by Lisa Plumley
He laughed. ‘Answer the question. I can always beat my sword into a plough. I’m willing to try.’
Kara sobered. ‘I want you to stay, but I saw your face in the aftermath of the attack. You live for adventure. It makes you alive. I’ve no wish for you to live a half-life. You would be bored at Jaarlshiem, being a farmer. I can carry the burden of the estate, knowing that you will come back to me.’
‘You are wrong there, Kara.’ He smoothed her hair away from her forehead. ‘I live for you. The only reason I am alive is because of you. You are the face I fight for. I didn’t realise it fully until we were attacked and I had to fight, but I have been always fighting to return to you. I am not fighting to get away from you. Quite the opposite. I need you in my life. I once selfishly loved you because you made me feel like I could be a hero. You believed in my dreams. Then when my dreams turned to dust, I couldn’t face you turning away from me. I still want to be your hero, Kara, but I want to be part of your life more.’
Her heart did a crazy flip. He wanted to be with her. ‘Why were you closeted so long with the king?’
‘The king has offered me a new position as his advisor.’ Ash stood a little straighter. ‘He wants someone who has knowledge of today’s world. He wants someone who can inspire the younger men and who can tell them where the best markets are. But I don’t need to go to those markets. I can tell the men where to go.’
‘And you are going to take it?’ Kara clapped her hands. ‘It is the sort of thing you were born to do, Ash.’
‘I wanted to speak to you first before I gave the king my answer. He granted my request.’
‘Then what is the problem?’ Kara withdrew her hands from his. ‘You should take it.’
‘You were wrong earlier when you said that all I was doing was trying to prove myself to my father.’ He touched her cheek. ‘It ceased to be about making my father proud years ago. I wanted to be a hero in your eyes.’
She closed her eyes, silently cursing her younger self. ‘You were, Ash. You have never had to prove anything to me. You still are.’
He put his fingers over her mouth. ‘I was wrong. You are wrong. Instead of wanting to be your hero I should have wanted to be your husband. A husband is more than someone to be admired. He is someone you can count on and who is there to share life’s ups and downs. I want to share my whole life with you, instead of consigning you to the outskirts. Will you let me be that husband?’
‘And that is what you want for us?’ Kara stared at him, hardly daring to breathe. ‘You want to be my husband?’
‘With my whole heart.’ Ash knelt down on one knee. ‘Will you stay with me always and be my wife in truth? I might not always be the perfect husband, but I will always be the husband who wants you by his side. I love you, Kara, and I’m unafraid of admitting it.’
‘I will.’ She grasped his hands and raised him to standing. ‘Go and take the king’s offer. We will stay in Sand for the time you need to be here. Our family will be together.’
He gathered her face between his hands. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘I know but you have me.’ She cupped his face between hers. ‘Just as I don’t deserve you. I was so frightened of loving you again, Ash, that I nearly missed my second chance to be loved. I need you in my life because you complete me.’
‘As you complete me.’ He put his arms about her and knew that he had truly come home.
* * * * *
Author’s Historical Note
Researching the early Viking period is like doing a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. The period is often referred to as ‘the semi-legendary period’ as most of the history we know about Scandinavia at that time comes from sagas which were written down long after the event.
The earliest history of Norwegian kings is the Morkinskinna saga, which in its current form dates from approximately 1220 but is reputed to have been first written down in about 1025. ‘Morkinskinna’ literally means ‘the mouldy parchment’ and refers to the condition in which it was first found. We know from that the names of various petty kingdoms of Norway, and can make some guesses as to who was in power then, but there are huge gaps in the historical record.
Because of various ship burials most of the artefacts date from this period, but the exact meaning of the burials and who was actually in them is something that historians can only guess at.
We know a bit from other sources. For example, the Lindisfarne raid is well documented, but the true cause of the raid is a matter of conjecture. One recent theory is that the militant Christianity of Charlemagne’s Frankish empire against the pagan Scandinavia caused the Vikings to be more violent than they had been in the past. Certainly there is evidence of some violent conflicts in the years immediately preceding the Lindisfarne raid.
If you are interested in the period, and want to read something other than the Morkinskinna, I have found the following books to be very useful:
Ferguson, Robert. The Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings (2010 Penguin Books, London)
Haywood, John. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (1995 Penguin Books, London)
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age (2005 The Boydell Press, Suffolk)
O’Brien, Harriet. Queen Emma and the Vikings: The Woman Who Shaped the Events of 1066 (2006 Bloomsbury, London)
Magnusson, Magnus KBE. The Vikings (2008 The History Press, Gloucestershire)
Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings revised edition translated by Susan Margeson and Kirsten Williams (1998 Penguin Books, London)
Wood, Michael. In Search of the Dark Ages (2006 BBC Books, London)
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ISBN-13: 9781460331675
RETURN OF THE VIKING WARRIOR
Copyright © 2014 by Michelle Styles
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