Dar laughed. “Yea, he avoids you with a most peculiar vengeance and makes much ado in public over Linette. These old eyes see more than that, though. Methought you were clever enough to sense it, too.” His eyes raked her over scornfully, as if he were having second thoughts about her usefulness in whatever plot he was hatching. “Mayhap I do give you more credit than you warrant.”
“I know Thork wants me in his bed—for now, at least—but I need more than that, and I certainly wouldn’t share him with that spider. It must be marriage or nothing, Dar.”
“For a thrall, you make demands above yourself,” Dar seethed, slamming his wine goblet on a small table near his chair. “Mayhap you should consider which is more important to you, your head or your affronted virtue?”
Ruby raised her chin in silent defiance. “I have to tell you one thing. I can’t be sure that I won’t have to… return to my country some day.”
Dar scowled. “Keep my grandson in Northumbria, and I would not care if you went to the moon.” Then he seemed disgusted with himself. “Begone! ‘Twas foolish to think I could reason with a simple wench.”
Later, Ruby tried to discuss the conversation with Aud.
“Mayhap you should consider taking one step at a time,” Aud advised. “Many a mistress has become a second or third wife, oft the more favored of them all for her patience.”
“Aud! How can you say that? I thought you were a Christian. Can you possibly sanction a man having more than one wife?”
“Yea, I am Christian, but Viking, as well. We are forced to settle in foreign lands; yet we are the ones who must give up our religion and culture,” she said bitterly. “To keep the peace, little by little we become more Saxon than Viking, and that saddens my heart mightily. Still, ’tis hard to give up the old ways totally.”
“But more than one wife! It’s outrageous! Are women permitted to have more than one husband?”
Aud smiled at Ruby’s vehemence. “Of course, not. ‘Twould be foolish. At one time, though, ’twas a wise practice for men to have many wives. More danico, the custom was called. When the men traveled a-Viking or trading and were often gone for years at a time, babes were needed to replace the many lost in battle and the struggle to survive.”
“Hogwash! I think it was a practice devised by men for men’s pleasure,” Ruby scoffed, “and the men got away with it for so long because women are so downtrodden they’re happy just to have the jerks look at them.”
Aud’s lips twitched at Ruby’s fiery words. “That word ‘jerk,’ methinks I like the sound of it,” Aud commented, deliberately changing the subject. “Does it mean something like a stupid, unfeeling, crude man?”
“Exactly!” Ruby nodded, with a smile.
“Good! I will practice using the word.” Aud turned and ordered, “Ella, tell that jerk Vigi to bring more firewood in for the cooking fire.”
Before Ruby left the kitchen, she asked, “Aud, would you have accepted another wife?”
Aud’s eyes twinkled as she looked directly at Ruby. “Never! I would have lopped off Dar’s male part afore I would have allowed him to take another wife.”
Ruby stifled a giggle at Aud’s brazen statement. Then they both burst out laughing at the inconsistency of her logic.
“Ruby, the differences ‘atween us are vast,” Aud said in a more serious tone. “You jump right in and make huge waves, agitating people with your demands and assertions. ‘Tis better to wait for the right moment. Patience truly can be a virtue. Heed my words.”
But Ruby didn’t have time for patience. In little more than a week, the Althing would assemble and Thork would leave Jorvik.
Exiting the kitchen, Ruby headed determinedly for the fields outside the bailey where at least a hundred Viking men of varying ages, but equal in their supreme physical fitness, engaged in serious military maneuvers.
“Where did they all come from?” Ruby asked Vigi, her ever-present guard.
“Some are from Dar’s or Thork’s hirds, their permanent troops. Others are freedmen who work Dar’s lands, and still others were hired to protect the manor when Thork leaves.”