Kirstie

Captain Olaf’s crew rowed plenty between the towns. The sail only got set a few times. They had to watch out for the small islands and rocks that stuck out from the sea like pretend islands. But then the crew got plenty of rest when the captain and his officers bargained in port. Even so, they were glad when the sail went up and they headed for home. Of course, the closer they got the more nervous Kirstie became.

Wilam laughed.

Kirstie, Wilam, Soren, and Yrsa stayed in Bamburgh for a week while Captain Olaf met with the buyers for his grain, hides, and furs. He did not get as much as he wanted for his grain, but he got more than expected for the furs, so it evened out. The captain set aside enough for the next trip. His crew got paid out of the profit. It came to so much per week depending on the position aboard ship, and a small bonus for a successful trip. No one would get rich, but it paid better than breaking your back on a farm plot all year, and most of the crew agreed to the fall sailing. Captain Olaf only had to fill a few spots before he would be ready to go on the first of September.

“We have sailed the fall route for ten years,” he told Kirstie. “Flanders, Brittany where they have apples in the fall, Wessex, and Kent. By December first at the latest we should be in East Anglia. Then we may stop in Lindsay and should be home for the hard part of winter. January and February we all relax and gather on the first of March. Spring and summer we used to trade in the north. Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Orkney, and Shetland Islands, and sometimes the Hebrides if we get a delivery contract. We went twice to the Faroe Islands, and once all the way to Iceland.”

“Greenland?” Kirstie asked.

Captain Olaf squinted to think. “No. Where is Greenland?”

Kirstie imagined she was ahead of herself. “So, what prompted you to attempt the waters of those terrible Vikings?”

“We had an invitation, a name, and a reason to go,” Captain Olaf admitted. “Trade in Scotland and the Islands has gotten crowded with ships. It is hard to make a living competing with so many. But Norway. No one has dared the Norse lands for more than a hundred years. If we can be the first to establish several ports for trade, we might not get rich, but we can make a good living. A few more trips like this last one and I might even buy a second ship.”

“And you don’t mind me taking Wilam at this time?” Kirsti asked.

“You go on,” Captain Olaf said. “I first sailed as a navigator and my skills are not that rusty. Besides, I think I could sail the Flanders route with my eyes closed. Take the four weeks of August, just send Brant back to me by the first of September and we will do fine.”

Kirstie planted a kiss on the old man’s cheek and got in the wagon Wilam rented. She took Soren from Yrsa’s arms and loved on the boy, and then tried hard not to complain when the wagon driver hit every rock and pothole he could find. Of course, Wilam and Brant rode on horseback which Kirstie thought was hardly fair, but then she could not exactly take Soren safely on the back of a horse and he was getting too big and heavy for her backpack.

“Mrs. Mom,” she called herself, along with “Mrs. Ouch.”

Lucker was primarily a Danish settlement built up when Halfdan Ragnarsson came storming through the area in 875-876. Wilam was actually born to an Anglish woman in January or February of 878 which made him five years older than Kirstie and raised some question about the timing as to when Halfdan actually went to Dublin. Brant was five years older than Wilam, being born in 873, shortly after the time the people of Northumbria threw off their Danish puppet ruler, Ecgberht I in favor of King Ricsige. King Ricsige only ruled three years before Wilam’s father, Halfdan came in 875 and threw him out.

“Politics, politics,” Kirstie said without explaining.

When they came upon Lucker in the early afternoon, they hurried. They saw smoke, and several homes and buildings, including the church burning brightly. It took no time at all to figure out what happened. Brant and Wilam headed straight for Brant’s home. Kirstie and the wagon stopped in the central square. There were dead bodies around the square, some local men, and some women along with a few Vikings bodies.

Kirstie got down and examined the faces. There were not many Vikings, but she did not have to see many to name the culprits. Njal the Giant, Odger from Vigg, and Kare. At least one of the dead men was from Strindlos. “They waited four years,” Kirstie cried to Yrsa. “They came back because they got away with it so easily on the first trip.” Kirstie got angry thinking about it. “They can’t have docked in the same cove by Howick, but they can’t be far to the coast.”

“Maybe they were seen,” Yrsa suggested.

Kirstie shook her head as Wilam rode up. “Come on, we need your help. Mother Greta maybe,” he said, indicating that there were injuries. Kirstie and Yrsa with Soren mounted the wagon right away and the wagon driver followed Wilam. The house looked fine but inside, Brant’s younger brother was laid out on the bed, his mother sat in the kitchen where she collapsed into a chair. She had a deep cut in her leg. One Viking body blocked the door. Kirstie recognized the body as one of Captain Odger’s men.

Kirstie kissed Wilam’s cheek and traded places through time with Mother Greta. She paused in the doorway to look at Eadmund before she sewed up Brant’s mother’s leg using the self-dissolving thread Doctor Mishka had in her medical bag.

“But what of Eadmund?” Brant asked in his concern. Eadmund, all of twenty-four, a bit more than a year younger than Wilam laid out on the bed and did not moan too much as he passed in and out of consciousness. Sadly, Mother Greta shook her head for Eadmund as she worked on Brant’s Mother’s leg.

“I’m sorry,” Greta said. “There is nothing I can do for him. He won’t suffer for long.”

“Eadmund,” Brant’s mother cried out before she began to cry. She wanted to see him but Greta would not let her walk to him. Brant carried her and set her in a chair by Eadmund’s bed.

Wilam and the wagon driver picked up the Viking in the doorway and threw the body in the street. Men would come and collect the body soon enough. Wilam came back in to sit with Kirstie in the kitchen. He told about growing up next door to Brant. It was not news to Kirstie but talking kept Wilam’s mind occupied and not focused on death.

Halfdan set my mother up in the house next door and charged Brant’s father with watching over her. I was born, and she lived alone for three years before Eadgyd and Sven, Brant’s mother and father introduced her to Espen. Espen became my stepfather when I was about Soren’s age. My mother had a girl, Mary Katherine when I was five, nearly six. She is a year younger than you, twenty, I think. My brothers are Ecgberht, he is seventeen, and Godric is fourteen.

“And Mary Katherine is not married,” Kirstie wanted to get the story straight.

“She was,” Wilam said. “She married a man I never met when she was sixteen, but he disappeared after a month, and we haven’t heard from him since.”

Kirstie felt sorry for Mary Katherine but thought to change the subject. “You moved?” Kirstie asked, knowing Wilam lived in Ellingham, the English town about an hour away. Of course, she already knew all of this, but Wilam seemed to need to talk, so she encouraged him.

“Yes. My father got a chance to buy a good farm outside of Ellingham when I was fifteen. I told him I was not interested in farming. Brant was going to sea and that sounded much more adventurous.”

“Yes, about that…”

“Oh, that is easy to explain. Captain Olaf got the chance to buy his ship, but he needed a crew and decided not any men would do. He came to Lucker to recruit among the old Danish sailors that once owned the North Sea. Brant was eighteen when he first went to sea, being the son of a sailor. That was twelve or thirteen years ago. I was thirteen and missed him, especially two years later when we moved to Ellingham. So, I told my father I was not interested in farming and he, with my mother’s permission, let me move in with Brant’s family where Brant’s father Sven first taught me about navigation. He said Brant and Eadmund did not have the eyes or patience for charts and stars. He also said if I was serious about wanting to go to sea, I had to develop the skill to make myself a valuable crewmember.”

“When did you sail?” Kirstie asked. “I was fourteen when I guided Rune’s longship to Bremen.”

“I was seventeen before Captain Olaf agreed to take me.”

“Wilam,” Brant interrupted them from the other room. “Father and Hrothgar went out and Father left Eadmund here to protect the house. There has been no word from them. I don’t want to leave Eadmund and Mother alone. Would you see what you can find out?”

“Of course,” Wilam said.

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Monday

The trouble reaches Wilam’s home and they will have to chase the kidnappers. until then, Happy Reading.

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