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Author's Chapter Notes:
A lot of this chapter is taken up by one of my favourite Norse myths. hope you all enjoy.
For fyreburned. hope you have a better time soon
thanks for all the reviews and please keep 'em coming they make my fingers work much faster
William and Buffy, Connor and Faith were led to the table closest to the fire, sitting near the Jarl himself. There were hard looks from Hafdan, but others were kinder in their stares. There was a Moor on one of the lower tables, watching them closely: William had never seen a man with such dark skin before. He’d heard about them of course, but here was a man from… somewhere… sitting at the table with them. He couldn’t help but stare. Buffy and Faith were greeting friends right and left. They knew so many of the people here. The men had all stood and all lowered their heads as Buffy approached them, showing the sort of respect the Lady Athelflaed normally received. The Moor took her hand and bowed low over it. He then knelt and raised it to his lips.

‘My dear Lady, I hope all is well with you. Your holdings fare very well.’

‘Robin,’ she smiled down at the man and raised him up to his feet. ‘You must tell me more on the morrow. I think Connor is hoping to visit on the way back to his hall. He wants to remind you that the hall has a mistress,’ she added with a laugh.

‘As if I could ever forget,' Robin spluttered. ‘I have brought the profits for this year for you to spend. I know you love shopping and word is that the moneyer is coming, and a wool merchant, as well as all the normal traders.’

Buffy's eyes lit up at the thought of all that shopping. She smiled up at the Moor and turned to William.

‘William, this my Reeve, Robin, he manages my estates while I look after Connor's. Robin, this is William of Wessex, he is guesting with us for the year.’ The black man gave a deep bow. ‘My lord,' he said with a sneer in his voice.

William gave a small head bow and moved forward to where Jarl Leif was waiting for them.

There was a serf holding a great bowl filled with scented water; dried rose petals floated on the top. Buffy washed her hands, as did Faith. Connor and William followed suit and took their places at the Jarl’s table. There was an older woman sitting on William's left; Buffy had been placed on the Lord's right, at the other side of the table. Connor sat by him on the left, then Faith, him and the woman he didn't know.

Skapti the Lawspeaker stood up and spoke the blessing on the food, then plates and plates of food were brought in. William introduced himself carefully to the woman.

‘My name is Linden,’ she answered. ‘I am skald to the Jarl.’

‘I am William of Wessex, and I'm staying with Connor for the year.’

Linden looked at the young man. ‘Have you seen twenty summers yet?’ she asked.

‘No, I haven't,’ he answered, surprised at her question.

‘The lady Elizabeth is very beautiful, isn't she?’

William looked down the table at Buffy, who was laughing at something Leif had said to her. She reminded him of his mother.

‘Very,’ he answered. She smiled and started tackling the fish on her plate. They had a fair meal placed before them, then the mead horn was passed around. William was already feeling the effects of all the ale and he didn’t want to get drunk so was about to pass when Linden reached across and quietly whispered, ‘It would be considered the height of bad manners to refuse the horn.’

William smiled his thanks as he raised it to his lips and sipped at the nectar it contained. The mead was the best he’d ever tasted. He lifted the horn high in toast to the Jarl and passed it onto Linden. She sipped at it then called for another mug of ale and stood up.

‘A story,’ she said, ‘a story that is guaranteed to get Buffy to do what ever I want!

‘There came a time when Thor woke up and stretched his hand out to reach for his precious hammer, but it was gone. His hammer, Mjollnir, was gone, he couldn’t have lost it, could he? Maybe, he was drunk last night. So he started searching his hall. Now we’ve all seen a man try and look for something, and a God is no different. The chests were opened and tossed. His bed was stripped. It looked like a storm wind had ripped through his hall, but the hammer was nowhere.
‘He had to go and tell Odin, the hammer that protected Asgard from the giants was missing. Thor looked at his horn and took a great swig from it, he would need the courage and made his way to Valhalla, Odin’s Great Hall. Then he had an idea: he’d not gone straight home! He’d gone to Frey’s first. So he went to Frey’s hall and started searching, wrecking his blood-brother’s hall the same way he’d wrecked his own. Frey was not happy to say the least. So Thor left and headed for Valhalla but before he could enter it he met Freya and Frigga: they were walking with Heimdall, keeper of the rainbow bridge and Loki, the mischief maker. They noticed that Thor looked worried and came up to him.
‘What’s the matter, Thor?’
‘I’ve lost my hammer,’ he mumbled.
Loki started laughing, he laughed so much he was rolling around on the floor. It was good that someone else was in trouble and not him.
‘You’ve what?!’ The women exclaimed and started screaming and shouting at Thor who, for all that he stood head and shoulders above the women, hung his head in shame. Odin came from his Hall to see what all the noise was about and Freya shouted to him:
‘This idiot has lost his hammer, we have to do something about it. We have to find it before the Giants find out.’
‘A voice at the great gate sounded out. ‘It’s too late for that.’ It was one of the frost Giants. ‘I have your great hammer, it’s safe and secure so there is no need to get physical.’ As his feet were lifted high off of the ground; Thor’s red beard and face hair twitched with indignation.
‘Give me back my hammer!!’ He yelled straight into the giant’s face.
‘Only if I can marry Freya: that’s my price.’ And he wriggled out from Thor’s grasp and ran off.
Freya started screaming, there was NO WAY she was going to marry a Frost Giant. ‘If you want someone to marry that Giant, you do it, you put on the dress and marry him!’
‘I’m not a woman, I can’t marry a giant.’ Mumbled Thor. But Freya and Frigga were looking at one another and smiling. Loki looked Thor up and down.
‘A nice veil, a dress and borrowing your necklace… we could do it.’
‘He’d notice: I’m two foot taller than Freya and I have a beard!’
‘A veil,’ Loki looked at the beard closely. ‘A thick, a very thick veil,’ he added, laughing.
‘If you’re doing that to me, then you are going to be my maid!’ Thor said, locking Loki’s head in a head lock.’

William looked across at Buffy: her eyes were shining and she was lost in the story.

‘And so it was: three days later Loki and Thor set off in a sleigh to the Ice Giant’s castle. The Ice Giant had watchers looking out for his bride. He couldn’t believe it, he was going to marry Freya, the most beautiful woman in the world.
‘He positioned himself on the High Seat, making sure that the light shone off his warts to the best effect, when the two ‘women’ entered his hall.
‘Well, my Lords, you have never seen such a sight: Loki looked quite sweet, in fact he looked like a woman, much to his discomfort, but Thor looked ridiculous, the dress wrapped well around him, and on his neck he wore Freya’s golden necklace. His face was covered with a thick veil and his hair with a thicker wimple.
‘She seems bigger than I remember,’ the giant spoke and Loki jumped in, ‘we’ve wrapped her up too keep her warm, its just the dresses she has brought as part of her dowry.’
‘Ah,’ said the giant and started whispering sweet nothings to his new bride. Thor got furious, his eyes flashed with fire.
‘Now I know that’s not supposed to happen, her eyes glowing like that: I know that’s not right.’
‘Again Loki jumped up. ‘It’s tiredness, she was so excited about marrying a fine giant like you that she hasn’t slept since you made your kind and generous offer. Her eyes are red from tiredness.’
‘The giant settled again and they started eating. No matter what Loki said to Thor, he packed away the meal like he did any other. He drank enough ale for ten men, enough mead for five men, and enough food was eaten to feed three Kings’ Halls. The giant knew that wasn’t right and started, again, to question. ‘That woman can eat; perhaps I couldn’t feed her enough to keep her.’
‘Loki jumped up again, and pointed out that Freya hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since she’d found out she was getting married, and was just making up for lost time and meals. And then kicked Thor to remind him he was supposed to be in disguise.
‘The giant thought it time for the wedding and went to kiss his bride, but she refused him. She wouldn’t kiss until the hammer had been laid in her lap to confirm that they were married and blessed with fertility. So the giant fetched the great hammer and laid it in Freya’s lap…
‘Immediately Thor had his hammer back he jumped up and killed all the giants, one blow to each head. They lay dead in the hall, then Loki let the fire become wild, burning down the hall around the bodies.
‘Thor and Loki took the sleigh and the hammer and headed home, stripping off the women’s clothes as they went and laughing all the way.’

The men started cheering and laughing at the Skald’s tale. Leif took a ring from his finger. It was silver with a gem in it.

‘A gift for the story,’ he announced and placed it on Linden’s finger. She thanked him and sat back down with William and the talk grew about them, loud and raucous.

‘Buffy always loved that tale as a child. If she and Faith were into mischief all I would have to say was, Have you heard about Thor and his hammer? - and they would be at my feet with their spinning, like little angels desperately trying to be good, to ensure that they got their story.’

‘You have known her long then?’

‘I have known her since her mother brought her into the world. She was a wonderful woman, Joy, and loved her daughter very much; it was hard on Buffy when she died. Her father was a wastrel and an idiot, she gets her bravery and brains from Joy.’

‘And her father?’

‘He was Jarl to the east of here. He kept a good hold, but quickly put another in Joy’s place when she died. Buffy came to live with Leif and she learnt everything she needed to, and a lot we wish she hadn’t… have you ever seen her with a bow?’

William nodded. ‘Yes I have.’

‘Well I warn you, she’s as quick with a knife. I can remember once we lost her and Faith, we couldn’t find them anywhere. It was the middle of summer and the evening meal was to be served, but the sun was still high in the sky. We searched everywhere and found them swimming in one of the lakes, they had built a steam lodge and were jumping in the cold water. I had to get them dressed and back to the house with none of the men seeing them.’

‘What are you talking about Linden? Not baby stories, please!’
‘As if I would! But I might tell the story about you trying to bring a bear cub home as a pet - or was that Faith?’ Both women went bright red and deliberately turned their backs on the Skald.

William laughed out loud, both at the thought of Buffy and Faith in trouble and at the faces there were pulling at the skald.

‘Why are you talking to me?’ William asked. He was puzzled. In his father’s, no his brother’s hall, an outsider would have been sat at a low table, if let in at all, and certainly wouldn’t be chatted to as though he were an equal.

‘I know who and what you are, William of Wessex. I also know something of the path you will be following with your life. I know the followers of the White Christ don’t believe in such things but there are those that can see some of the threads that wyrd weaves. You will always know a welcome at this table William, you and your sons.’

Sons!! William had never seen himself as one who would marry, not until he had met Buffy, and she would, could, never be his wife. Their worlds were far too far apart.

Faith and Buffy rose to their feet.

‘We will leave you to your drinking, gentlemen, we have some serious shopping to do tomorrow and need our rest.’

Linden also rose ready to leave but whispered to William, ‘Go drink for drink with all others, and if you become stupid with it don’t worry, just don’t get into any fights. They won’t be allowed to insult you too much, and if they do - threaten them with me.’ She also bowed her head to Jarl Leif and made her way out of the tent.

‘Buffy,’ she called, ‘a word?’ Faith also stopped. ‘No not you Faith, I need to speak to Buffy alone.’ Faith nodded and went off. The Skald was not one you argued with.

‘Buffy, I want you to know. All manner of things will be well. Keep faith with your heart. It will not let you down.’

She looked long and hard at Buffy. ‘Your path is hard, but there is so much happiness at the end of it; be strong Buffy, the future is golden, child: golden.’





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