Love Never Dies

Part 31

"Steena, is that really you?" Lagertha hugs me tightly, she was crying.

"It is me." I said to her.

"My child, I thought that you were dead." She let go of me and wipe the tears off her face.

"You are going back to me right now, you are going home, back to Kattegat." She smiles at me, and signs relieved.

In this moment, Halstein comes to us.

"Mother, who is this woman?" He asks looking at Lagertha.

"This is Lagertha, my son." I said to him.

His eyes widened and his mouth was open.

"You met my grandparents? You met my father? My mother told me that you are our grandmother too." He said hugging Lagertha's legs.

She puts him in her arms and kiss him. She hugs him tightly for a long time.

"All of you are going back tonight, I do not care. You are going to live in Kattegat." She kisses Halstein once again.

Brynjar and Eirik came and saw Lagertha, they looked at her, like she was familiar.

"Brynjar and Eirik." She smiles even more, and more tears starts to fall from her eyes.

"Lagertha, we will go with you." I said to her.

I want to be in Kattegat again, I don't care about Endre anymore. I have Lagertha by my side, and I can defend my family.

The only thing that is going to be hard is see Ivar again, he loved another woman and still loves her. I still hope that he can be happy again, he deserves it.

My happiness is with my sons, they are light of my life. Knowing that Ivar loved another woman hurts me, but I have my sons with me. They remind me of our love, our nights together, the way we loved each other so passionately.

Ivar the Boneless, I love you with all my heart, I hope that your wife loved you the way I did.

"Go grab your things, I will prepare the horses." Lagertha was excited, and surprisingly, I was too.

I really missed Kattegat, I can't wait to go back.

I grabbed our things on the hut, and we went to find Lagertha. She was already waiting for us, she is really happy.

"We should get going, we will arrive soon." She motions to us sit at the chariot.

"I thought of giving you a horse, but the travel will be too long. You can sleep here." She kisses Brynjar, Eirik and Halstein in the forehead.

...................................................

We arrive at Kattegat, it was morning, the sun was rising. The people stare at me and started to whisper, I felt uncomfortable, but I didn't gave much thought.

It was great to come back to Kattegat, I hope that my sons will like it here. The best years of my life were here, this city means everything to me.

"Mother, where are we?" Eirik asks.

"We are in Kattegat, my son." I smiled at him and his eyes widened.

Brynjar and Halstein woke up, they were admiring the city. It was bigger now, with so much defenses and much more warriors.

Lagertha came to us, I was helping Halstein to leave the chariot.

"Welcome back, to the city that you never should have left." She points to the Great Hall.

We entered and everybody stare at us, I saw Björn and Torvi, they were good together, they are great warriors.

"Steena?" Björn screams, hugging me and lifting me up.

"Is that really you?" He asks me again, putting me on the floor.

"And who are those boys?" He kneels in front of my sons, with a smirk on his face.

"You are Eirik." He points at Brynjar.

"And you are Brynjar." He points at Eirik.

We all laughed at Björn.

"He is Eirik and he is Brynjar." Halstein says pointing correctly, he is proud that he can tell who is who of his brothers.

"And who are you?" Björn smirked at Halstein.

"I am Halstein." He says proud.

Björn laughs and gets up, he seems relieved.

"We all thought that you were dead." He said with sadness, he signed and looks down.

"But she is not, and we must celebrate that. Go get some rest, we will celebrate that all of you are back." Lagertha says, she told us to follow her.

We entered my old room, so many memories from this place.

"I never moved anything, I could never get rid of your things and your memory." She kissed my forehead and I saw a tear fell on her cheek.

"Sleep, we will feast all night." She laughs and walks away.

"Mother, I like her." Brynjar said and I chuckled.

..................................

It was night already, I prepared Brynjar, Eirik and Halstein for the feast. I bathe them and put clean clothes on them.

We entered the Great Hall, Lagertha smiled at us. We met her and she asks for attention, when everybody looks at her she starts to say a few things.

"All of you remember a few years ago, we thought that my child, Steena, was dead and my grandsons. But as you can see, she is alive and well, and she brought to me another grandson. So we must thank the gods, celebrate their arrival." She raises her horn and everybody does the same.

"SKÖL." Lagertha says.

"SKÖL." The people repeated.

The feast was great, but I wonder where Ivar is. Where are all of the Ragnarssons, I didn't saw any of them, except Björn.

I was talking to some shielmaiden, when Lagertha came to me.

"I am so happy that you are alive." She hugs me again.

"Why did you think that I was dead?" I was confused, Lagertha and Björn said the same thing.

"Endre said that he killed you and the child that you were waiting, along with Brynjar and Eirik." She says looking down.

Even the mention of Endre, made me shiver, he scared me all of this years and he didn't have to be next to me to frighten me.

"I will tell you everything, but before that, we shall continue this feast. It is for you and your sons." She kissed my forehead and walks away.

Why she didn't mention Ivar? Not even Björn mentioned him. They are trying not to hurt me, they probably saw the love that Ivar had for his wife. They were afraid that would hurt me, it hurts me, but I am the one to be blamed. I didn't return to Kattegat, I should've came back. Be here with Ivar and our sons, he could've protect us, but I didn't and now, he loved another and was happy. He even has a daughter, something that I couldn't give to him, something that he wished and had with another woman.

I got of my thoughts when I felt a touch on my shoulder. I turned around and I looked at her.

"She is never going to tell you the whole truth, meet me at forest in a few minutes, I will tell you every single thing you must know." She said with confidence.

I nodded and she left, it could be true. Lagertha would never tell me something if it was going to hurt me. She loves me like a daughter, and since my mother's death, she is my mother.

After a few minutes and went to the forest, I need to know what happened.

And Astrid was going to tell me everything.