they stopped again, he pulled his horse into the woods, but the mist still clung heavily to the ground and the heavens above as if protecting them from anyone’s view.
“Do you know who your family is? The MacAffins, but what their relation would be to you?” Gunnolf asked quietly as he pulled the pup out of his tunic and placed him on the ground to explore and do his business.
She shook her head. “Would one of my mother’s family members, a sister, mayhap, be working with the kitchen staff like my mother?”
“I do not recall anyone by that name. Your mother might have had a brother or sister even. What about her da? Her mother?”
Brina shrugged. “I dinna know. My da didna want to hear about her past. He fell in love with her the moment he saw her, from what others have told me. I heard rumors he believed she was bearing a son, and he desperately wanted one. He’d been married before, but his wife died in childbirth. My mother lost the bairn, a son. And then she lost another two. Both males also.” Brina sighed. “And then I came along and my da believed I wouldna make it. Not when I was a wee lass.” She straightened her shoulders, looked the brooding Viking in the eyes, and said, “But I survived.” Then she looked at the ground. “My mother died when trying to give him another son. He also died.”
“Was your father angry with you that you lived when your brothers did not survive?”
“Nay, he intended to make the most of it. He would marry me off to someone of his choosing. But then everyone he knew that he wished clan alliances with had wives. Seamus came along, a warrior like you, and he had a proud bearing. My da believed he would have what it took to run the clan when my da could no longer manage. So instead of me marrying outside of the clan, my da wanted me to marry Seamus. My da couldna see what I could see in the man. He is cruel, power hungry, and he will do whatever it takes to crush those who stand in his way. My da thinks that means Seamus is looking out for his best interests, but a man like that thinks only of how his actions will benefit himself.”
“I agree. At least with regard to you, it seems your da wishes something else now.”
“Still, I worry about what will become of my da. If Seamus has any idea that my da knows of his treachery, he will have him killed. I am certain of it. He will make sure he dies in what appears to be an accidental death. As much as I havena been happy with my da over him wanting me to marry Seamus, I knew it would be his choice, no’ mine, and I would have to live with it.”
Gunnolf gave her a dark smile. “And that is why I found you running through the woods, trying to avoid being shot?”
“When I believed my da was dead, I realized my da wouldna decide that for me, no’ from the grave.” She gave Gunnolf just as dark a smile back.
Gunnolf had been pondering whether or not James would want to intercede on Brina’s father’s behalf and send men to rid Robard of Seamus and his men. Her father had not asked for help from them, and Gunnolf wasn’t certain James would be willing to commit his men to such a mission. In any event, he would ask. First, he had to reach Wynne’s home. He hoped the lass was the one Wynne had seen in her visions. He couldn’t imagine she wasn’t.
Still, what if the lass was not? That the one he was to aid was still out there needing his help? Then he would be on his way again. At least, the snow had subsided and the air was a wee bit warmer, enough to begin to melt the snow. The thick mist was welcome though. It cloaked them from their enemies. Yet, it also cloaked their enemies from them. He’d been listening intently from the sounds all around them, watching the wolf pup lap up water from the creek. Then the pup lifted its head and twitched its ears back and forth, his amber eyes watching the area from whence they’d traveled.
Gunnolf’s skin crawled, his muscles bunching in anticipation of meeting up with Seamus and his men. Gunnolf held his finger to his lips, telling
Brina to remain silent, then helped her onto her saddle.
She looked worriedly at the pup standing by the water’s edge, not close to where they’d tethered the horses in the woods.
Gunnolf knew it could be a fatal mistake if he ran to grab the pup and Seamus or his men appeared behind them, swords or arrows readied. He knew it, but he couldn’t leave the pup out there alone, defenseless, orphaned.
“Stay,” Gunnolf said to the lass, only mouthing the word. He was afraid Brina would ride to the creek, dismount, and grab the pup. She wouldn’t be able to manage him and mount again on her own. If she could have, he would have watched her back and urged her to ride on.
Then he heard the sound of hooves walking along the beach, the mist and distance not allowing him to see any riders. But he heard two of them.
Gunnolf crouched and motioned to the puppy to come to him. If he and the wolf lived through this, they had to give it a name. He wanted to snap his fingers to get the pup’s attention, but he didn’t want the riders to hear him. Any sound could carry a distance. Though with the flow of the river, the sound of the horse’s hooves clomping on the ground, and the distance they still were, the riders might not be able to hear anything else.
The pup was staring off in the same direction, watching for the riders, ignoring Gunnolf.
Gunnolf headed for the beach. Damn his need to protect the wolf pup. He knew better, yet he couldn’t leave him behind. Gunnolf moved as silently as he could across the crunchy snow to grab him. As soon as Gunnolf was close, the pup ran to him, wagging his tail as if he knew he was supposed to come then.
Out of the mist, two men galloped like dark demons. Both were black haired, the one wearing a red plaid, the other’s hair pulled back, a braid hanging over his eyes as the wind whipped it about.
On foot by the side of the creek, Gunnolf was at a strong disadvantage as the two warriors bore down on him. Instead of making a stand for it, which would probably lead to his death, he seized the pup and dashed back to where the horses were. He shoved the puppy into Brina’s waiting arms, her expression full of angst.
