Maerinn awoke the next morning in the bed of Guy of Gisburn and found that he was still asleep in the chair at the bedside. She watched him sleep for a short while. As men went, Guy was one of the handsome ones. He was muscular from the work he did around the keep alongside peasants who kept the land. He had sandy brown hair and kind gray eyes. He was reserved in temperment it seemed but not in the cold distant way Aiden had been. Guy's reserve seemed to be simply that he preferred to observe people and make careful calculated decisions. At least that is what she guessed from only living in the village of Gisburn for a mere month.
"You are awake," Guy said as sleep finally left him. He reached for his boots and pulled them back on again, still sleepy.
"You did not need to sleep in the chair for my sake," Maerinn told him on seeing how stiffly he moved from sleeping upright. "You might could have as easily ordered me to sleep on the floor, or shared the bed," she pointed out, wondering why he hadn't.
"No, I could not have," he said, giving no explanation.
He got to his feet and pulled a new tunic from the wardrobe. Maerinn tried not to watch as he stripped off the one tunic and replaced it with another but she ended up watching anyway. He turned and found her gazing at him. He stopped short a moment then reached for his belt and sword.
"What will you do with me?" Maerinn made herself asked.
"What do you mean? I will do nothing with you. Ivar will expect you to return to him today."
"I don't want to return to Ivar," she said softly.
Guy stopped adjusting his belt and met her eyes. "I know," he said sadly. "Even if I had the means to buy you from him, I don't have the means to keep you safe from him. He'll still be here along with his horde. We're outnumbered. There's nothing I can do."
"That's not true…" Maerinn said almost to herself more than to him. The fact was, he had already done a great deal for her.
Guy moved towards the door and then stopped again. "You are the daughter of a chieftain?"
"I am," she told him.
"A wealthy chieftain?"
"I suppose."
"Wealthy enough that if I were able to buy you from Ivar, your father would repay me for all my trouble?"
"If you returned me to my father unharmed he would pay you back for all your trouble, I swear it." Her clan cared for her and would give whatever wealth they could to get her back, that much she knew to be true.
Guy took in her words and then he nodded. "I will see what I can do. Wait here while I go speak to Ivar."
"I will wait," Maerinn agreed, and she sat on the bed and waited for what seemed an eternity.
Guy had to do a small but simple task before he was ready to speak with Ivar that morning. The first thing he did was go to a place in the stone wall surrounding the village where he knew there would be a loose stone. He pulled the stone free and removed the large sack of coins in the space behind it. He then poured half of the coins into another sack and put half the coins where they had been before in the wall. The other sack he brought to a tree behind his house. He climbed as high as he dared and then tied the sack securely to a branch.
He found Ivar in the yard with Ragnar and several of their friends.
"You were right," he told Ivar. "I have been too long without a wife. Maerinn doesn't want me though. She put up quite a fight before I could take her. Maybe you would allow me to leave long along enough to arrange a marriage match with the lords of Northumbria?" He proposed the idea knowing that they wouldn't allow it.
"The lords of Northumbria aren't going to give you their daughters. You haven't got any land," Ivar pointed out a little too merrily.
"Good point," Guy looked down at his feet, taking care to sound ashamed. "What if I could give them something else?"
"You haven't got anything else except your educated head. If you like I could take it off and bring them that."
"Maybe I do have something else. When you came here you asked for my livestock and land. I have more than that. Let me leave and come back with a wife?" He asked a second time.
"What else have you got? You aren't going anywhere until you tell us what it is," Ragnar spoke this time, threateningly
"It's not much, it's just a few hundred coins is all." Guy told them. He had known they would ask and he had carefully planned how he would handle this.
"My good man, there's no need for you to go running off all over the country looking for a wife," Ivar said. "We have women aplenty right here. I would sell you Maerinn for a good price. Just tell me where your coins are and she's yours."
"She doesn't want me," Guy argued. He had to make them believe he didn't want her so that they would try all the more to be rid of her no matter the price. They had amused themselves with tormenting him on many occasions.
"She doesn't want anyone at first. Give her time and she will like you just fine."
"Maybe I will wait until your trader returns with other slaves to choose from," Guy suggested.
"You will do no such thing!" Ivar was growing impatient. "You will give me your coins and I will give you Maerinn or else I will give you my spear, do you understand?"
"I understand," he said, taking a step back as if he were afraid of them. In truth Guy wanted the Danes to believe he feared them and had him under control because it worked to his advantage to let them believe it.
"Take us to your coins."
"For nothing? At least let me buy something with them?"
"Eh, you can have Maerinn for them. She will make a good enough wife for the likes of you."
Guy brought them to the tree and pointed up. "I have hidden them up there," he told them almost unwillingly.
Soon they had sent someone up to retrieve the coins. The Danemen looked over the coins and counted 327 of them before turning to Guy, "It is settled. You now have a wife who will bear you many heirs to the lands to no longer have." They laughed and left him standing at the base of the tree.
Guy watched them leave with a sigh of relief. He now had a place to flee to when he finally found the chance to leave this place. He would go to Ireland with half of his coins and the daughter of a chieftain. And maybe if he were very very fortunate the chieftain would reward him with lands to start his life anew. If not, he would take his profits and travel to Rome. The Danes would not be able to reach him there.
Maerinn waited anxiously for Guy to return. She didn't want anyone buying her or selling her. All she really wanted was to go home. With Ivar as her captor that was never going to happen. Truthfully, Maerinn knew that she might never see Ireland or Brion or Da ever again. She had known that much to be true for months. However she held out hope that Guy of Gisburn would not treat her with the brutality of Ivar the Boneless. He might expect her to share his bed and to serve him as any other servant but given how she had seen him treat his people, Guy was not capable of the barbarity that Ivar was capable of. There was little other hope that her life would improve if Guy could not convince Ivar to sell her.
Maerinn was so lost in her own thoughts of worry when Guy returned that she nearly had a heart attack.
"It is done," Guy said as he entered the room. He leaned against the wardrobe cabinet with his arms across his chest. "It took three hundred twenty seven coins and a bit of acting on my part but it is done. You are no longer under the ownership of Ivar the Boneless."
"Now I am...yours?" she asked. It had been too much to hope that he would grant her freedom.
He nodded uncomfortably. "When we are not in this room you are to play the part of my wife. You will sit with me at meals and have the manners of a lady, and I will teach you the english language."
"And when we are in this room?" she asked worriedly.
Guy sighed. "I can not sleep in that chair for days on end, nor on the floor. If I were to bring in other bedding Ivar would hear of it. We will share the bed but I will not touch you."
Though Maerinn was relieved at his statement she was confused about why he would offer such a thing. She wanted to ask why he would pay so many coins for her and not take what other men would take. It was not because he was a god-fearing man. He had already renounced Christ. She had seen him make toasts to Odin at feasts. Her confusion must have shown on her face.
"You are wondering why I would buy you and not do with you as Ivar intended?" Guy said as more of a statement than a question.
"Yes. I am still unsure what you plan to do with me or why." Maerinn tried not to let her worry show in her tone but it was there nonetheless.
"I've already told you the weakness in the walls and if you wished to escape me, the Danes might think it a great joke on me and would probably let you go. I don't want you to run off. I want you to stay and when the time is right allow me to return you home. You'll fare better returning home with an escort than trying to make the journey alone and I hope to be rewarded for my efforts. That is why I will not touch you and I will not harm you. I don't want to give you cause to run away or for your clan to believe that I have harmed you when I return you to them."
"So I am to be ransomed to my father, that is why you bought me," she said, understanding.
"Tis better than slavery as a concubine, is it not?" Guy pointed out.
"It is," she admitted. Some part of her wanted to thank him for his kindness but she could not bring herself to thank the man who had just purchased her, not even if he was planning to sell her back to her family.
"Then we are agreed. You will not try to run off and you will remain under my protection until such time as I am able to bring you home?"
Maerinn let out a sigh. "It will be as you say."
"Good," Guy uncrossed his arms and stood up straight rather than leaning against the wardrobe. "There are dresses fit for a lady in that chest over there. I imagine they will fit. Wear what you like of them." With that he strode out of the room.
Maerinn hugged herself and fought back her tears as he left. Ivar would no longer be using her body. He would no longer be humiliating her with his demands of servitude. She wouldn't be hungry or poorly dressed. Those parts of her life might finally be over. She was by no means safe. This place was still full of Danes and Guy of Gisburn was still a man and hardly different from other men in that he was capable of hurting her as other men had done. But maybe given the circumstances it served him better for him to treat her with kindness. And maybe for a little while she could at least sleep through the nights unharmed. She was exceedingly grateful for the possibility.
Maerinn went to the chest of dressed that Guy had offered to share with her. She opened it up and found several well made dresses of well made fabrics. They were not the dresses of a queen or even of a wealthy lady but those of a lady with moderate means. She didn't have to ask where they had come from. She had heard Guy tell the Danes the previous night that he used to have a wife. Then in the bottom of the chest she found a collection of baby clothes. These would have belonged to the child he never had. Somehow the sight of these infant gowns set her to tears again. She grabbed a dress of pale blue for herself, got to her feet, and slammed the chest shut, effectively ending her tears before they had truly begun. She would dress and she would face this day and whatever came with it.