In which Ragnar Lothbrok raids England for the first time and in the process, he not only spares a monk named Athelstan, but a slave girl he ends up naming Tova. However, he soon learns that things involving the girl are not what they seem and she i...
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Everything was tense at the camp after Ragnar was baptized. Ragnar was now confined to his bed, too weak to stand on his own. Tova, on the other hand, was still able to stand upright, but as much as that should have been seen as a good thing, it wasn't.
It meant she was facing all the hate and backlash after what occurred instead of Ragnar himself. They had now chosen to blame her and many even chose to shun her.
Tova sighed as she stepped out of her tent. It was morning time and she winced as she rubbed her arching leg. She locked eyes with Bjorn and walked toward him. She had not seen him since the day Ragnar had been baptized. Like everyone else, he had been avoiding her.
"Bjorn," She called out as she walked toward him, a small smile on her face.
Without even turning to her, Bjorn rolled his eyes and began to walk away.
Tova watched him begin to walk away. She wanted to just stay quiet and not say a word as she did the others who ignored her like that, but she couldn't bear it. It was one thing for people like Erlendur and Kalf to shun her, but it was far more painful when Bjorn was doing it. She loved him and it broke her heart to have the man she loved turn his back on her like that for something she was not at fault for.
"Are you really angry with me for something Ragnar did?" Tova finally spoke up, tears forming in her eyes, "I cannot control him. He chose to do it on his own. I had nothing to do with him choosing to become a Christian."
"But you knew!" Bjorn shouted angrily as he whipped himself around to face her. He walked toward her, a furious look on her face, "You knew, Tova. And you could have told me, but you didn't."
As she stared up at Bjorn, Tova couldn't help but feel confused. He wasn't angry at her for the same reason everyone else was. He was angry because she hadn't told him the truth.
"Why would I tell you?" Tova asked as she frowned in confusion, "It had nothing to do with you."
"It had everything to do with me! My father decided to become Christian and you didn't tell me. You lied to me," Bjorn explained in a venomous tone, "The night before you joined my father in making negotiations with the Franks, you had come to my tent. When I asked you what my father was planning, you told me you didn't know. You lied. You lied right to my face. What else have you lied about, huh?"
Tova stared up at Bjorn in silence. She watched him for a moment before she shook her head. "You know, I don't even know why I try with you sometimes. You claim to love me but all we do is fight. You are married, but you are involved with me. You would think that is why we argue all the time, but it's not. We never argue about that. Instead..." She trailed off, angrily pointing her finger at his chest, "Instead, it is because you constantly complain about how your father trusts me more than you. Don't you think it's sad that you, Bjorn Ironside, the eldest son of Ragnar Lothbrok, is jealous of a former slave girl who is of no consequence to you? You are Ragnar's son. I am not. Get over yourself. And maybe if you did that and stopped acting like a whiny little boy all the time, your father would actually take you seriously."
