The next morning, after breaking her fast on bannock and cheese, Ruby sought out Aud. She found her in the large, separate outside kitchen where she was removing several baskets from their pegs on the walls.
“I go now to gather mushrooms. Tomorrow we will dry them,” Aud told the cook.
“Can I come with you?” Ruby asked.
Aud jumped in surprise, clasping her chest. “Why?”
“I used to pick mushrooms with my grandmother. I was pretty good at selecting the nonpoisonous ones, but you may have different varieties here. You could show me.”
Aud looked suspicious and not too excited about her company, but she didn’t deny Ruby’s request.
“Would you object if I asked Eirik and Tykir to come with us? Perhaps we could bring a basket of food with us and eat our midday meal outdoors by the pond.”
A brief look of something akin to pain flickered on Aud’s face before she deliberately masked her face with blankness. “Eirik went with Thork and Olaf to help load the ships.”
“How about Tykir?”
After a long pause, Aud replied, “If you wish.”
When their baskets overflowed with the succulent fungi, they returned to the pond and spread their food over a flat boulder. Tykir played merrily at the edge of the water, trying to catch a frog which kept eluding his slippery grasp. Ruby saw Aud gazing at him with sad, yearning eyes.
Now that she had Aud alone, Ruby broached the subject that bothered her most. “Aud, I’m worried about Eirik and Tykir, especially since Thork will be leaving soon.”
Aud got up and started to clear away the food items, not wanting to engage in this forbidden subject.
“Aud, I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t truly care about your great-grandsons. If Thork insists on leaving them in someone else’s care, why can’t they stay with you?”
” ‘Tis Thork’s decision. Whether I agree or not is unimportant. ‘Tis for their own safety.”
The look on Ruby’s face must have lacked understanding because Aud continued, “You have ne’er met Harald and his vicious family. Pray God, you ne’er do.” Tears misted Aud’s eyes and her voice cracked as she went on, “Our only child, Enid, a beautiful, gentle soul, went to him, despite our wishes. ‘Tis not unusual for a Viking to have more than one wife, especially the high-kings. Two there were in Harald’s household afore Enid. She loved him so much it mattered naught, but when he put her and eight other wives aside for his new wife Ragnhild, in addition to numerous mistresses, the shame killed her. They say she took her own life, but, to my mind, ’twas the evil Harald who killed her.”
Aud wiped her eyes angrily. “We tried to get Thork after Enid’s death, to have him live here with us, but Harald would not allow it. Ne’er mind that he has bred twenty sons or more, not that many of them lived to manhood. The brothers kill each other right and left in their ambition to succeed their father as high-king.”
“That’s why Thork decided to become a Jomsviking, isn’t it?”
“Yea. How he lived to age fourteen in that bloody household, I will ne’er know. He will not talk of it. I do know his half-brother Eric… Eric Bloodaxe, they name him… vowed long ago to see Thork dead and all that he holds dear.”
“Oh, my God!”
“Yea, and so you should pray for him. Eric fears Thork mightily, even though he renounced rights to succession. The people hate Eric and well he knows it. The least hint that Thork would fight for the kingship on his father’s death, and Vikings would clamor to his call.”
Ruby nodded her head. “I can understand now why Thork feels he must pretend be has no sons, even why he thinks marriage would be impossible. Still, I have to believe there’s a better solution.” She thought about all that Aud had told her, then asked ruefully, with a laugh, “Did Thork tell you I proposed?”
“Proposed?”
“I asked him to marry me.”
“No-o-o,” Aud replied in amazement, and then giggled.
“He declined, but I’m going to ask again. I have to. That’s probably why he scooted off to Jorvik.” Inside, Ruby quivered at the prospect of approaching Thork again, but she knew she had no choice, and not just because of her safety. She couldn’t let this man she was beginning to love believe she lied to him.