Free Enthralled: Viking Lore, Book 1 by Emma Prince Page B

promise to do everything in my power
to make sure that doesn’t happen. As I said, you are under my protection now.”
    She shook her head,
breaking their contact, yet the skin of her face felt unnaturally warm, as if
his hands still caressed her.
    “Besides Grimar, from
what do I need protection?”
    He hesitated, as if
weighing how much to tell her. She felt her anger rising again. She knew so
little and had so little power over her own life. “Tell me. At least I can be
prepared, even if I can’t have any control over what will happen to me,” she
choked out.
    “There are other
thralls in the village. Most work on farms, helping their masters tend animals
or bring in crops. Many free men treat their thralls with decency, though there
are also those like Grimar who view thralls as lower than sheep or cows.”
    Laurel fought back the
wave of hopelessness that threatened to drown her. This was to be the place she
spen t the rest of her life? And worse, she
might be one of those cows in Grimar’s possession soon.
    “Most of the thralls in
Dalgaard, my village, are from the Northlands,” Eirik continued. “They were
captured in raids or traded for prisoners of battle. There are only a few
utlending thralls.”
    His voice held a
warning that she didn’t fully understand. Her confusion must have shown on her
face, for Eirik went on. “Utlendings are considered even lower than Northlander
thralls. They are outside the bounds of our laws and customs, tossed aside by
the gods.”
    A slave and an
outsider. Oddly, the labels felt familiar to her, yet this was far worse than
laboring at the Abbey, where she was considered an affront against the holy
order. “So I am to be the lowest of the low. What…what will be done to me?”
    His eyes pinched again.
“Some villagers will likely look upon you with disdain for being an utlending,
though most will be more curious than anything. They will expect you to be
deferential, even to other thralls. They will expect you to obey me without
question.” The words seemed to strain against his throat. “But I will not treat
you cruelly or…or force myself on you.”
    She could feel her eyes
go wide at his last words. “Why?” she blurted out without thinking. “I mean…I
had assumed…” she fumbled, her face growing hot.
    She took a breath and
started over. “I had assumed that as a thrall I would be subjected to…such
abuses. Yet Grimar never touched me, and you say you won’t take me against my
will.” It was humiliating to speak of such horrors so frankly, yet she’d been
required to do many things in the last several days that she otherwise never
would have.
    “No intimacies of any
kind can take place on a ship,” Eirik replied. “It is considered an insult to
the gods of the sea. Only the threat of the gods’ wrath stopped Grimar.”
    “And when we land?” she
said shakily.
    “I find such acts
abhorrent. A man who takes women by force has no self-control and therefore doesn’t
deserve respect.” His blue eyes flame d brightly for a moment, revealing just how strongly he felt about his words.
    The smallest tendril of
relief soothed her ragged mind for a moment. Eirik wouldn’t abuse her, and if
his words could be believed, he wouldn’t rape her either. But only if she
remained his thrall, she reminded herself with a sinking feeling. If Grimar
could convince his father, the Jarl, that she should be passed back to him…
    Sickness that had
naught to do with the gently rolling seas rose in the back of her throat. Her
position was so tenuous that she dared not hope to remain under Eirik’s
protection. Yet she couldn’t deny to herself that he was preferable over
Grimar.
    More than preferable ,
a voice whispered in the back of her head. Something about his presence both
comforted and disquieted her—not because she feared him, as she did Grimar, but
because he made her very aware of his largeness and her smallness, of his
strength and her weakness. Even the