Viking Passion by Flora Speer Page A

be? The Frankish woman was
only a slave. Ragnhilde may have paid Thorkell some compensation
out of her own money, but the matter was between the two of
them.”
    “Wasn’t Thorkell angry?”
    “I do not think so. He cared little for
Erik’s mother, and Ragnhilde was his wife. Two years later Freydis
was born, so they must have been on good terms.” Halfdan’s eyes
strayed across the room once more.
    “But he was concerned enough about his
younger son to send him to your father for safekeeping?”
    “Yes. My father has no other children. He was
happy to have Erik as foster son, and I was happy to have a
brother. We are blood brothers now. We have sworn the pact.”
    “I don’t understand,” Lenora persisted. “If
Erik’s mother was a slave, wasn’t he born a slave too? How is it
that everyone accepts him as Thorkell’s legitimate son?”
    “I can answer that.”
    Lenora swung around in surprise. Erik had
been listening to her conversation with Halfdan. Lenora blushed at
being caught discussing him and hoped he would not be angry. But
Erik spoke in a quiet voice with no trace of irritation.
    “When I was born Thorkell was so happy to
have a second son that he set me free. He planned to free my mother
also if I lived to be one year old. In the meantime, he hoped to
have another son by her. At the yearly Assembly he sat me on his
knee before the other men and legally adopted me. It was that which
made Ragnhilde angry enough to kill my mother. She would have
killed me, too, if my father had not sent me away from here.”
    “So you are legally as much Thorkell’s son as
Snorri?”
    “Except that he is the older. By Odal law,
when Thorkell dies Snorri will inherit everything.”
    “What will you do then?”
    “I do not know.” Erik’s green eyes rested on
Thorkell a moment. “My father is an honest man who has been fair
toward me. I hope he will live for many more years.”
    “What finally happened to Ragnhilde?”
    “She died of a wasting disease while I was
away in Miklagard.”
    “Where is Miklagard?”
    Erik scowled at her. “You ask too many
questions, Lenora. I have told you enough for one night. Be
quiet.”
    She obediently fell silent, and Erik began a
conversation with Halfdan. Lenora did not mind Erik’s brusque
order. So much new information filled her mind that she needed time
to think about it.
    After what Halfdan had just told her she
understood better the bad relations between Erik and Snorri. She
suspected Ragnhilde’s evil deed had cast a blight over Freydis and
Halfdan, too, for how could Erik’s blood brother care for
Ragnhilde’s daughter, how hope for a future with her? Lenora
remembered part of a verse Father Egbert had once read to her from
the Holy Book: “The sins of the fathers... visited upon the
children.” The sins of the mothers, too, it would seem. Poor
Freydis. Poor Halfdan.
    Angrily, she dismissed the thought. Why
should she care about the problems of these Norse? They were all
heathen monsters. Let them settle their own feuds. The thing that
mattered, the most important thing she had learned from her
conversation with Erik and Halfdan, was that in this country slaves
could be set free legally. Thorkell had freed Erik and would have
freed his mother.
    She would ask some of the other women about
it. Surely someone would know how it could be done. She might even
stir up her courage enough to ask Freydis, who, although not very
friendly, was fair and honest with all of the slaves. Perhaps one
day soon she and Edwina could both be free. Lenora hugged the
thought close and smiled to herself, and thought of revenge against
Snorri.

Chapter 7
     
     
    The next morning Lenora saw Edwina again.
Freydis brought her into the weaving room where Lenora was
struggling with the loom, and then quietly walked away, leaving
them alone.
    After a tearful embrace, Lenora looked at her
friend more closely. Edwina was more thin and pale than ever. Her
loose, unbelted Norse clothing,