Eleanor

Eleanor walked arm in arm with Kate, steering her around the painful brambles, keeping pace far back behind the dark figure of Ragnar. Shock didn't cover how Eleanor felt, Ragnar knew of her mother, was told stories of her father and mother's love by his mamma, Bjorn's younger sister, how her father Bjorn battled the Scot's best warriors for the right to marry her mother. And how he had died in an ambush, battling off the Scots men who were incensed at his marriage to their Laird's Daughter. Criostiona MacDonald. That was her mother's name. Daughter to one of the most feared Clan Leader of Skye. And her father had vied for her hand, and died for her safety.

Ragnar had talked for hours to her, telling her all his Mamma had told him, her mother had been so full of light and laughter, and Eleanor mourned the loss of that woman. The woman that would have been the perfect mother, instead of the silent stranger left behind.

"How long have you known all this Kate?"

There was no reproach in her friend's question, and Kate was thankful for that, she could not stand the thought of Eleanor being angry.

"Since I met Ragnar about 8 months ago. When we would walk in the woods he would tell me the story of his Uncle Bjorn. I found it enchanting. Until he told me of the necklace Bjorn gave your mother when they married. I only then knew you were their child. I remembered you showing me the necklace when we were children." Kate spoke, trying to hide her laughter at her future husband, clearly growing annoyed with the meandering women falling so far behind.

Following her friend's adoring gaze, Eleanor smiled.

"You love him don't you?" Eleanor asked, slightly envious of Kate's luck.

Looking down at her belly, Kate smiled, "Of course girl, I would not have allowed him near me otherwise!!" She laughed, mock indignation in her voice.

"So what about this contract?" Eleanor asked quietly.

She was still puzzling over that part of the conversation that morning, Ragnar seemed although he were about to elaborate, and then caught himself. Eleanor didn't know what to make of it; she wanted to know more of this contract that had been made on her. She was assuming it was to do with MacLean bargaining her, as she had imagined he would. Yes, she thought, throw the blonde girl to the wolves to save your own skin. When Kate had told her the Laird's fate, and the events preceding it, Eleanor had decided the second after her shock had subsided, that the Laird had gotten what he had deserved.

"I don't know of a contract Eleanor." Kate lied, god she hated herself for lying. But she could not stand the thought of more fighting between the Auden and Haur. After all, her love was a Haur, and he would never stand against his Bruni Auden, never. The contract was meant to bring neutrality between the two families, secure heirs for the adjoining lands. She could not tell Eleanor that she had been promised to Bruni's elder brother Nikolas, the man was nearing forty and an extensive traveler. Kate and her brothers had traveled a great deal in her 24 years, mainly traveling with their Da after her mother had died of a fever when she was 8 and they had left Loch Carnach. Oh how she had missed her friend in those years. They had been to his native Denmark, traveled across the lush lands of the Gauls, spent many years traveling the English and Cymri lands, working with gypsies in their traveling fairs.

When the bloody English began killing the gypsies for being strange, and blaming them for wrong doings in their towns, Seamus and Lewis had taken a 16 year old Kate and fled north. Spending years looking for a safe haven and Loch Carnach was always the safest they had found without running out of Scotland to look for, so had resettled in their childhood home, and built two more surrounding it. They had met Nikolas on many occasions, in many locations, always being thrown from some tavern for being Norse, or welcomed into a gypsies' tent for the same reason. Not they type for playing husband. Not the best choice for Eleanor. Glad of her own luck, Kate was happy with her good fortune placing her in the path of Ragnar, and would be damned if her friend was to suffer less of a man.

"Come on you two, or I will be carrying you both over my shoulders!" Ragnar threatened.

He smiled at the two friends, so close, so alike. Both tall, graceful, and completely independent minded. He was overjoyed at finding his Uncle Bjorn's daughter, his cousin, Twenty Two years had passed wondering. His mother would be overjoyed, had always fretted as to what had happened to the poor child. They had never known whether the child was boy or girl, been born safely, or whether Criostiona had reached safety after Bjorn's sacrifice. They had mourned three lives for twenty two years. He didn't know how to tell her of the contract. He knew Kate was mad about it when he had told her all those months ago, told him it was terrible to expect a young girl to marry a man who would not be there for years, who whored his way across the sea! By Odin, his Kate had an itinery of language that would put a hardened warrior to shame sometimes.

Crossing into the clearing, Bruni looked up at him and he nodded his head to his tired leader. As Kate and Eleanor walked without force into the camp, Ragnar swore he saw his friend's shoulders relax.

Finally, things were looking up. The Haur daughter was here, his brother Nikolas's bride, they could finally get off this rock. Sitting back against the makeshift map table he took a drink of the cool water and studied her, walking arm in arm with Ragnar's love. Bruni focused harder on the two, By Freya, Kate was pregnant. Choking on his water, Bruni felt a hard hand tap his back.

"I know. I nearly stopped breathing when I realised." Ragnar laughed, rubbing his friend's back coaxing the water back to where it should be.

"I hope this means you will be taking her back with you this time?" Bruni croaked.

"I will, she doesn't know it, but I will" Ragnar said, his plan forming even as he spoke those words.

"I bloody hope so; Anika was distraught when you didn't bring her back before. She was told by one of the wives that you had found a woman."

Thinking about his little sister, Ragnar smiled, rubbing his chest.

"Yes I know, she was so angry with me for not bringing her back with me, she hit me so hard I thought she had broken a rib." Ragnar smoothed his palm over where his little sister had punched him, for an eight year old, she had tremendous strength.

"Kate is taking her to the tent next to mine, so I can hear if she tries to leave." Ragnar paused, "She doesn't know of the contract, I started to tell her then stopped, realising my mistake. I'm sorry Bruni, but I am hoping she thinks I was just meaning the bargain MacLean made."

"Do not fash yourself Ragnar, we will tell her when the time is right, preferably when she is on our terrain." Bruni said quietly. He felt like a bastard for doing this to her, lying to anyone was not in his nature, but to protect the contract, he had to. Bruni supposed he was just to be glad that the Haur's child was a female. If it had been a male, he would have been forced to bring the twenty two year old boy back to be married to his younger sister. He may have been tempted to push the boy overboard rather than let that happen, yet here, the roles reversed; he was still condemning a young woman, to a lonely existence, with a man that would not be around long enough to love her.

"Go to your woman Ragnar, make her comfortable." Bruni said, turning from his friend and back to the maps. He had received word that he had to collect his errant roaming brother from the North point of the Gaul lands. One of his boats had ran aground; he had sent the other to deliver his message to their mother. Idiot had now been stranded there for nearly four weeks. Would take them another week to reach him at full speed. And Bruni did not know how his brother would react to news that the contract had to be fulfilled.

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Sitting in the opening of the tent, Eleanor and Kate were wrapped in the one blanket against the chill of the evening. These warriors had seen to their every need, blankets, wine, and the food they had been brought was delicious. Succulent chicken and pork roasted over the roaring fire in the centre of the camp, the scent filling her with warmth. Sated from her meal, she and Kate relaxed against the tree her tent was tied to, as Kate tried to remember as many of the Norse she had met eight months before.

A great deal of the number came over and introduced themselves, including the three wives that had come with their husbands. They had all been friendly, polite with her; she didn't have the heart to tell them as Kate translated, that she could generally understand them. Her old Priest's teachings made sense to her now; her mother's confession must have been a damn sight more in depth than the old man made out. She knew now, she was traveling back to Norway with them, Ragnar was to introduce her to their family, she was quite excited about that, finally having some semblance of family.

The dark eyes that looked through the flames at her were entrancing and intense. Each time the tall male thought she was not looking, she could feel his gaze bore into her, and averted when she met it head on. Whispering to Kate, averting her eyes so it was not obvious to the giant of a man that he was the topic of her conversation.

"Who is he Kate? The one standing next to Ragnar?"

Looking up from the necklace Ragnar had presented her with earlier in their tent, Kate looked to Ragnar's companion.

"That is their leader Eleanor, Bruni Auden, he was Oleif's older brother." Kate whispered back, smiling gently at her friend's blushing gaze of the Norse Leader, and at Bruni's intent stare at her friend.

Lying back against the blankets, Kate fingered the delicate loops of the chain, to the silver dragon identical to Eleanor's and blushed herself, remembering Ragnar caressing her bare skin with the cool smooth metal before placing it over her head. His voice had been husky and so much deeper than normal as he had made love to her gently on their sides, as he told her she was his. Kate had always hated hearing of women as belongings to men, but as he had growled those words in her ear, he gently stroked away any refusal to hear them, till all she could hear was their own ragged breaths in their tent.

"I think I had better take her inside" Ragnar's Gaelic cutting through Eleanor's thoughts as she played with the frayed edges of her shawl. Seeing her friend sound asleep, Eleanor nodded, smiling at Kate's resting form, and Ragnar's obvious adoration for her. As he scooped her up and disappeared into their tent next to hers, Eleanor looked across the flames in front of her, and smiled as those eyes avoided hers once more. Disappearing into her small tent, she wrapped her blankets, warmed from the flames around her tired body, and fell to sleep easily, for the second time since she left Lean.

Bruni studied his maps, committing his course to memory before they sailed late tomorrow morning. The flames from the fire were dying out, his men mostly long since gone to their pallets; there was nothing but the light crackle of the remaining burning wood, and the owls in the forest around them. Bruni turned around, peering once more across the dying fire into her tent, the small gap in the linens granting him the beautiful view of her peaceful face. Rolling his maps, he stalked to his tent, if he took himself out of her sight, he would gain some peace perhaps. Lying back against his furs, Bruni tried to focus on the task at hand, get his brother, get back to Bergen, and fulfill the contract. Closing his eyes, flashes of the past day rushed him, staring at the burning Laird, his screams filling his mind. Turning over onto his side, Bruni fingered the braid Ragnar had given him of Eleanor's hair, for his brother Nikolas. Bringing the soft lock to his face, he inhaled her scent, beautiful, just like her. Holding the braid close, Bruni relaxed as he pictured her sweet smile at him as she retired to her tent, and savored it. She would most likely hate him when she found out about the contract. No young girl wanted to face a life of solitude, unlikely to bare children since her husband would never be there. No life at all. Fleeing that though, Bruni pulled the blanket across his tired body, and thought of Eleanor. Truly there was no woman as beautiful.