Blurb:
When Gisla hurls herself aboard Flane’s longship,
she is desperate to avoid marriage to Karli Olafsson. Oli, Flane’s 16-year-old
foster-son, thinks she’s the most wonderful girl he’s ever seen. But a Viking warship
follows them home to Scotland.
Flane woke with a jerk
that set his heart racing. Listening for the sound that must have woken him, he
heard nothing but birds singing and the soft sigh of wind under the thatch. He
lay still, and turned his head on the pillow and gazed at his wife. One of the
quiet joys of every day was to waken first and study her peaceful face as his
mind slowly engaged with possible problems of the day. He admired her clear
profile: the straight nose and long lashes. There was hardly a line on her face
to show for ten years and two boys.
He withdrew quietly
from the bed, dressed and went into the hall. A slave knelt by the fire. Smoke,
blown on an erratic course by the draught from the door, curled up into the
rafters. Skeggi, always one of the first to wake, stood between the open hall
doors, yawning. As Flane joined him, the cool air of early morning struck his
skin and drove away the last cobwebs of sleep. Outside, the loch gleamed like
polished metal under a light blue sky, and reflected every shade of the green
and brown vegetation that covered the opposite hillside.
‘They’re on their way.’
Skeggi nodded toward the mouth of the loch.
Flane followed his
friend’s gesture. The longship, prow-beast still in place, snarled across the
water. His stomach muscles clenched. ‘Get people up. Everyone’s to look normal.
Wake Emer. Then come and join me on the dock.’
‘Armed?’
Flane shook his head.
‘No. If we can, let’s keep it friendly.’
‘What about the girl?’
Flane hesitated, and
then said, ‘Get her out of sight.’
Price $1.60 £0.98 Available here:
Anyone who has read Far After Gold will find some familiar figures here. Oli is no longer a child, but a headstrong 16-year-old youth and he's dizzy with love for Gisla, who clings to him in the hope he will save her from a disastrous marriage. He almost comes to blows with Flane over his choice...
No comments:
Post a Comment