Chapter Twenty
‘What’s going on? What is this?’ Danr glared across the hearth to where Sissa stood calmly beside Hilda. As relieved as he’d been to find her unharmed, the sight of her clasping hands with his old enemy made him livid.
‘Patience, Danr.’ Hilda fixed him with a look, as if she knew exactly what thoughts were going through his mind. ‘We’re going to talk properly, the way we should have done that first day on the beach.’
‘As I recall, you told me to go away.’
‘I’m not saying I was blameless, but you caught me by surprise,’ she retorted, her chin inching higher. ‘We’ve always loathed each other, Danr, I won’t deny that, but Sissa says you came to Skíð to ask questions, not to kill me. Is that true?’
‘Yes.’ He controlled the impulse to argue just for the sake of it. ‘I came only to ask about the arrow pendants. Rurik and Sandulf found them among the assassins’ belongings. Sandulf would have come and asked you about them himself, but he had to take two children to Eireann so I offered to come instead. I swear I had no intention of killing you that day.’
‘You looked convincing to me,’ Joarr growled.
‘I know, but it was an act. I only wanted to scare her.’
‘Then you did a very good job.’ Hilda pursed her lips. ‘Although if you really thought I was involved in the massacre then I suppose I can understand why.’
‘Hild—’
She lifted a hand to quiet Joarr. ‘On my life, I swear I had nothing to do with it. I would never have endangered my sons, let alone Ingrid and Gilla. I loved them.’
‘I know that now.’ Danr threw a quick glance towards Sissa. ‘But at the time, I suppose I wanted you to be guilty. I wanted to hear you confess.’
‘Understandable.’ She sounded unsurprised. ‘I would probably have blamed you, too, if I could have. I suppose you wanted to be the one to punish me as well?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I would have taken you to your sons and let them do it. I promised Sandulf I wouldn’t hurt you no matter what I discovered.’
‘So Sandulf really believes I might have been involved?’ A pained expression crossed her face.
‘I wouldn’t say that.’ Was he trying to make her feel better now? ‘I don’t think he truly believes it, but he recognised the pendants as yours. He—we only want to know how the assassins came by them.’
‘I’ve been wondering the same thing.’ Her brow knitted. ‘After you mentioned them, I convinced myself you must have been talking about different pendants, but then when Sissa showed them to me... It made me sick to think that anything of mine was used to pay for the murder of Ingrid and Gilla. It didn’t make any sense. It still doesn’t.’
‘Then you don’t know why the assassins had them?’
‘Not exactly...’
‘What does that mean?’ He frowned. ‘Either you know or you don’t.’
‘Then I don’t. It can’t be what it looks like.’
‘What does it look like?’ He resisted the urge to walk across the hall and shake her. ‘Sissa said you whispered something about Kolga when she showed them to you.’
‘Ye-es.’ For a moment Hilda looked on the verge of saying something else before twisting her face away.
‘She said she gave them to Kolga after an argument with Sigurd,’ Joarr answered for her. ‘She said she couldn’t bear the sight of them any longer.’
‘That wasn’t exactly the whole truth.’ Hilda’s voice sounded pained. ‘That is, I did give them to her, but not because of an argument. The truth is, I had to give them to her. She threatened to tell Sigurd about us.’
‘She was blackmailing you?’ Joarr’s expression turned ferocious. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because I thought it was better to deal with it myself. And it wasn’t blackmail—not exactly. It was...an arrangement.’
‘It sounds like blackmail to me.’
‘And me.’ Danr folded his arms.
‘Oh, now the pair of you find something to agree on!’ Hilda threw her arms up. ‘Whatever it was, I don’t understand how they could have ended up with the assassins.’