Love Never Dies

Part 18

Warning: This chapter contains domestic violence.

Endre grabs my neck and put me against the wall, I'm crying and scared, I never thought that he was capable of doing something like this.

When I'm out of breath, he let go of me, and I fall in the floor again. With my hands on my neck, I look at him and I say: "Why did you do this? What happened?" My voice cracked a little.

"Why did you told that crippled, that we never had sex?" Endre is screaming, luckily Brynjar and Eirik are heavy sleepers.

"It just came out. Why this matter so much to you?" I wanted to get up, but I was too afraid of Endre, I thought that he would kill me.

"I want him to suffer, but now since you told him, maybe I should do something to his sons." Endre grabs his axe and walks towards the bed, where Brynjar and Eirik are sleeping.

I got up quickly and I said crying: "No please, they are just babies, do not do anything to them. They are innocent."

"They look just like their father, what if they crawled like him too? Can you imagine? Three pathetic crippled crawling through Kattegat?" He is laughing, touching Eirik's legs with his axe.

"Please Endre, do not do this. I beg you." I whispered to him, crying even more.

"Well, if you do not want this to them, you are gonna give me sons. You are his weak spot, if you carry my sons, he is going to be devastated. Poor crippled, he can not have you anymore, you are mine." He laughs and starts to take off his shirt.

"No Endre, please." I started to run from him, but I can't leave the room. Because he is going to hurt my sons.

"Lucky for you, I can not tolerate screams from women, you are going to give me sons. If you refuse, the sons of the crippled are going to pay. Do you understand that?" His voice is calm, making me panic even more.

I simply nodded.

"Do not even think to tell to anyone, because if you do, the one that will handle you, is King Harald. I am sure that he will love that." He laughs even more.

He turn his back to me, and then I saw something that made me shiver.

"Is that a snake on your back?" I ask looking down, I was too afraid to look at him in the eyes.

"Yes." He grabs his shirt and leaves my room.

I finally breathe again. What the seer told me about the snake, is about Endre. And Margrethe warned me, but how did she know? Where she met Endre? How I'm going to keep my sons safe from him. I need to tell Lagertha, but I can't, Endre Will give me to King Harald. Why does he want Ivar to suffer? Ivar never met him, and he never did anything with Endre. So many questions, how I'm going to fix this?

In the morning, I realized that my neck is full of bruises. I can't let anyone see this, because they are going ask and I can't say anything. Thank the gods that it is winter, I can put furs and hide. My whole body is hurting, Endre beat me up pretty bad.

I grab Brynjar and Eirik and I started to feed them. What I am going to do? I need to think about my sons, I can't let anything happen to them, but how I'm going to do this, and not sleep with Endre? Gods help me.

I put my dress and furs around my neck, and the furs were able to hide the bruises. I left my room and entered the Great Hall, I saw Lagertha and Astrid talking to each other.

I got closer to them and Lagertha grabs Brynjar from me, she really loves my sons. Why I didn't listen to everyone? Why I was so stubborn to realize that this marriage was a bad idea? I need to speak with Margrethe, she knows something.

"Lagertha, I need to do something. Can you stay with my sons until I get back?" I try to sound calm, and for the first time I succeeded.

"Of course." She grabs Eirik and goes outside with them.

I need to find Margrethe, she may have the answers I need. I go to the barn, where the slaves sleep. No one made her a free woman yet, I believe that it was because of Ivar.

Before I could enter the barn, I hear people arguing. It was Ubbe and Margrethe.

"Why did you do this? Be with Ivar? I love you, and you ignored that and went to be with my brother? How could you do this?" Ubbe was angry.

"I told you before, I do not love you. I wanted to be with Ivar, I am waiting his child." She doesn't seem very convincing, she is crying.

"I do not believe you, but when you are ready to tell me the truth, I will be waiting." Ubbe leaves angry and I hide, for him not to see me.

She cried even more, I started to feel bad for her.

"Margrethe?" I called her softly.

"Steena, what are you doing here?" She looks down.

"I need to speak to you." I got close to her.

"Alright." She nodded, wiping the tears off her face.

"Why did you told me not to marry Endre?"

"It was stupid of me, I need to work." She says and gets out quickly.

She definitely knows something, but what is it? I need to see the seer, he have the answers I need.

I entered and the seer apparently he was waiting for me.

"Steena, what do you want?" He laughs.

"The snake you told me, is Endre?" I ask, sitting across from him.

"Yes, I warned you, but you married him anyway. Now it is too late." He points at me, and says with an angry voice.

"He told me that he wants Ivar to suffer, but why? He never met Ivar, before this year, he never been in Kattegat." I ask him, my curiosity was visible.

"He wants revenge, because of his father. You are just means to an end, he wants all of the Ragnarssons to suffer." He says seriously.

"Gunnar? He was a great friend of Ragnar, he loved Ragnar, he was loyal."

"I said too much, I will not say anything else."

He gives me his hand and I licked, I left and went to the Great Hall. What the seer told me, left me even more confused. Why Endre would want revenge? Gunnar didn't die in Paris, so he can't blame Ragnar for his death, what is going on?

When I entered the Great Hall, Ivar was there with Brynjar and Eirik. They were big enough to start to crawl, this scene made me forget all worries.

"Look, they are crawling." Ivar pointed at Brynjar and Eirik, with watering eyes.

When they saw me, they crawled in my direction, I sit on the floor, waiting for them to come to me. Eirik gets to me first, and he raised his little hand and put on my face. I started to cry, then he crawled back to Ivar, Brynjar came to me and got comfortable in my lap, I guess that he was tired.

"Thank you." Ivar whispers to me.

"What for?" I look at him curious.

"For giving me healthy sons, two at once. They are not crippled like their father, I need to thank you, you gave birth to them and I was not there to help you. Even if you wanted to keep me away, now you do not do that anymore. I am grateful for you, I thought that I was not able to have children and now, I have two sons." He came close to me.

"You do not need to thank me." I look at his lips, how I miss this lips.

He sits across me, with Eirik in his arms, and Brynjar on my lap. He puts his hand on my cheek and leans closer to me, he looks for any sign of fear, like the other night. He doesn't find any, since I need to kiss him, I want to kiss him. Gods I love this man.

He kiss me, this kiss is better than any other kiss he gave me before. It is full of passion and love, I put my hand on his neck, bringing him closer.

"What is going on here?" Endre screams, making Brynjar and Eirik cry.