Kirsty stood on deck looking out at the shore line as it came into view. She was fully dressed for the first time in three days. In her own clothes, jumper, mini-skirt and tights as well as boots and coat. When she woke she had discovered them on the table, folded and freshly washed. It was another reminder of how big a day this was.
She watched the faint land in the distance grow closer. It was still too far away for her to tell much about it. What would it be like? What did it hold for her? She shivered as much in apprehension as the cold winds that whipped about her, lifting a fine spray that caressed her cheeks as he had last night.
The guys were all busy. She had no real idea doing what, but she could tell from their faces that now was not a good time to disturb them. Which meant it was the perfect time to observe them. Bjorn was doing something with ropes. She chuckled; she usually did not connect the two. Ropes meant Sven, who she assumed was busy above deck with other things at the moment.
She rubbed her wrists slowly even though you could barely notice anything, she could almost still feel them. She had woken alone in his bed...untied. How did the man do that without waking her? But he had and honestly she wished he hadn't. When she woke alone, she had felt...well, alone. As she had not since...
Since they took you. Kidnapped you. Spirited you away from everything you knew. She would not say 'loved,' that would be a lie. But it had been her life, damn it. Some part of her still screamed that they had no right. While the other part, crossed her arms and laughed, whispering 'like your pathetic existence was half as good as falling asleep in their arms for the past three nights.' She shook her head at that voice. The big question was...which could she trust? Her head...or her heart? She wished she knew.
She frowned as Mikael walked over to Bjorn. She could not hear what they were saying, the wind and waves were so loud on deck. But she could see from the dark scowls on both their faces that it was not good. When Mikael took the rope and began re-doing the work that Bjorn had just finished, she feared that they would come to blows. She fought the sudden and irrational need to insert herself between the two brothers. But in the end, Bjorn turned his back and walked to the stairs that led to the deck where she assumed Sven was.
She sighed as she watched Mikael wrapping and twining the rope. He worked with such ferocity. She could almost feel the anger boiling and churning inside of him just like the waves that beat at the sides of the boat as it sliced through them. Bjorn had told her very little, said he felt it best if Mikael told her in his own time. But he had shared that his middle brother had been married before...a real marriage, at least the legal, monogamous kind. He told her too that Mikael had a child, a little girl that lived with them. That fact combined with his attitude told her that things had not ended well with his ex.
She supposed that she would be meeting his child in a couple of hours along with their uncle and mother. This mysterious Petrine, a woman that had adapted to their way of life, had come to love four men, lost them one by one. A woman, who had raised three such... She sought for adjectives to describe the brothers. Strong for certain...and not just their physical prowess. Each had a depth of intelligence and character that intrigued her, though each was unique. Of course, she knew that each of the three claimed different fathers.
She bit her lower lip again as the thought, which she had been trying to keep at bay, came crashing in once more. How did they know? Did they? Really? The coppery taste of blood mixed with the smell of seawater as she fought back tears. Damn them, damn them all. She was crying...again.
Even if she could come to love three men, and the past couple of days, she had begun to believe that was more feasible than she would have imagined. The hard truth was that they would never be accepted. 'Be honest,' said that little voice, 'the problem is your parents, your friends. You cannot imagine explaining any of this to them. Let alone...oh by the way, I am not sure exactly who the father of your grandchild is.' She shivered against the cold or perhaps against the truth.
"Cold," his voice and warm breath caressed her cheek even as his hand on her shoulders rubbed them, spreading warmth. 'But what kind?' teased that voice in her head.
"A bit," she half-lied. "Where are we? How much longer?"
Bjorn looked out over the waters. His face was drawn, there were dark circles beneath those Kelly green eyes and while he was still almost breath-takingly beautiful she was worried about him. She knew that he had been up most of last night with the watch. She blushed, part of it was how little sleep he had gotten with her the night before that. But still...
He smiled as he wrapped his arms about her and drew her against his body. "We are just entering the island chain, still in the Baltic Sea still. Another hour or so and we shall make Fjorthen. It is a small town just a few hundred people, not at all your London. We will dock and unload there. Sven spoke to Olaf this morning so I am sure that Mama and he will bring Monika to meet us there. They will not be able to wait to meet you."
She nodded, uncertain what to say or even what to think. It was not every day you met your 'in-laws.' What would they think of her? What was this woman really like? Kirsty admitted she was more than a bit intimidated at the prospects. With the exception of Mikael, who said very little, she knew that both Sven and Bjorn respected and adored the woman. She seemed almost a legend and Kirsty knew those were big shoes to be filled.
"And the Holding?" she questioned, sticking to safer grounds.
That smile seemed to light his handsome face from within, "Not sure how long it will take to unload everything. But we will be home for dinner this evening. Mama is counting on that already," he laughed.
She thought about her own mother, tried to remember a single dinner that she had made for her. She could not. It was the housekeeper and nanny's responsibility to see to such things. How different this woman sounded from Nancy Dickens.
She could almost see the tight way that her mother's face would scrunch up in obvious distaste if Kirsty were to introduce her to even one of these rough fishermen, let alone as her 'husband'...and husbands was more than she could even consider. She found herself back where she began that morning...what was she doing here? With these men, these strangers?
"I have something for you," he said as he turned her in his arms. He opened his thick jacket and pulled out her tablet. She had been too caught up this morning in her musings to even miss it. "I have connected you to the satellite that we use on the boat and at home...your 3G won't cut it."
She nodded as she remembered trying to get a signal that first morning so she could alert someone to what had happened to her. And now? Bjorn had just handed that power to her.
"Yes, I know," he said as if he could read her thoughts. His fingers beneath her chin lifted her face until she was staring into those green eyes once more. "You could have us arrested. I know that. And right now, Mikael would kill me if he knew what I have just done. Sven would just shake his head."
He caressed her bottom lip, "But you gave me your word that you would not run, that you would give us a chance. A few emails right now might make that easier. If you..." He leaned slowly down and brushed his lips so softly, so briefly, so sweetly against hers that she was reminded of the beating wings of a butterfly. "I trust you to make the right decision. I am trusting you with my life. My brothers' lives. And my niece's future."
Without another word, he released her and turned back to where Mikael was still working. His brother did not look any happier to see that Bjorn was back. But he shrugged and handed him another length of rope as he continued his earlier task.
She stared at the tablet in her hand. It suddenly felt as if it had just been pulled hot from the blacksmith's forge. It burned as his words weighed down upon her. How could he? How dare he? She did not want that kind of responsibility. She had never asked for any of this.
It was hers nonetheless. And the very thought of any of them taken away in handcuffs...let alone all of them...sat on her stomach like an undercooked Doner kebab after a night of binge drinking in uni. Was it all just some warped Stockholm Syndrome? Identifying with her captors in order to keep herself alive.
But staying alive was not the issue. She believed what they said: they posed no danger to her life anyway. Her life? Staying alive? Had she ever really been alive? Until she stepped through that turnstile. Until his hands on her pulled her through was more like it. She had lived more in the past three days than she had in twenty-six years. It seemed she had some thinking to do.
She sighed with a final glance at the brothers. She had not seen Sven since she fell asleep in his arms last night. That was probably a good thing too. The man was hiding, but as she took the stairs down to the cabin that had been hers for three days, the cabin that was this man, she could not judge him. She was hiding too.
She crawled back into the bed; the smell of sex most definitely still lingered. She blushed as her Internet browser confirmed his words. She opened her emails. Nothing important: social network notices mostly, dumb pics with even dumber sayings, too many drunken pub ones of friends from uni and even more cute kid ones from her friends, who had taken a different path.
One caught her attention. She refused to open it as tears once more filled her eyes. She hit the compose button and began the message to her supervisor. She wrote and re-wrote it half a dozen times. In the end, she had settled for simple as she requested a three month leave of absence for personal reasons. Nothing more.
But that unopened notice to the social media site reminded her that her email would need no further explanation to the kindly older woman, who had practically hovered since Raj had come in with the grainy photograph. If she were being honest, it was his announcement that had convinced her to accept Sven's invitation to coffee.
