Chapter 13

The next morning, we travelled to yet another city and had checked into the motel there by early afternoon. As usual, I had a room with Gisela although I doubted I would sleep in it. I threw my bag into a corner and pulled out my phone to check social media. The news of the new song was still being shared everywhere, and people who had tickets to the last show were excited.

Gisela unpacked some of her things, then disappeared into the bathroom. She emerged a moment later, muttering, and dug into her bag again.

"What's up?" I asked without looking at her.

"Oh, nothing, damn period started. Have you got any supplies? I've run out."

"Sure, in my bag. Help yourself."

She took the box out of my bag and went back into the bathroom. I put my phone down, frowning. We were on the last few days of the tour. It was a six-week tour. My last period was before I got drunk. "Shit!" I exclaimed, as Gisela emerged again.

"What?"

"I'm late."

Her eyes widened. "How late?"

"Um, a week. Or so." I dragged a hand through my hair. "You remember that night I got blind drunk? Skorpa said I puked, and I had a bad stomach for a couple of days after. It could have affected my pill."

"But surely you're using condoms."

"No."

"Skade! You're having unprotected sex with Skorpa?"

"It's fine, we talked about it. I mean, he's fine. Arrggghh!" I got up and paced around, clenching my fists. "Fuck!"

"You'd better get a test. At least then you'll know. You don't want to be stressing about this at the show tonight."

"Yeah, I know. I'll go and find a pharmacy. Do me a favour. Don't tell the others." I found my wallet.

"I won't. Are you going to tell Skorpa?"

"Not until I know if there's anything to tell him." I slipped out of the room and left the motel. This one was at the end of a main street with plenty of shops around, so I doubted it would be difficult to find a pharmacy.

"Skade! Wow, look, it's Skade!" a girl shouted.

Immediately, three girls and a guy rushed towards me and inwardly, I groaned.

"We're coming to your show tonight," the guy said.

"Your music is awesome," one of the girls added. "We saw you on You Tube. We're not really into the Vikings, but we got tickets so we could see Pagan Rock."

"That's great, thanks so much." I put on a smile and chatted to them for a minute, letting them take my picture with each of them. Finally, they left, but I'd barely gone fifty metres when a couple of young guys approached me. By the time I spotted a pharmacy, I didn't want to go in and buy something as revealing as a pregnancy test in case anyone else saw me and broadcast it, so I walked past the shop. A few minutes passed, and no one else seemed to recognise me, but as I turned back to walk the other way, I ran into Uhtred.

"What do you want?" I grumbled as he came up to me.

"Nice way to greet a friend. Especially since you've practically ignored me for the last week. I never see you without Skorpa now."

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect to be so caught up with him."

"I'm teasing. What are you doing out here?"

"I just needed to get something from, um, a shop."

"Which shop?" He looked up to see we were now standing in front of the pharmacy.

"Nothing that would interest you," I said.

He grinned. "Girl products?"

I scowled.

"Come on, Skade, don't tell me you're embarrassed to be seen buying them. You want me to get them for you? I have three sisters and a wife-to-be. I'm used to it."

"It's not that."

"What then?" He chuckled. "Condoms?"

"No!" My face burned. "Leave me alone, Uhtred."

Two girls came up to us at that moment, and we were forced to put on smiles and pose for a picture. By the time they left, my temper was rising and I was more anxious than before.

"I need to get a—" I dropped my voice to a whisper, and then had to repeat it because he didn't hear me. His eyes widened.

"Aren't you being careful?"

"Don't you start. I already had this from Gisela."

"Shall I just go and buy the thing for you? We'll talk about why you need it later."

"All right. Thank you," I muttered.

He disappeared into the shop and five minutes later, came out with his hands in his pockets. I raised my eyebrows.

"It's in my inside pocket. Let's go back to the motel."

We walked quickly back and headed down the corridor towards the rooms. I paused outside the room I shared with Gisela, but several voices could be heard within. "Your room," I said to Uhtred, keen to get it out of the way.

I hurried into his bathroom, peed on the stick, then emerged to wait for it. I paced and fretted, cursing my stupidity. I'd never had a scare before, but I'd never got sick on the pill and then had unprotected sex with someone either.

"Fuck," I muttered. "Fuck! I'm an idiot."

"Well, we know that," Uhtred teased. "Weren't you even a little bit worried about sleeping with him without a condom?"

"No, we discussed it." I snatched up the test from the table and looked at it. "There's a line on it. Shit!"

"Just one line?"

"Yes!" I began to panic.

"It's negative. If it was positive, there would be two lines. It's the same kind of test Iseult had. Look." He held up the box with its diagram, which I hadn't bothered to examine beforehand in my haste.

Relief rushed through me. "Thank fuck for that. I don't know what I would have done if—"

I was interrupted by a firm knock on the door. "Skade? Is that you?"

"Shit," I hissed. It was Skorpa.

Uhtred calmly put the test packaging in a drawer and went to open the door. I still had the plastic wand in my hand and I hid it behind my back.

"What's she doing in here? Skade?" Skorpa walked past Uhtred without looking at him.

"We, uh, we were just talking," I said.

"About what? You don't know what you would have done if—what?" He stared at me and came closer.

"I was going to—" I stopped as he grabbed my arm and pulled it from behind my back, revealing the test clutched in my hand. His eyes widened and he let go of me. "It's negative," I said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "Why are you sneaking around with Uhtred?"

"I just wanted to find out one way or the other before I said anything to you. I was worried that you'd—"

"What? That I might care? That I'd support you?" Skorpa shouted suddenly. "Or maybe you just didn't want me to know in case it went the other way? Would you have got rid of it?"

"No, I—" Shocked, I took a step back, and immediately he did the same. He looked furious and hurt at the same time. He turned away and slammed out of the room.

"What the hell was that about?" Uhtred came to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't know why he's so mad."

"I joked about it once, the first time we were together, and he was kind of upset," I said slowly. "I think I know what it's about, but I can't tell you. I'll just talk to him later."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Because it's not my story to tell. I'm fine, Uhtred. Don't worry. At least I haven't got pregnancy to worry about right now. Thanks, by the way."

"Hey, any time. We're friends, aren't we?" He gave me a hug. "You want to hang out here for a while?"

"No, I'll go back to my room. Gisela will want to know what's happening."

"You missed all the fun," Brida told me as she and Ragnar left our room. "We're all over You Tube."

"That's good. I'll watch it later."

Luckily, no one else was in the room other than Gisela. I closed the door and leaned on. "It's negative," I said quickly.

"You did it already?"

"Yes, I ran into Uhtred. It sounded like there was a party going on in here, so I went to his room. Anyway, at least I don't have to worry about it now."

"And you won't have to tell Skorpa."

"He knows. He overheard me talking to Uhtred. The walls in this place are paper-thin. He's mad as hell that I didn't tell him earlier. I need to talk to him, but I'm gonna leave him to calm down."

"What's his problem? At least it was negative, right?"

"Yeah."

I went looking for Skorpa a couple of hours' later, but he didn't answer when I knocked on his door, so I didn't know if he was avoiding me, or had gone out. Consequently, by the time we arrived at the club I was still anxious because I hadn't had the opportunity to speak to him. I determinedly put it out of my mind when it was time for us to go on stage. When our show was over, I went straight back to the dressing room to avoid Skorpa. With half an hour to go before his performance, it wasn't the right time to talk anyway. It would have to wait.