Arcanum

A Surprising Ally

Pulled from sleep with a start, Agnethe drew her covers tight to her chin while she listened for a small sound she couldn't place. Compelled to know what it was, she tiptoed to her doorway and turned her ear toward the hall. The door in her parents' room rattled. Stuck between wanting to run to Klaus, or dive back under her covers, she heard a small voice calling her name. 


Solaug? No. Rushing to the door she heard it again. "Solaug? Is that you?" she whispered.


"Yes, Agnethe, it's me. Please let me in."


"The door is blocked, go around to the front."


"I don't want to be seen, can you come out to me?"


A twinge of fear skittered over Agnethe's skin, but she pushed it aside. Solaug wouldn't hurt me. "I'll be right there, stay on the side of the house in the shadows, and I'll come out."


"Hurry."


Agnethe turned to run to her cousin and slapped right into the bare chest of Klaus as he raced into the bedroom. Slipping his arm around her waist, he pulled her close before she could fall to the ground. Eyes wide and afraid to breathe, she stared at his muscled shoulders with his tattoos in full view and forgot about Solaug. 


"Are you alright? Is someone out there?"


Swallowing hard, she had to clear her suddenly dry throat to speak. "Um, yes." Flustered, she couldn't remember her cousin's name for a second. "Solaug. Solaug is outside. She wants to talk with me." Shaking her head she regained her focus but didn't push away from Klaus, even when she realized his other hand held an axe.


"Why would she come in the middle of the night? It could be a ruse."


"No, I'm sure she wouldn't do that. Come with me. If you want." Absently she rubbed Klaus' chest, tracing the edge of one of the tattoos with her finger and felt his breath hitch. Yanking her hand to her side she pulled out of his embrace, and hurried from the room toward the front, happy for the darkness to hide her embarrassment. Klaus followed her after a few seconds, shifting her to the side when they reached the front so he went out first. They found Solaug, alone, huddled in the shadows, without a cloak and shivering. 


"What are you doing here at this hour? Are you by yourself?" Agnethe asked and started rubbing the girl's arms to warm her.


"I had to get away. This was the only place I could think to go." At that moment there was a rattle of some empty crates and something jumped out toward them.


Klaus raised his axe and Agnethe screamed, "No!" In the commotion, Solaug slammed herself against the wall and Agnethe reached out to stop Klaus' arm from swinging the axe. 


"It's only Caesar."


It took a few seconds for Klaus to register her words and lower his arm with a sigh. "It was almost two Caesar's." He huffed and shook his head as the cat darted away. "Let's get inside and talk there."


Solaug was shaking, not just from the cold, as she followed Agnethe into the house. Klaus stoked the fire and added a few logs to warm the room before turning to the girls.


"Why did you need to get away?" Agnethe asked her cousin, but the girl was staring at Klaus with wide eyes. Agnethe looked over her shoulder at Klaus standing in only his trousers, still without a shirt and no shoes. "Perhaps we should go to my room to talk." Pulling Solaug along with her, the girl finally looked at Agnethe, but stopped and stared at her as well. "What now?"


"It's just the two of you here?" Solaug looked from Agnethe to Klaus and back.


Agnethe shook her head and then realized that she was in her night clothes. "He is sleeping out here. Come with me and tell me what happened." She hurried her cousin toward her bedroom, grabbing a taper to light a candle as she went. Solaug followed but continued to gape at Klaus as she stumbled along.


Pushing Solaug through the door curtain, Agnethe lit several small candles, then walked to her bed and the two girls sat next to each other. "Now, please tell me why you are here?"


"I'm to be married to Godolf." Solaug leapt from the side of the bed and began pacing, hands clenching and unclenching into fists at her sides.


"When did this happen? You are not old enough, or ready to marry." And why come to me about it?


"Heidrun is going to marry Svein and then we are all going to move into his home for a time. He needs someone to care for his father which Mother will do. In time she'll find someone to put up with Malfrid's whining and marry her off also, but she has pledged me to Godolf and we are to marry as soon as Trond leaves for the wapentake." Solaug stopped pacing and stood with her shoulders sagged. 


"They settled on a bride price today. It was so quick. Mother says that she has to make sure we have protection and the ability to care for ourselves now that Father's gone." Solaug plopped onto the bed again and put her hands over her eyes, starting to cry. "I tried to accept it. Tried not to think of a man with an angry temperance and rough hands becoming my husband. Not to mention his age, but the more I did, the more I knew I couldn't do it. I couldn't sleep with so many thoughts going through my head, so I got up and left. I'm never going back."


"Marriage? What is your mother thinking? She took me in because I'm young and you are a year behind me."


"Will you take me with you? I will do everything I can to help and not be a burden."


Agnethe stared at her cousin, searching Solaug's face to figure out what she was asking. Take you with me? Where am I going?


"I thought I would stay here with you, but now that you will be leaving with Klaus I want to go with you as well."


"Leaving with Klaus where? What are you talking about?"


"I didn't know you were. . .with him. But now," Solaug moved her eyes to Agnethe's night dress and then over her shoulder toward the other room and shrugged her shoulder, "I see you are and when he leaves, you will have to go with him. Please let me come, I can't marry that old man." Solaug's face twisted and her eyes filled with tears again.


"First, I am not with him, in the sense that you mean, and won't be going anywhere. Second, you won't be forced to marry until you are ready, so I think there is time to find someone else for you."


"You don't understand, I am ready. My bleeds began last year. It was easy to hide it with two older sisters around, but a couple of weeks ago Mother found out."


"Oh." Agnethe looked down at her hands in her lap. I wish I was leaving with Klaus. "I don't know what to say, or do. You can stay here with me, but that's all the help I can give. Let's try to get some sleep and maybe we can think of something better in the morning. Maybe Klaus will have an idea." 


Solaug started to untie her overdress and glanced at Agnethe, "You know, you don't need to have your bleeds to be with a man."


"Solaug!" Agnethe let her mouth fall open while she stared at her cousin. Solaug was taller and fuller through the chest than Agnethe, making her look older than she was. "You have not. . .have you?"


The girl giggled and pulled her dress over her head before crawling onto Agnethe's bed in her underpinnings. "No, but Heidrun has, and she tells Malfrid and I all kinds of stories." Her eyes sparkled and a huge grin split her face. "Do you want to hear some?"


"No," Agnethe turned away biting her lip, but peered at her cousin again and tried to hide a grin. Hopping onto the bed and she folded her legs under her, and both girls giggled as Solaug began revealing all the details her older sister had shared.