The Heather Channel Chapter 14
Hiccup was hammering out a new head for Tuffnut's spear when Fishlegs came pounding up to the forge doorway. "Hiccup! Your wife says you need to come home, right away!"
Hiccup froze in mid-swing. He knew, with a terrible sick certainty, what was about to happen. He cooled the work, banked the forge, told Gobber he probably wouldn't be back later, and forced himself to walk home.
When he got there, he found Heather standing by their bed, along with her parents, a well-dressed middle-aged couple, and a young man who looked like he could have posed for a statue of Baldr, except for the scar on his neck. They were all staring at him as he entered.
"That's your husband?" the young man said in disbelief. "I was expecting a man!"
"Never mind that," said the well-dressed man. "He's here. Let's get this over with."
"Hiccup, I'm sorry," Heather said. "Father, mother, friends, ever since our wedding night, this man has not been a husband to me in the night. I don't know if he is a man at all. I'm requesting a divorce. This marriage is over."
"We are witnesses," her father said.
"We are witnesses," the rest repeated.
"By prior agreement, my parents will keep the bride-price, and my ex-father-in-law will keep the dowry," she went on. "I'll keep the morning-gift. As for our communal property, I want nothing, except that small chest and what is inside it."
"I'm surprised you want any reminders of this awful place," Bergsveinn said.
"We have no children, so we don't need to make any of those arrangements," she finished. "I am returning to my parents' home and care, until such time as I remarry." She turned to her parents. "Is there anything else?"
"No, we're done," her father said.
"Let's go home," her mother added. They both seemed very uncomfortable.
Hiccup still hadn't moved or spoken a word.
Just like that, it was over.
Heather removed the ring of guest-house keys from her belt, and gently set them down on the bench near the fire pit. They all filed out the door, right past Hiccup, without paying him any further notice. Bergsveinn was the last one out. He crossed the threshold, then stepped back and looked at the drawing of Hiccup and Heather on the wall. Without a word, he tore it down, crumpled it, and threw it in the fire pit. There was a quick flash of flame, and it was gone. He strode away with a triumphant grin.
Hiccup had imagined that he might have had a stinging comment for this arrogant youth, who couldn't be more than a year or two older than he was. But inside him there was nothing now, no words of any kind, just a black empty vacuum. He couldn't even cry. He hadn't felt so desolate since the day he'd lost Toothless, his father, and his tribe all at once. He slowly stepped out of the house and watched them walking away toward the docks.
When they were about a stone's throw away, Heather stopped. "Wait," she told her family. "I want to say goodbye to the man who was my husband."
"He's nothing to you now," Bergsveinn said. "You should stay with your family and go with us." It didn't sound like a suggestion.
"Bergsveinn, when we are married, I will obey you. When we are betrothed, I will respect you. But today, I will listen to you, and if I don't like what I hear, I'll ignore you!" She turned her back on Bergsveinn and his shocked parents, and walked back to face Hiccup.
"I'm sorry I had to say it that way," she began.
"Even at the end, you never told any lies," he answered softly.
She nodded. "When we made this agreement, you said you wanted your memories of our time together to be good ones. I hope you still feel that way. I know I do, because you gave me much more than just a way out of a bad situation.
"You taught me to trust, you taught me to forgive, you taught me to laugh again... I had so little to give you in return, but I gave you what I could. I know you'll probably forget me in time, but I'm never going to forget you. When I'm stuck in that beast's house, cleaning up his dirty bootprints and preparing his favorite foul-smelling sausage for supper, then maybe I'll think about standing on a dragon's back a mile above the earth, or hunting for buried treasure together, or just sitting by the fire in the evening with someone who cares how I feel... and maybe those memories will be enough to get me by."
"Heather, if you could stay, would you stay?"
"Don't torture yourself, Hiccup," she said sadly. "We knew this day would come before we even started. We never had a chance.
"Oh, there's one more thing." She put down the chest, opened it, and handed him something wrapped in an old curtain. "White gold and blue sapphires... those just aren't my colors. This will look much better on a blonde." Just before she closed the chest, he noticed that she'd added something to her treasure – his drawing of the wildflowers.
She blinked back tears. "Thank you for everything, Hiccup," she whispered. "Goodbye."
She turned and slowly walked back to rejoin her family.
He watched them walk down the ramps to the docks. He watched the ship leave Berk's little harbor and raise its sail. Then he sensed someone moving nearby. It was Snotlout, who had stepped out from behind the house and was standing just behind him now, arms folded. A few seconds later, Ruffnut and Tuffnut joined him. Then Fishlegs appeared from the other side of the house, and Astrid showed up last of all. None of them spoke or moved. He knew they were there for him, though. They had come just to support him. It helped somehow. They all watched the ship until it was out of sight.
At last, Snotlout spoke. "Do you know what I'd do if I were you? I'd wait until that ship was a mile from the nearest land, then I'd get on my dragon, and I'd turn that ship into their flaming funeral ship!"
"I'd be glad to do that for you if you want me to," added Astrid in a flat, deadly voice. He glanced at her and realized that she really meant it.
Hiccup slowly turned to face his friends. "Mark it down on your calendars," he said slowly. "Today was the day that half of me almost agreed with Snotlout." He looked back out to sea. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. Let's not bring any more pain into the world today. I think we've got enough."
He turned, walked into the house that had been his and Heather's, and closed the door behind him.
o
Far out at sea, Mrs. Ketilsson was watching Heather. Her daughter stood in the bow of the ship, leaning on the gunwale, almost motionless.
"Is she seasick?" her husband asked.
"No, she's heartsick," Mrs. Ketilsson replied. "I think our plan backfired somehow."
"I can't see how," he said. "The young man was kind, but he wasn't the sort of boy that a girl would lose her heart to."
She walked forward quietly. She wasn't sure what she would say to her daughter. In the event, she said nothing. She just listened for a moment as Heather quietly sang a song she'd once heard from a traveling minstrel –
"Promise me, when you see
"A white rose, you'll think of me.
"I love you so; never let go.
"I will be your ghost of a rose."
Mrs. Ketilsson returned to her husband's side. "It backfired. Horribly."
o
A/N
The song lyrics are from "Ghost of a Rose" by Blackmore's Night.