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Author's Chapter Notes:
thanks for the amazing reviews. this story really seems to be a hit. hope you enjoy the next chapter, but please read the warnings
William and the girls were woken by rough voices and sharp words. Connor was shaking William violently, and he’d laid a finger across his own lips in the universal signal for quiet. He was more gentle in raising the girls: William noted with interest that he seemed to allow his hand to stay just a little longer on Tara, but the look on his face as he touched Harmony made him look as though he had stepped in something unmentionable.

‘You keep quiet and your heads down, we have visitors coming in.’ Connor pointed towards the sea. ‘They’ll be heading in on the morning tide,’ he added.

William nodded: even Harmony was keeping silent, she’d had a shock the day before and was still subdued from Connor’s rough treatment of her. Connor, who at that moment was pulling on his mail and belting on his sword, smiled towards Tara.

‘You’ll be safe here but keep your head down.’ He brushed his finger across her cheek and strode off down the boat; his head ducked under the sail which was being pulled up away from the ship, giving the warriors space to move.

Harmony started hissing. ‘And you call me a trollop for flirting, what do you think you’re doing with him? He won’t save you, you know, he’ll ruin you and take pleasure in doing it.’

Tara ignored the bitching, she hadn’t done anything wrong. Xander came up to them and took out his knife: he laid it across Harmony’s throat.

‘One more word,’ he whispered. He really didn’t like the woman, she gave him a bad feeling, trouble onboard. He smiled at Tara, he could quite understand why Connor had been so smitten.

Harmony went pale and nodded slowly. Xander looked her straight in the eyes ensuring she understood his promise, nodded once and then made his way down the length of the boat again.

William sneaked a look under the sail as it was being pulled down and rolled. There was the other ship heading for the shore; there were men watching them, as men from their ship watched the incomers and they were close enough to William for him to be able to see their eyes. They looked fierce, and frightened William to his core. They looked proficient with their weapons and he couldn’t see any warmth in any of them. Fierce, bearded, capable warriors.

Connor suddenly shouted out loud, and started waving and calling to the other ship. The other men on their own ship were obviously relaxing and they were putting away the weapons. Olaf shouted something to Xander, who shouted his agreement and started helping to get the sail back into its usual place. They were leaving today.

The second ship rowed in close to the shore, the tide wasn’t strong enough for them to ride it in the way Olaf had ridden their ship in. Men jumped down just as Connor jumped from his ship and ran towards the newcomers. The thing that surprised William the most was the turn of speed he had in the heavy mail: he must live in the chain. No wonder they were incredible warriors. William and Tara watched in amazement as Connor hugged the stranger and brought him over to the ship.

Bags and chests were being loaded and stowed: there was a lightness in the mood as well.
Connor signalled William and the two girls down onto the sand; Xander was already starting up the cooking fire, putting the large pot of porridge on to cook, unsealing the jar of honey and laying it to one side. One of the men from the other ship joined him and was cutting slices from a piece of salt pork. A stone had been set by the fire to warm, on which the meat would be cooked. Flat bread was being set to cook. It was to be a good day-meal.

Tara and William led the way towards Connor and the group of men he was talking to. Connor hurried over to them and pulled them forward to the newcomers

‘This is my cousin, he's the son of my mother's brother and he's heading home to Dublin, and he's offering to carry a message back to your families. He can get it through to the Saxon settlement at Chester before the winter sets in, and from there they will be passed on to Mercia. These are our guests, we took them from Lindisfarne: William and Tara.’ The newcomer looked at them and gave a slight bow.

‘She’s pretty, can see why you’re talking to her!’ He said to Connor with a smile.
Then added in beautiful Latin: ‘I have a bag with quill and vellum in it, can you write your own note or do you need a scribe?’

‘I can write,’ William answered. He was grateful for the consideration: a message would mean that ransom could be paid.

Eirik called out to one of his men who threw a leather satchel down onto the sand. William opened it and pulled out a scabby quill, a small wooden pot of ink, and a piece of vellum. It was obvious that the vellum had been used before, there were scratch marks where previous words had been removed. William gave the newcomer, Eirik, names and home towns for all of them. Athelflaed still ruled Mercia and she would remember his mother, hopefully at least, and it could mean their freedoms. They would be treated with respect as well, as hostages. William knew that they were worth a lot of money, 2000 threpny each, a small fortune for Connor and his crew. He wet the inkpot with a little water and wrote as carefully as he could. It was not easy sitting on the sand and trying to write, but he managed.

Connor called up to his own ship and a leather bag was thrown down. It was heavy and made a soft thunk as it hit the sand.

Connor had already opened up a bag that Olaf had thrown to him, and he was pulling out small bags of spices and some sort of cloth. Tara thought it looked like silk, she’d seen some once and knew it was worth more than its weight in silver. It was the most wonderful yellow colour: she’d never seen anything so beautiful. Those gifts handed over, Connor hugged the man again, who then made his way to the ship with the gifts.

It wasn’t long before both crews were sitting and eating. Harmony was smiling at the new crew. Connor was beginning to despair. He’d done what he could to keep her safe for Tara’s sake, but if she wanted to be so foolish with a second crew he wasn’t going to stop her. She flirted through the meal, touching first one and then another of the newcomers.

One of the men grabbed her and dragged her off, away from the fire. Harmony giggled at first. William tried to get to his feet to stop what was going to happen but his robe got caught around his sandals and prevented him from rising; by the time he’d got them untangled the giggles had turned to screams. Connor laid a hand on one of his arms, Xander on the other. Their faces said it all: leave the situation alone.

Tara started crying, she was scared, scared for Harmony and scared she’d be next. William let her bury her face in his shoulder. Connor set his features hard. Harmony had been warned and warned, she hadn’t listened, and now she paid for her stupidity.

‘They won’t touch you,’ he said to Tara, but watched with no emotion as another man went to join the first. He held Harmony’s arms down as her dress was pulled up around her waist. Harmony could barely be heard: whimpers and crying were the only sounds. Then a loud scream as she was taken for the first time; there was no gentleness, no preparing her for the invasion. Harmony screamed again and was silenced by a fist to the face. The second man freed himself from his trous and stuck his cock in Harmony’s mouth, making her suck at him. He was obviously enjoying it and made Harmony swallow his spendings. A third man went over and took his place between Harmony’s legs. He plunged into her quickly and soon added to the mix of blood and cum on Harmony’s thighs.

Eirik looked up at the men. ‘You should have asked: she was worth money to my cousin.’

‘We’ll buy her from you! We’ve a long winter and she’ll keep us occupied through it. We’ll soon teach her to keep her mouth shut and her legs open,’ they laughed.

Connor looked at them askance. ‘She was worth 6000 silver pennies!’ he said. Eirik nodded and fetched a bag of silver.

‘This weighs about 7 pounds, a third of her value. We’ll pay the rest next year in furs and silk, but we take her now.’

Connor nodded and shook the hand offered. Harmony was sold.

‘Thanks for that, she was getting to be a problem.’ Connor couldn’t show any emotion. It would be a weakness.

Eirik looked at the tide: it was on the turn. They’d been on the beach for over an hour. It was time to get the ship back in the water.

Connor, Xander and the rest of the crew loaded the last of their stuff back on board. Harmony was crying and sniffling; Tara was trying to help and comfort her. In her heart though she did think Harmony had been foolish: these weren’t silly young striplings to be trifled with at court under the watchful eye of her mother and father, these were full grown warriors. It also hurt Tara to think that Connor would allow it to happen. It would take her some time to come to terms with that.

The Viking cousins were hugging each other again.

‘Give my love to Buffy, and tell her we’ll try and make it up to see her next summer. We’ll bring your furs and silk then,’ said Eirik.

‘I will,’ Connor said, ‘she’d be delighted to see you. She still keeps a good table, and there is always room for one more.’

‘That she does; we'll bring the answer about the other two when we meet in York next spring.’ Eirik shouted up to him and the two crews took their places either side of the ship. William was shown to a spot by the front of the boat and Tara was passed up to the men on board.

Harmony was then bound and pulled back into the group of men staying on the beach. That was when William and Tara realised what was happening to her: she had been raped by and then sold to the men in the second boat. They were to be separated. Tara started crying loudly. Harmony screamed once and was hit again.

Connor hissed at Tara. ‘Quiet or I will be forced to hit you as well.’

William’s heart felt heavy as he took his place in helping to move the boat into the water.
‘Heave’ sounded the same in any language even if you don’t know what it means and they soon had the Dragonship heading back into the water with the new crew helping push the boat off the beach. William was pulled on board by strong arms along with the others, and they were all waving until the beach was well out of sight. Harmony was crying in a heap on the beach.

The ship was pointed to the North and the sail raised. She was headed home.





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