Winter Storm, page 19
“Yes, I’m here,” the knife grinder answered.
“His Excellency?” Niklas said in a puzzled tone of voice.
“My name’s Skaktavl. Old Norwegian nobility. Worth nothing nowadays. What’s the matter?”
“Our men were attacked,” the man gasped. “They say that some bailiffs were spotted – and lots of mercenaries.”
“Treachery,” Skaktavl whispered.
“Hardly,” Niklas said, pulling his hood up. “But lots of your men have known about the plans against the prefect, haven’t they?”
“Yes, obviously.”
“That many people can’t keep a plan secret. Even we’d heard about it, and we have nothing to do with the conflict.”
The leader shouted to his men, “We must go to Tobrønn, immediately.”
“What about the mountain pasture?” Dominic yelled through the heavy rain. He was already on his horse, impatient to be on his way. “Where’s the way up to the mountain pasture?”
Everything was noise and chaos.
Dominic repeated, “The way to the mountain pasture?”
Skaktavl turned round for a moment. “You’ll find it some distance from here.”
Then he was gone.
“How exactly, in this darkness?” Dominic sighed.
“Should we help them in the struggle?” Niklas asked hesitantly.
“Just do as you think best. As a Swede, I neither can nor should interfere. My sole interest is to find Villemo.”
Niklas stopped the horse for a moment.
“I’ll join you,” he said to Dominic. “The way of the sword is not the right one for a free Norway.”
They continued their ride on dripping wet horses in the winter storm, and both of them were so wet and freezing that they were hardly able to think clearly any longer. They rode on, trying to find the trail up to the mountain pasture.
Eldar had managed to get Villemo into bed with him. He had responded to her misgivings by saying: “As you can see we haven’t got enough bedclothes for two beds. No, you can’t sit up. Surely you can see that. And from this bed, we have an overview of the big room.”
That had calmed her down. The others could look into the room and so it was sufficiently decent that they lie in the same bed.
The young man with a sore on his leg moaned constantly in a loud voice. The journey had taken its toll on his leg which was only half healed. For the umpteenth time, Villemo wished that Niklas was here. She had no idea how close he really was.
Eldar was used to indecisive girls, so he knew how they were to be treated. Though Villemo lay on the extreme outside of the edge of the bed, chaste and anxious, he used a seduction tactic which was almost impossible to stop because it works so extremely slowly that no girl knows exactly where and when it’s time to say no.
He had now come so far as resting on his one elbow as he tried to catch her eye. The room was in semi-darkness from the fireplace in the big room. But Villemo had looked away while they spoke softly, whispering to each other.
“I can’t stop thinking of old Berit,” she said sadly. “We should have brought her along.”
Eldar was quite speechless. Here she was, almost in his arms, and all she was thinking of was an old hag. What in heaven’s name kind of a girl was she?
“It wouldn’t have worked,” he whispered back as he allowed himself to get a fraction of an inch closer to her. “Actually, she admires the farmer and his wife. She would have yelled her head off if we’d brought her with us.”
Villemo didn’t reply but merely sighed.
‘Goodness, how am I to stand waiting,’ he thought. ‘My body aches because I desire her and I know she’ll soon give in. She’s scared, but it will happen. I must make my move very slowly, I mustn’t frighten her. But I might speed things up a bit. It’ll be on her terms, which doesn’t matter. The end justifies the means.’
“Villemo,” he whispered. “Do you know what I want?”
She shook her head.
“I want to marry you.”
She turned towards him. “Honestly, Eldar? Honestly?”
“More than anything else in the world.”
As he said that, he felt her arms move a little closer to him, as if she wanted to put them around his neck but didn’t dare to. He was surprised to feel tenderness in his heart. Get married? He, Eldar Black Forest? Have children and be with her always? No, now he was becoming too soft. All this was just a necessary strategy.
“Oh, Eldar, Eldar,” she whispered happily, and he could feel her warm tears against his arm. It seemed to him that they were almost burning a hole. Etching his skin like burning coal.
“But I can’t,” she said sadly. “I can’t continue the evil legacy.”
“That’s nothing but superstition. Nobody’s even seen it.”
“Well, it exists! Before our time there were terrible monsters.”
As he bent over her and kissed her, she didn’t resist. Eventually, breathlessly, she extricated herself from his long kiss.
“Oh, Eldar, my love! Now you’ve discovered that there’s another kind of love after all.”
‘Don’t begin to talk nonsense again, you love-struck idiot,’ he thought, as he killed the treacherous warmth in his heart. ‘Nothing has happened except that I’ve gained time and terrain.’
He had definitely made significant progress. He had his arm around her waist, and his knee was close to her.
But Villemo didn’t notice this. She had other worries.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, because her restlessness was tangible.
“I must go out.”
“What? You’ve just been out!”
“I’ve got an infection.”
“What kind of infection?”
“The kind which women get so easily. From draughty privies and that sort of thing. It happened in the cart.”
Eldar swore like mad in his mind. Now he would have to begin from scratch again, after making such progress. But he would have to let her out of bed.
When she came back and walked past the fireplace, he noticed that her face showed that she was in pain and she stooped slightly. A man like Eldar knew nothing of how troublesome an infection like Villemo’s can be. He had no idea how it could kill a woman’s zest for life or how it could get worse so that the urge to “go outside” increased every time you had been to the privy. What was more, such an infection wasn’t exactly conducive to an erotic debut.
Actually, Villemo was beyond his powers anyway. But he didn’t realise that. So when she crept back next to him, moaning softly, wet and shaking in the cold, he put his arm around her.
“Leave me alone!” she hissed as she made a grumpy movement.
“What’s the matter now?” Eldar said, offended. “I just wanted to make you feel warm.”
“I’m sorry. I’m in pain.”
“So I gather,” without understanding the half of her problems and without suspecting that most of all she wanted to go out again, even if she knew that was the worst thing she could do. All he felt was that she cosied up to him with confidence, sought comfort for the pain she felt, which touched his heart. He wanted to see her every day, and make life easy for her. Oh, come on! He chastised himself.
Should he make a new attempt? His biggest chance would be tonight. What if he never had such a chance again? He put his hand over her dress, which for the sake of decency she had kept on. He felt the beautiful, flat stomach which he had once felt without her clothes being in the way. Without thinking any further he kissed her once again, and caressed her arms.
Villemo resisted, and became as stiff as a board all over. At that moment the young man with the sore began to yell loudly. Eldar, who was close to tears, cursed. Villemo had already broken away and tiptoed into the big room while he lay behind, hammering his hand down on the bed.
She called for Eldar to help her.
“I think he has a fever. Should we try to cut the sore again?”
“They can all go to blazes as far as I’m concerned,” he whispered to himself. “Those damned idiots can go jump in the lake!”
There was a knock on the front door of the cabin.
“That’s just what I need,” Eldar exclaimed in despair.
Villemo went over to the door. Several of the others had woken up and there were lots of anxious faces in the flickering light from the dying fire.
“Who is it?” she asked in a low voice.
“The owner of the cabin! Open the door!”
She opened the door. She was surprised to see that it was starting to get light outside.
The man she knew as the knife grinder dragged a man inside. Another man lay covered in blood in the newly fallen snow.
“Eldar, come and lend a helping hand,” Villemo shouted.
Eldar, teeth chattering, got out of bed and with a joint effort they got the two wounded men indoors.
“Why have you come here?” Villemo asked.
As he placed the last man on the floor by the fireplace, the knife grinder answered with desperation in his voice, “Everything’s gone wrong. We’re still fighting but the battle has shifted from Tobrønn to here on the mountain ridge.”
“Here? Right outside?” Villemo said, shocked.
“No, a couple of miles northward. These two are my best men and they can still be saved. We’ve lost many, many more.”
Kristine Tobrønn peered over the edge of the small loft room. “My parents? How are they?”
The man looked up. “Kristine? Are you here? I’m sorry to tell you that all at Tobrønn are dead. Except the prefect. He was the one we wanted to get hold of most of all, but he managed to escape.”
Kristine sank back in her bed without saying anything.
Skaktavl, the leader, although they didn’t know him under that name, turned towards Eldar and Villemo.
“Take care of these men and attend to their wounds. I must leave now and help the others.”
“I’ll join you,” Eldar said straightaway.
The man hesitated. “No, we can’t leave this young girl alone with so many helpless people. Stay behind with her!”
Eldar was incensed to be left behind again. But the stranger spoke with such authority that he didn’t say anything, accepting his fate.
Skaktavl turned in the doorway. “Tell me, haven’t you had any visitors?”
“Visitors?” Villemo said. She was sitting on a chair, pale and huddled-up because of the pain.
“Yes, the two young men who are looking for you, Miss. Because you’re Villemo, aren’t you?”
All she was able to do was to repeat stupidly, “Looking for me?”
“So they haven’t been here yet? Well, I suppose they’re on their way, then.”
Then he disappeared.
Finally Villemo leapt into action. “Wait!”
She rushed to the door and opened it. But all she saw was the snowstorm in the dim dawn. Skaktavl was gone. Villemo closed the door once more.
“Looking for me?” she said as if she was walking in her sleep. “Two young men?”
“Some secret admirers maybe?” Eldar said. “Let’s hope they won’t turn up.”
For various reasons they both felt uneasy because the men knew her name.
It had all been too much for her, so she didn’t have the strength to think clearly. She couldn’t help worrying that they were dead. Nobody could be out in a night such as this without getting lost in the mountains. But all the insurgents could, of course ... Her thoughts were in chaos.
Then she and Eldar were alone once more, now with two unconscious men. Their wounds were horrible, and Villemo felt powerless and was worried that they couldn’t help them.
While they tried to clean the wounds with the few remedies they had, she also had to try to calm the others who were now all awake and agitated. They were getting themselves worked up and cried out in desperation. Villemo, who was in pain, had to interrupt tending to the men and make the others lie down once more. The screams and the noise in the room were terrible, and she was so tired, so desperately tired.
Eldar wasn’t of much use either. He helped a little, but he was in a bad mood and so only lent a hand with reluctance, making her feel she would have to somehow make him cheery again and that it was her fault that he was so irritated.
One of the wounded men had lost a lot of blood and she didn’t know how she would be able to stop it. She had already used all the pieces of cloth she could find on the others. She tore down a blanket from the wall and fastened it very tightly around the chest of the wounded man. It actually had a good effect so she could now focus on the other man, who wasn’t in nearly such a bad state. A bullet had torn his hand to pieces. As if in a trance, she twisted a hat around his hand and tied a strap around it. While she was doing all this, the poor creatures were screaming like mad from their beds. They didn’t understand a thing and it didn’t make matters any easier that Eldar barked at them that they should SHUT UP.
Finally, Villemo just couldn’t cope any more. She got up and staggered into the chamber and sat down on the edge of the bed with her face in her hands. She was totally exhausted, dizzy, and worn out. Eldar was at her side straightaway. While the hysterical crying rose to unimaginable levels out there, he put his arm around her, whispering calmly.
“Now then, Villemo, we’ll soon be finished with the two wounded men and then I’ll make the others keep quiet. Then you can rest.”
“I’m so tired, Eldar,” she whispered as she leaned towards him, seeking shelter with him. “I have a headache, can’t they just keep quiet?”
“They’ll fall asleep soon, then there’ll just be you and me.”
She understood what he meant, and his hands left her in no doubt. They caressed her in a gentle yet persuasive way.
“No, Eldar. I don’t want to,” she whispered, exhausted.
He placed his hands on her breasts, trying to influence her the way he had always managed to influence girls that weren’t co-operative.
“Oh, Eldar,” she sobbed. She wanted to ask him to leave her alone, but at the same time she was afraid that it would distance him from her. Their relationship was so fragile and she was so vulnerable. “Don’t do it. I won’t allow it.”
But his own seduction tactics had turned him on and his body was burning with a fervent fire. He got her to lie down on the bed. The fire in the big room had almost burnt itself out and there were no windows that could let in the morning light. The winter storm made the cabin shake while the moaning of the unfortunate creatures was beginning to quiet down.
“Leave me alone, Eldar.”
His voice was shaking with agitation. “You don’t love me,” he whispered furiously. “You don’t love me if I’m not even allowed to touch you.”
“Yes I do, you know I do.”
“How am I to know? You don’t want me, do you?”
“Now you’re being unfair.”
“Then prove that you love me! Or are you completely cold?”
This was men’s eternal blackmail, the bait that had brought ruin to women throughout the centuries.
“No, I’m not cold,” she wept. “But I’m in pain.”
“My love will make you forget your pain. Villemo, my darling, listen to me! The battle outside is over, we’ve lost. When dawn comes, the enemy will be standing here, and we, you and I, will die. This is our final night.”
She wanted to object that the day had already begun, but she thought better of it because that would be small-minded. His words were enticing. She sank into a mood of tragedy, where they were doomed sweethearts and her weeping burned in her chest. Everything was so sad, so very sad, but they were to die together, and then everything would be beautiful.
He sensed that her frame of mind had changed and he played on it. “Think about it, Villemo! Never, never again. What could be more natural than our lying just once together in one another’s arms and giving one another all the love we feel?”
Was this really Eldar? Was he capable of speaking such beautiful, loving words? Yes, this was his true persona, she knew it, she had known all along that his harsh nature had merely been a mask.
She wavered, she would like to convince him of her love, but how was she to do that? She had cramps and felt the urge to visit the privy all the time.
“You ask too much of me, Eldar. Besides, there are so many we need to care for. All those in the big room who need our assistance. We must help them.”
“Help? Even when they’re bound to die in a few hours’ time? Villemo, I love you so much that I must have you. Now, tonight, at once!”
His bewitching words were lost on her. Engrossed in his own desire, Eldar Black Forest had chosen the wrong moment. She pushed him away with a sob.
“One of the men is moaning,” she said. “He’s awake now. I must make sure that he doesn’t tear off his bandage.”
Eldar exploded. He was livid. “You’re more preoccupied with them and you don’t think of me! Well then take care of them, if that’s what you want! But now I’m going to join the fight. I’ve had enough of all this nonsense!”
He rushed out of bed, grabbed his clothes and ran outside to find some sort of weapon. Villemo sat up in bed for a moment, confused, then she got up and went into the main room. Eldar’s outburst had woken everybody and they whimpered in surprise.
One of the wounded men was dying on the floor. Villemo took a step towards him, then towards the door, then back again. Then she ran towards the door and opened it.
“Eldar, Eldar!” she shouted in despair. “Come back! You can’t go out in this winter storm! Come back!”
But he was gone. His tracks were almost wiped out by the drifting snow. The snow blinded her so that she couldn’t see anything at all. It was still not quite light outside. The sun was rising, but the entire mountainside was a white chaos of swirling snow. Villemo sobbed. She couldn’t do anything for him, not now. Her place was with the wounded and the unfortunate creatures.
