A Flirty Dozen Box Set

Love Found on Lindisfarne-4

There was a predictable cry of “Da-ad! Can I have a Viking dress? And a sword?”

“I don’t know where you get them from,” I hedged.

“Can you ask? Ple-ease.”

I drew in a breath to give the beleaguered parent’s old standby, “Maybe,” but was interrupted by a gruff voice from behind. “Well, if it isn’t my favourite daughter-in-law. You had a good time today?”

Balder stood there, holding a mug of something. Disappointingly, when I looked closer, it appeared to be tea, rather than ale, mead, or whatever used to be the Viking beverage of choice.

“Er, yes, thanks.”

“I thought you’d have gone back to the mainland by now, along with everyone else.”

“So did we.” I shrugged. “Looks like we’re going to be staying a bit longer now. We were admiring the kids’ costumes. Are they homemade?”

“All hand sewn by my lovely wife, Aud. Aud!” At his stentorian yell, the lady with the ladle looked up and gave us a wave. “Come and meet her,” Balder insisted, and shepherded me through the Viking horde with a hand in the small of my back.

I glanced back to see Kelis—and Ian as well, to my surprise—had run off to join the children. They’d got hold of a home-made looking ball from somewhere, and were using the sword as a cricket bat. I hoped it’d survive the game.

As we neared the fire, I could smell the rich meaty aroma coming from the pot. Balder sniffed appreciatively. “Ah, that’s proper food, that is. Aud? This is…hang on, you never did mention your name, did you?”

“Chris.” I stuck out a hand, then felt a bit of an i***t. “Um, do Vikings shake hands?”

“These ones do, dear.” Aud smiled, and wiped her hand on her dress before shaking mine. She had a firm, warm grip, her palms a little rough. “Are you staying on the island?”

“They missed the tide,” Balder answered for me. “Going to have to wait for the next one.”

“Well, there’s worse spots to be stranded. Just you wait until sunset—the skies are beautiful around here. And it’s Sharon, really,” she added in a lower voice as Balder went to speak to another Viking, waving a quick apology in my direction. “But Kevin does like to keep in character.”

“Kev—? Oh. You mean Balder.” I hesitated. “So, er, is Ian—Ulf—actually your son?”

She gave me a long, considering look, a smile quivering on her lips. “Oh, it’s like that, is it? No, Ian’s not ours. He’s a lovely lad though, isn’t he? Is that your daughter, the little dark-skinned girl playing with my grandchildren?” she carried on, before I could work out if I ought to be embarrassed or not.

I turned to see Kelis bending down to whisper in a giggly Viking girl’s ear, and nodded. “Yes, she’s mine. Kelis. She’s twelve.”

“She seems a friendly one. Why don’t you eat with us tonight? She eats meat, doesn’t she?”

“Total carnivore,” I confirmed. “But are you sure you’ll have enough? I mean, there’s a lot of people here.”

“Oh, bless you! I’m not going to feed all this lot. Most of them will be off down to the Anchor for fish and chips later. But like I said, Kevin prefers to keep in character. We’ll have plenty to spare.” She nudged me with a well-rounded elbow. “And Ian’s going to be eating with us.”

She had me with that. And she knew it.

* * * *

A couple of hours later, the meal—a plain, hearty stew of meat and vegetables that, wonder of wonders, Kelis hadn’t turned her nose up at—was long over, and we were relaxing around the fire as darkness fell, mugs in our hands. Tea for me, and mead for the lucky ones who didn’t have to drive back over to the mainland later. Ian and I had been sitting side by side the whole time, our shoulders brushing as we ate and drank. I felt ridiculously happy.

Balder and some of the others had been entertaining us with tales of events they’d been to in the past. I got the feeling they’d all heard these stories plenty of times before, but were content to hear them again. The oral tradition, still alive and well in this little enclave of old Norse enthusiasts.

As the laughter died down after the end of his latest saga, Balder looked over to Ian, who apart from the odd murmured comment to me had been pretty quiet until now.

“Hey, Ulf! Tell ‘em about the time you licked a monk!”

Ian buried his head in his hands, then looked up again with a pained smile. “It was last year. We had a lot of new people in the group, all right? Anyway, I was all in character, doing the berserker thing, hamming it up a bit for the crowds—Balder here was pretending to hold me back, all that sort of stuff—and this man dressed up as a monk walked past. So I thought I’d have a bit of fun, and I went for him and licked him all up the side of his face.”

I grinned. “As you do.”

“Course, then Balder tells me all of our monks were over by the tents. This one was a real monk. One of the ones from the monastery here. Brother Dominic, his name was. He was all right about it, though. After he got over the shock.”

“Did he taste particularly holy?” I asked.

“More like garlic, I think.”

We shared a glance that seemed a bit more intimate than his words strictly called for, and suddenly the fire seemed a lot warmer. We were interrupted at that point by Kelis and Chloe, who’d kept going like little dynamos. Chloe’s brother, Jack, had long since fallen asleep on his grandmother’s lap and been carted off to bed in a tent. Chloe ran up to Balder and tugged on his arm. “Grampy, can Kelis read my story?”

“Course she can. If she wants to. Do you want to, young lady?”

Kelis nodded. “Is that all right, Dad? Chloe’s got this special book for when she’s a Viking. It’s got stories about Thor and Loki in it. And wolves and giants and a really big snake.”

My palms itched a bit at the thought of her reading a book I hadn’t vetted, but I supposed if it was a version of the myths deemed suitable for six-year-old Chloe, Kelis would probably come through the experience unscathed. After all, she was twelve. Old enough to get married and have her own kids if we lived in Viking times, which, thank the deity or deities of your choosing, we didn’t. “All right.”

Her brown hand was firmly grasped by a doll-like white one, and they scampered off together.

“I think Kelis is going to be pestering me for a little sister after this,” I said ruefully.

Ian smiled. “She could do worse than Chloe. They’re both great kids, her and Jack.”

“You see a lot of them?”

He nodded. “Their mum and dad aren’t into the re-enactment, but the kids love coming away with Kevin and Sharon and dressing up.”

A while later, Sharon beckoned me over. “Come and look.” She led me to the large tent they were sharing with their grandchildren, put her finger to her lips and pulled back the tent flap.

Kelis was lying in a nest of woollen blankets, snuggled up next to Chloe. They were both fast asleep. Jack was snoring softly on the other side of the tent.

“I guess last night’s finally caught up with her,” I said softly.

“Had a bad one, did she?” Sharon let the tent flap fall.

I nodded as we turned back. “She gets bad dreams sometimes.”

“Oh, dear. I’m afraid she might have some new material from that book of Chloe’s. It’s got Frost Giants and the Midgard Serpent and all sorts in it.”

“No, she’ll be fine with that. Kelis never dreams about monsters.”

Sharon didn’t ask for any further details, just patted my arm.

As we returned to the fire, Ian rose. “Thought I’d go and stretch my legs a bit before I turn in. Want to join me?”

I nodded, my mouth suddenly dry. Sharon gave me a glance and a smile, but thankfully all she said was, “Have a nice walk, then. I’ll keep an eye out in case your little girl wakes up.”

“Must be hard, having to get a babysitter every time you want a night out,” Ian said as we strolled across the grass to the priory gate.

“Ah, but I’ve come up with the perfect solution. Just don’t go out. Never let it be said that having no life doesn’t have its upside.”

Ian laughed. “I don’t believe that for a moment. Bloke like you?”

“Geek like me, you mean.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” He paused. “I wouldn’t call you a geek.”

“No? What would you call me? Or am I better off not knowing?” We reached the priory gate and walked through, then took a sharp turn to go across the field towards the nearest beach—one I’d unaccountably failed to mention to Kelis the previous day. It was pitch dark by this point, save for the full moon overhead which gave just enough cool light to see our way by.

“Well, for starters, you’re a great dad.”

It left a sour taste in my mouth. “I’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for.”

“How’s that? Didn’t you have joint custody of Kelis, before her mum died?”

“No. Actually…” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t even meet Kelis until after Shandi died.”

“Seriously? How come—didn’t you know about her?”

I hoped he wasn’t going to hate me after what I said next. “I knew about her soon after she was born. Shandi wrote to me, and she said she was going to have to put my name down for the Child Support forms, but she didn’t want me involved with her baby. That’s how she put it—her baby. And…” I stared at the ground. “I was still in university. No money. Not the first clue about kids, and I was just starting to realise I wasn’t as straight as I’d thought I was. And not coping very well. It…she made it so easy for me to just say, okay, we’ll do it your way. I told myself it’d be better for Kelis, even. Not to have to cope with awkward visits from a clueless dad she didn’t know, and who didn’t even really know her mum. And it meant I didn’t have to tell my parents about her, which seemed really important at the time.” God, I’d been so immature.

“You shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Plenty of blokes would have done the same. You were barely out of school. And she didn’t want you involved.” He paused. “How’d it work out? Was she a good mum to Kelis?”

“Kelis loved her. She was the sort of mum…well, you know how little girls want to grow up to be fairy princesses? She was a bit like that. Always dressed in big, floaty skirts, and wearing rings on her toes. She jangled when she danced, Kelis said, because of all her bracelets.” I stared up at the stars. “She was the sort of mum who doesn’t worry about it being a school day if the sun’s shining. Or practical stuff, like whether there’s any food in the house, or anyone to babysit.”

My heart pounded uncomfortably. This was the part I never told anyone. Well, anyone who wasn’t involved with Kelis’s education or welfare. “When she died Kelis was underweight, neglected…She had nightmares every night when she came to me, wet the bed, the works. Shandi used to leave her on her own whenever she wanted to go out and have fun, and half the time she was with her she was off her head on drugs—that was what killed her in the end. She didn’t give Kelis proper meals, and God, the people she hung around with…Anything could have happened to Kelis, and Shandi wouldn’t even have known about it.”