“I know,” Arinbjorn said. “I agree.”
“You tried to talk him out of proposing to her, in the armory at Ozur’s.” At his surprised look, she said sheepishly, “I heard. When I dropped off the poultice for your nose.”
Arinbjorn reached up to touch it and grinned. “It’s the first time breaking my nose has scarred. Halldor did well.” He nodded at the chamber door. “If it’s any consolation—Eirik has been different since they met, and I think it may be for the better. She’s done something to him. Most of our lives, he’s been indifferent toward women.”
“Let me guess—he thinks us silly, frivolous creatures, unworthy of his important, manly attention?” Oddny asked dryly. She remembered how Eirik had conducted himself with Signy during that first feast at Ozur’s, barely paying her advances any mind until he was very drunk.
“Something like that. But I wouldn’t worry for Gunnhild. She’s more than a match for him,” Arinbjorn said. “You’re a good friend, Oddny. That’s part of why I was waiting to speak with you. Runfrid is awfully fond of you, and any friend of my beloved’s is someone worth knowing better, in my opinion. She chooses her friends more carefully than anyone I know.”
Oddny felt a surge of warmth in her chest. She didn’t feel that she knew Runfrid all that well yet and she was touched that the tattooist thought so highly of her. But she noted Arinbjorn’s avoidance of the word “wife” and said, “You two . . . aren’t married, are you?”
“Oh, no. She doesn’t want to.”
“Won’t her father force her, though? If he knows you’re so—close?”
“Ha! He knows better than that. He made her the way she is, after all,” Arinbjorn said. At Oddny’s questioning look, he explained. “He found Runfrid wandering the streets after he and his raider friends sacked a town in Cordoba. She was maybe four winters old. He was a career warrior with no wife or children of his own, but he had a softness for her that to this day he can’t explain. The problem was that he had no idea what to do with a daughter. He didn’t want to adopt her only to drop her off with his relatives, so he took her along when he went on the summer raids, and she learned her trade on the way.”
“That’s incredible,” Oddny breathed. It was the most unconventional upbringing she could imagine for a woman.
“I know,” Arinbjorn said proudly. “So, while she won’t legally marry me, in my heart she’s my wife. We had a ceremony a few winters ago and swore an oath to each other, but she doesn’t want the law involved. She said it would make her feel like she’s my property. She doesn’t want to be beholden to anyone. I respect that.”
“But a woman gets to keep her dowry and bride-price,” Oddny said. “A woman herself is not property.”
“But both are provided by her kinsmen, so you see how she might feel that way?”
Oddny sat back and took a swig of ale. The truth was that she’d never considered a marriage agreement from that angle. The women she’d grown up around—her mother and Solveig—had always seemed so independent to her young eyes. But how much of their own authority had come from their husbands?
She cast a look at the closed door to the chamber that Gunnhild now shared with Eirik.
She might be a queen now, but only because of him, Oddny thought. Her ritual tomorrow isn’t just about finding Signy. It’s about proving to herself that she still possesses a power no one can take away from her.
Signy had been right all along, Oddny realized with a pang: While her sister had dreamed of adventure and freedom ever since they were young, Oddny had always doubted her, and with no real-life example to follow—only the legendary women in their father’s tall tales—Signy hadn’t known how to pursue what she wanted in any practical way, which is why she’d settled on trying to attract a rich man and moving far from Halogaland instead. Oddny, too, had never met another woman who’d done what her sister had wanted to do, until now. Until Runfrid. Once Signy was safe, Oddny would have to introduce them.
“And when you’re made to marry?” she pressed, turning back to Arinbjorn. “What will happen to Runfrid then?”
“That’s not a problem until it’s a problem,” he said. “There’s no use worrying about it before then. Now, can I ask you a personal question?” When she nodded, he said, “You and Gunnhild are around the same age. Were you betrothed before the raid?”
Oddny shook her head. “No. My sister and I were thought to be cursed. But perhaps it all worked out in the end. If I were married, it’s not likely I’d get a chance to rescue her. I’d be too busy running a farm.”
“And is that what you wanted to do?”
“It’s what I always thought I wanted to do.” She took another sip of ale. “But I could never tell my mother of my doubts. I was too scared she wouldn’t approve of me doing anything other than what was expected of me. What’s more, people have been coming to me for remedies since I first made Saeunn her tea, and I find it . . . gratifying. To help people. I wonder if, once Signy is safe, I can follow my own path, like Runfrid is doing. Be a traveling healer, as Gunnhild had wanted to be a traveling seeress. And maybe Signy would even want to come with me. She’s always longed for adventure.”
“I think that’s a grand idea,” said Arinbjorn. “I didn’t get to talk to your sister much when we stayed with Ozur on the way to Bjarmaland, considering she was too busy trying to get Eirik somewhere nice and quiet where she could get his pants off—”
Oddny guffawed into her cup. She wondered if Eirik even remembered that night, or if he’d mentioned it to Gunnhild, who thus far had given no indication that she knew her sworn sister had once attempted to bed her now-husband.
“—but it seems like you two are very different, no?”
“Yes,” Oddny said emphatically, the ale loosening her tongue. “We are very different. For one, Signy’s had a lot of dealings with men, where I’ve had few. I’ve tried being intimate with others, but it went poorly because I felt no . . . connection with them. I can’t simply look at someone I’ve just met and decide to seduce them. I feel as though I have to know them to even want them in that way. Does that make any sense at all?”
When Arinbjorn didn’t speak, Oddny became worried that she’d said too much, that he thought her foolish. But instead, he gave her a knowing smile. “I’ve met many people who feel the same. In fact, I’m one of them.”
Oddny was stunned. “You have? You are?”
“Yes. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get to know a person first before deciding to be intimate with them. Few get the opportunity to do so.” Arinbjorn leaned in close. “And if I may give you some advice? If you wish to get to know Halldor, you’d best go strike up a conversation with him before someone else catches his eye.”
Oddny’s jaw dropped and she smacked him on the shoulder. “Why would you say that? What has Runfrid told you?”
“Oh, this and that. Why don’t you go over there and start forging a connection?”