Thrown Through Time

Chapter 13

Ulriech had indeed announced that he would be marrying Olga, the redhead who always seemed to slather compliments and praise on him. No one seemed to be surprised, and the party went on for hours, well into the night.

Sophie spent the next few days, while Eirik was otherwise engaged with whatever secret he was working on, and she scrubbed her house from top to bottom. The kitten was growing and had already shown a knack for catching mice. The rats were too big for him yet, but once he grew just a bit more and packed on a few pounds, he'd probably be quite proficient at it.

She spent some time with Sabine, as well, telling her how everything went during the race.

"Eirik let Ulriech win," Sabine said, sitting in her rocking chair with some sewing in her hands.

"Eirik said Ulriech knocked him out."

"Ulriech could never knock Eirik out. That's pish!"

"I heard it from Eirik himself!"

"Well then he let him!" she said, dropping her sewing onto her lap.

"Why would he do that?"

"My guess is he wanted to force Ulriech to play his hand."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since you came here, Ulriech's blabbered to everyone about how he's going to marry you, even though we all know you'd never have him. But Eirik can't make you an offer if Ulriech was going to, so he let him win so Ulriech would have to ask you, or ask someone else. Thank goodness he asked someone else!"

"I've never been so relieved in my entire life." Sophie laughed.

"You would have just gotten up there in front of everyone and turned him down, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would have!"

"Good girl!" she laughed, patting her hand. "Now Eirik is free to pursue you himself."

"He's never indicated that he wanted to."

"Sure he has!" she said.

"When?" Had she missed something?

"In all the little things," she said. "He trains you. He makes sure you have food. Last night he made sure you had something to drink. He stands up to Ulriech on your behalf. He stands up to his father for you. It's the little things."

"That doesn't mean he wants to marry me." Sophie said. "Those are things a friend does for you."

"Those are things I have never seen Eirik do for anyone else." the woman said. "And I pay a lot of attention to him, you know I do!"

Sophie laughed. Sabine had a little bit of a crush on him and never shied away from letting everyone know. "I know you do."

"That boy is so beautiful to look at," she sighed, closing her eyes to picture him in her mind. "Mm-mmmm-mm!"

"When you're finished fantasizing about poor Eirik," Sophie laughed softly. "I was wondering if you could make me another pair of those pants."

"They worked good, did they?"

"They were perfect," she replied. "If I hadn't been shoved into a rock, I might have actually been able to keep up with Eirik."

"A lot of those men don't like being bested by a girl." Sabine said.

"I noticed that," she said. With a long sigh, she realized she needed to get back to her house and put things back together. She bid Sabine goodnight and walked back towards her house.