Chapter Ten

Since he was healed, Asvald started teaching me lessons in his language. He thought that if I spoke in his tongue, it would be easier for me to forget about Ireland. I doubted that would help, but I still wanted – and needed- to learn Norse. Starting out, I learned the names on common things like fire, water, moon, food, and the names of animals, and places. It took two months nearly for me to learn even those simple things.

But when night came and we were alone in our longhouse, he wanted to teach me more intimate words. We stood naked before each other, and though he was trying to teach me, both our minds were wandering.

Placing his hand on my head, he said, "Hjalmstallr." I repeated it after him and got a nod of approval. Next he placed his finger on my lips and I parted them. His eyes grew heated as he touched his fingertip to the tip of my tongue. "Tunga," he murmured. Moving his hand down, he caressed the side of my neck with his fingers. "Hals." Again, I repeated the word until he nodded.

His hand moved lower until it cupped my breast. "Brjost."

Breathing deeply, I kept my eyes on Asvald's and said the word. He touched my arm. "Valtaeigr." I repeated it and got a nod. His hands moved around to my back.

"Hryggr."

His hands came back around and caressed my belly. "Kvior." Once I learned the word, his hand stroked my thigh. "Leggr." I repeated the word. He pointed to my feet. "Fotr." He looked up and me and smiled. "Well done, kone." Taking my hand he placed it on his chest. "Kista." I quickly learned the word. He moved my hand down his belly to his manhood that was demanding attention. I blushed and felt hot all over as I took him in my hand. "Fosull."

Smiling, I nuzzled into his chest. "Does this mean the lesson is over?"

"Mmm, I think I have a few more things to teach you," he growled and pushed me toward our bed. I fell back and he moved over me, nipping his way down my neck and collarbone. I groaned and lifted my hips toward his. He pressed me down and lowered his mouth onto my breast. Letting out a cry, I clutched his head close, not wanting to lose our contact. Fire seeped through my veins, my body heated and flushed, aching for more. Asvald flipped me over, grabbed my hips and lifted my bottom into the air, ready to take me from behind. I gasped, and looked over my shoulder at him. Pressing his hand on my back, he gently pushed my chest down so it touched the bed, making my back sloped. I folded my arms and rested my cheek on them. Asvald spread my knees and knelt between my legs, touching the tip of his manhood to my entrance.

Growing, he kissed the back of my neck. "Do you want me?"

My face heated but I answered him. "Aye."

He rubbed against me again, driving another cry past my lips. "Where do you want me, kone?"

I held back a groan and didn't answer him, too embarrassed.

He slipped a finger inside me. "Say it, Eachna."

"Inside me," I mumbled, hiding my face in the crook of my arm. "I want you inside me."

His deep chuckle sent pleasant shivers up my spine, making me tremble with wanting. "Beg for it," Asvald commanded.

"Please!" I cried and pressed myself back. Taking my earlobe between his teeth, he entered me with one powerful thrust. My back arched in beautiful, pleasurable agony. The feeling of him inside me left my head spinning, my whole body vibrating. He plunged into me again and again, never seeming to get deep enough inside me.

Something inside of me kept getting tighter and tighter, bringing me up to my peak.

"Finish for me, beautiful," he murmured in my ear, and it was my undoing. My body tensed, my heart feeling like it would explode out of my chest as the pleasure relaxed me. Asvald let himself go when he knew that I was satisfied, and he finished, and collapsed on my back, panting in my ear. He rolled off me and closed his eyes, his muscular chest rising and falling with each deep breath. I leaned over him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"So that's how savage Norsemen bed their wives, huh?" I smirked down at him. He opened his eyes and grinned.

"I have been waiting for the right time to show you," he chuckled and pulled me down for a long, sensual kiss.

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After winter came and went and spring returned, Asvald announced to me that he would be leaving within a few days on a raid of Ireland. My heart skipped a beat in dread, feeling like it dropped into my stomach, but then I became flushed with anger.

"Ireland is my home," I told him, trying to keep from raising my voice. He reached out and touched my shoulder, but I shrugged out from under his hand.

"I know you don't like this, Eachna, but I am a Norseman, and this is what I do," he said gently, as if I could accept that my husband was about to kill and steal from people, burning down their homes and taking their women.

I looked up into his eyes, praying that he would change his path. "Asvald, you do not need to go raiding. Stay here and raise your crops and sheep. Don't gain your wealth by forcing another in poverty."

Asvald shook his head, his eyes flashing as if he was trying to control his temper. "You will never understand, kone. I must prove myself to the gods that I may enter into Valhalla upon my death."

I tried to stop myself from becoming angry. It didn't work. "You are right, husband. I will never understand. You are killing and ruining people's lives all for the sake of gaining entrance into your make-believe gods' feasting hall! I will never understand that. What you're doing is morally wrong. In the end, you'll only be rotting in hell!"

Asvald groaned and walked away from me, his steps stomping and his back tense with rage. Again I shook my head and went to find Groa. She always calmed me down when I was upset. I found her by the river, washing her family's clothes. I knelt beside her and began to help. I decided to talk about something other than my fight with Asvald, just to keep my mind off it. If I lingered on what Asvald had just told me, and the yelling that happened between us, I would burst into sobs.

"Where was your home?" I asked her quietly, breaking the silence between us. Groa always let me speak first when I sought her out. Maybe to make sure we talked about what I needed to talk about, or maybe because she didn't want to push me to talk at all if I didn't want to. Or perhaps she was just a silent woman.

She looked up at me and smiled sadly. "A small town on the coast of England."

"Do you ever think of your family?" I asked, looking into the gently rushing water as I scrubbed a shirt with a stone. Tiny silver fish glinted in the sunlight, playfully darting around the rocks on the riverbed. I'd never seen water so clear in my life.

"At first I thought of them constantly. Now, they hardly cross my mind. I have my husband, and my children now. I am happy," she said with a soft sigh.

"Groa is a Norse name," I stated, looking at her out of the corner of my eye. She rocked back on her heels and took a break from her washing.

"Bork named me that right before taking me as his wife. My true name is..." she trailed off for a moment, her eyes filling with tears. "My, it's been so long now since I've been called by it, I can barely say it. Elizabeth. My name was Elizabeth."

How hard it must have been to say her true name again, after nearly twenty years of not hearing it. I made me wonder why Asvald hadn't taken my Irish name from me. "Why didn't Asvald change my name?"

She smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Asvald is kind. He didn't want to take away the name that your parents had given you."

Her words brought a smile to my face. Asvald did have a heart, he cared for me, even if he had never said that he loved me. Maybe someday he would love me.
"They are going to raid Ireland soon," I murmured, throwing the stone I was holding into the water with force. The rock disappeared beneath the surface, and I wished I could slip away just as easily.

"I know," she said softly, taking up her washing again. She scrubbed a pair of hose with a bar of soap.

"Doesn't that make you angry?" I asked her, exasperated, wondering why she was so accepting of her husband's faults.

"Aye, it does. But there is nothing I can do about it. They will pay for their sins, just like I will pay for mine," she explained and smiled at me. God, the woman seemed to have a heavenly glow around her, her face one that should've belonged to an angel. Perhaps that's where her unending patience stemmed from. "You will understand once you've lived with them as long as I have."

I nodded, though my heart was still heavy. While the Norsemen were often good fathers and husbands, they lacked morals when it came to destroying other people's lives. "Sometimes I wish that Asvald was an honorable man who I could be proud of." My stomach twisting in a way that was becoming familiar, and I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell Groa what I had been suspecting for several weeks now.
"Groa, I believe I am with child," I whispered, my heart pounding because it was the first time I had said the words.

A little gasp escaped her mother and she dropped the soap into the river, looking up at me with wide eyes, her lips slowly turning up into a smile.

Laughing, I kissed her cheek. "Hold on." I peeled off my dress and slipped into the river, swimming after the bar of soap which was floating away. Once I caught it, I stood up straight in the water, enjoying the feeling of swiftly moving water flowing over my body. The sun glistened off my pale skin under the water. I looked like a polished stone.

"Got it!" I tossed the soap back to Groa and she just barely caught it, the bar almost slipping out of her hands again.

"Come back over here!" She called and smiled indulgently at me, just like a mother would. "I want to talk to you about your… condition."

I shook my head and kicked my feet in the water, floating on my back, letting the current carry me a ways down the river before swimming back up to where Groa knelt on the riverbed. "My God, it's a beautiful day." The water was chilly, but the sun was warming me, and the air was warm, the smell of spring in the air.

"Have you told Asvald yet?" She asked, wringing out a child's shirt and spreading it out on the grass behind her.

I breathed hard, spitting out water as I fought the current to stay in one place. "No," I panted, my feeling of playful starting to ebb away.

Her brow furrowed in a frown. "Why? I assure you he will be most joyful."

I grabbed onto a large rock in the middle of the river and sat on top of it, nearly moaning as the sun soaked warmth of the rock spread over my backside. "I just...I'm not sure I want this. Now I could never leave Asvald. The two of us are joined together to form our child inside my womb. I could never leave."

Groa didn't say anything for a moment as she just looked at me. Her eyes were unreadable, which I found unnerving. Usually it was easy to see her emotions playing in her face.

"Not that I want to leave," I added hurriedly, holding out my hand in a pleading gesture. "But it's just feels like now any chance of me returning home has disappeared and I'm mourning it."

Sadness swept over her face like a cloud and she glanced away, fighting her own tears. "I know, Eachna. I know."

A movement in the trees caught my attention and I watched as Asvald stepped into the clearing, coming toward his mother.

I suddenly remembered I was naked as a newborn, lying on a rock in the sun. The river water suddenly seemed freezing and I didn't want to swim back to the bank.

"Groa, toss me my dress," I said anxiously, pointing to the bundled up garment that laid in the grass a few feet away from her.

It was too late, really, because Asvald was close enough to see me, and the smirk on his face told me he was enjoying the view. I brought my knees up to my chest for modesty's sake.

Groa turned to reach for my dress, but Asvald raced forward and snatched it up, chuckling evilly. Groa just rolled her eyes at him and returned to her washing.

"Why are you suddenly so shy, kone?" The smirk still lingered on his face. He twirled my dress around. "I've seen it all before."

I flushed and stuck my tongue out at him. Our last interaction was a fight, and as he looked me with eyes that made me want to spread my legs and let him take me right there on the rock, I knew what I needed to say.

"I am sorry for losing my temper," I made sure that my eyes stayed locked on his. I didn't want to act like a puppy with its tail between its legs.

Asvald raised an eyebrow. "Really? That seems unlike you." That damn smile. Half of me wanted to slap it off his face. The other half wanted to kiss it off.

I stiffened. "What does that mean?"

"Forget it. You have my forgiveness. I would ask for yours as well, since I too raised my voice." He held out his hand to me. "Come here."

I glanced down into the chilly, clear water swirling around the rock and looked back at him, making a face. "It's too cold. I'm so delightfully warm here." Sighing, I lowered my legs, careful not to put my feet in the water. Putting my hands behind me on the rock, I arched my back a little, pushing out my swelling breasts. "You have my forgiveness, love."

He swallowed hard, his eyes no longer on mine. "Mother, would you mind finishing your washing a bit later?"

Groa chuckled and gathered up the rest of the clothes, leaving the wet ones still spread out in the grass. "Be gentle with her, Asvald. Tender, yes?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What?" He asked suspiciously. Obviously baffled, he looked from Groa to me, then back at his mother. "You want me to make tender love to her, why?"

Groa just frowned and jammed his finger into his chest. "You may be grown and married, young man, but you still need to listen to your mother and obey without asking why."

Asvald raised his palms in defeat, looking a little sheepish. "Alright, mother. Whatever you say."

She winked at me, then hurried out of the clearing.

Grinning like a mad man, Asvald tore off his shirt and pants, kicking them away along with his shoes. He dove into the water and came up gasping and sputtering. "How long did you swim before climbing onto that rock?" He pushed the wet hair out of his eyes.

My heart was already beating fast as I anticipated his loving. "Not long. Hurry up here."

He grabbed onto the rock and pulled himself up. Cold water dripped off his naked body onto mine and I gasped, twisting away from him. "Good lord!"

He laughed and ducked his head, licking the water off my chest, while more just dripped down from his hair. His hands went to my hips, holding me in place. "Hold still."

Grinning, I reached down between us and cupped his balls in my hand, kissing his shoulder. Most of the time I just wanted to worship his strong body. I was amazed with the amount of love I could feel for him.

"Feels good," he murmured against my skin, lying me back completely flat. The rock was going to scrape my backside, but I hardly cared. I touched him enough to make him ready, and he did the same for me, before gently easing into me.

"Why did my mother want me to be gentle with you?" He asked before moving his hips, as if the answer could be enough to make him withdraw from me.

"The rock. If you pound me too hard, you'll tear up the back of my body," I said, hoping that would be a satisfactory answer. It was. He slipped his hands under me to protect the tender skin of my arse as he rocked slowly and smoothly into me.

I clung to him, belly to belly with him as slowly but surely we reached our release.

Afterward he wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. I wondered when I would have the courage to tell him about the baby. My hand fluttered to my tummy. I was going to have a baby.

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Since I had come to accept the fact that I was pregnant, my stomach turned much more often and most mornings I woke up feeling quite sick. Headaches ailed me for most of the day, then at night after the evening meal I would lose the contents of my stomach.

Asvald didn't mention anything to me about being with child, I believe he thought that I had some sort of stomach virus. He was too busy preparing for the raid.

I kept trying to work up the courage to tell him, but I just couldn't. Even though Groa told me that Asvald would be quite happy with the news, I couldn't bring myself to tell him. I had this feeling that once I told him, things would change between us, and not for the better. So I kept my little secret.

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The village bustled with activity the morning the men were to leave on the raid, women finishing last minute packing for their husbands, the men tending to final arrangements.

I gathered Asvald's packs and gave them to him with a peck on lips, and he took them down to the ship before returning to say goodbye. He kissed his siblings goodbye first, then Groa, who told him to behave and gave him a pat on the bottom.

He turned to me with a smile that held a secret. Ducking his head, he pressed his open mouth against mine and pulled me against his hips by gripping my arse. I heard the giggles of Groa and the children, but I didn't mind.

Twining my fingers in his hair, I returned the passionate kiss and teased his tongue with my own. But when I felt his hardness between us, I pulled away before I could be tempted to drag him back to bed and never let him leave.

He breathed heavily and rested his forehead against mine, our breath mingling in the space between us. "My kone. Be a good lass while I'm gone and try not to feel too lonely without me."

We looked up at each other, hands brushing cheeks, thumbs grazing lips.

"Do not hurt the women and children," I murmured, ignoring the ache of remembering the raid on my own village. But there was no stopping him, and I could do little to change his way of life.

"You know I won't," he answered and kissed me quickly one last time. "I must go."

We whispered our love of one another and he headed down to the beach, and I stood alone on the cliff that overlooked the ocean, watching as Asvald's ship slipped into the distance. My hand drifted to my stomach. I loved the child beginning to grow inside me, and I loved the man who fathered it, but I couldn't help but feel the burn as a seed of bitterness was planted inside me.