Free The Viking by Marti Talbott

especially worried, “Did he ask about yer clan in the north?”
    “Aye,” was all Stefan was willing to say.
    She lowered her head and glared at him through the top of her eyes. “Are ye not to tell us?”
    “If ye must know, I told o ’ a very tall man in the north who is slow o’ wit, a plentiful waterfall and land with few trees. I may have mentioned I prefer trees.”
    “And what else?” asked Kannak.
    He winked at Jirvel and headed for the doorway. “I told him the lasses were not as beautiful in the North as they are here.” With that, he walked out of the bedchamber, went to the front door and checked to be sure it was bolted. Then he climbed into bed and covered himself. They were still giggling when he fell into a peaceful sleep.
    *
    Two days later, Macoran had a horse and a good size collection of woven cloths delivered including linen for undergarments. It was just in time for Stefan’s long pants would be too short soon.
    Instead of being a tall, sleek, black horse, this one was mostly white with one large brown spot on its rump. It was also short and stocky with an ample width fit for hard work and long hours of travel. Until Stefan got bigger, all three could comfortably ride this horse together which was a good thing because the stallion disappeared again.
    Kannak and Stefan w ere thrilled with the new horse…Jirvel was suspicious. The word ‘bribery’ came to mind. But as time passed and nothing was asked of her or Kannak, Jirvel began to take to the mare herself, riding her after the day’s work was done, grooming her and making sure she would come when Jirvel whistled. It was yet another measure of comfort and safety she was happy to have. Once, the mare came to the door of the cottage and pushed it open with its head as though it was looking for Jirvel. For days, Stefan and Kannak could not stop laughing about it.
    *
    The early days of spring turned into the long days of summer and they had sunlight for all but a few hours a night. With the planting finished, Stefan fixed things in the cottage and the shed when it was raining, and clearing heather from more land when it was not. He tended the garden, hunted and fished while Jirvel and Kannak made new clothing for them all.
    If only he knew how to make shoes. At length, he decided to tear his old pair apart to make a pattern, cut new, larger pieces from a deer hide and make his own. They were not the best by any means, but they would do. Kannak laughed at him until he challenged her to make a better pair. That was the end of her laughter on that subject.
    Then one day, after the women returned from bartering the belts they made, Jirvel produced a new pair made by the Macoran cobbler. The cobbler used his old, torn apart pair to make the patterns, they fit perfectly with a little room to grow and he was so pleased, he hugged her.
     
     
    CHAPTER VIII
     
    They went to see about it at the same time for the sad whimper of a dog was a sure sign it was hurt. But when Stefan finally found it, it was not a dog but a gray wolf. Just as he parted the bushes and saw the animal lying on its side hopelessly tangled up in twine, bushes on the other side of the wolf parted and he was face to face with a boy not much younger than he.
    Stefan nodded and then pulled out his dagger, “I say we cut it free.”
    “I say we kill it,” the boy said. “Many’s the lamb who will not be sorry to be shed o’ that one.“
    “This wolf? This p recise wolf? Have ye any proof?”
    “ ‘Tis a wolf, what more proof are ye need’n?”
    The animal ’s eyes were wide with fright and Stefan felt sorry for it. “Even a wolf has the right to survive any way it can and this one has cubs somewhere.”
    “Aye but …”
    “We kill lambs for food too, should we be put to death?”
    There was little the other laddie could say, though he did wrinkle his brow. “If I help ye free it, do ye pledge not to tell my father?”
    “I do.”
    The boy knelt down, struggled for a