Free Falling to the Viking by M. Garnet Page A

movies those Vikings didn’t wear very much. Hmmm.
    Halla told her of the heavy rich forests. She mentioned the many hot springs that were scattered over the landscape. Okay, that was interesting. Kathryn did some more checking on the Internet. Well looky here, she found a lot of very expensive spas located around Copenhagen.
    She asked her newfound aunt about her family, especially about the ones who came to America, hoping to learn about her dead parents. Unfortunately, Aunt Halla just filled her letters with trivia about the old times in her memories, none of which were related to the family.
    Kathryn wondered if the old woman was losing her mind or was writing a history book. The letters began to include a suggestion that Kathryn come to see her in Denmark. At first, it was like a suggestion, then it was an appeal. At last, she held out the carrot. She was rich, Kathryn was her last relative, and she would leave Kathryn everything if Kathryn would just visit for a short time.
    Actually, Kathryn wasn’t interested in someone else’s money, but the lure of finding out about her family, plus having the trip paid by the aunt, was appealing. She put in for her accumulated vacation time, having to wait two months for everything to fall into place. During that time, she got her first real passport with a visa for Denmark. The attorney brought her a packet that included a lot more tickets than she expected.
    She had thought it would be a flight from Columbus to New York, then on to Copenhagen. Nope. It was Columbus to New York to London to Copenhagen. Still, Copenhagen was on the east side of the smaller island. It was a small commuter flight to the larger territory before boarding the first bus to ride up the coast. She didn’t even get a chance to do any shopping in the great stores or visit the spas in Copenhagen.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    The coast was beautiful, but by this time, her body was tired. She had been sleeping on planes, in airports, in taxies and on the bus, but for the entire trip, there hadn’t been a planned overnight hotel stop. She hadn’t noticed this with a lack of itinerary, but in her enthusiasm of seeing Europe, she forgot to look behind the curtain. Live and learn —where had she heard that before?
    They were stopping again to change buses. This meant a couple of hours in an uncomfortable older bus station where she didn’t speak the language. She had no idea where they were, but the highway must have moved in away from the sea since they were deep within a heavy forest. The air had a clean smell, but a chill that made her glad she had a sweater to pull around her.
    Well, in some ways, the station was like one anywhere. There was a coffee machine with ugly tasting hot coffee. Beside it were a couple of half-empty candy machines. Yet, there was a difference. Outside, against the wall, was a table covered with some type of colorful shawl set up with an old woman accompanied by a young girl about ten years old , the table covered with some type of colorful shawl. The old woman sat behind it, selling items to the bus driver.
    Kathryn walked over with her nasty coffee to see what was happening. The old woman looked up with a smile as she held up a large heavy teapot. At least Kathryn assumed that tea was what it was. Kathryn looked at it for only a second before she threw out her coffee and held out the empty cup. Whatever was in the pot had to be better than what had been in the odd paper cup that the coffee machine had dispensed with gurgles and sputters.
    The little girl grabbed Kathryn’s cup, poured some water in it from a bottle, then rinsed it. The girl held it while the old woman filled it from the pot. The woman looked at Kathryn as she poured what looked like whole cream into the cup of dark liquid. She picked up from a bowl a chunk of what Kathryn thought might be dark sugar to drop it into the cup. The woman took the same spoon she had used in the bus driver’s cup to stir for a moment