to go away for an unknown period of time, on a strange ship, to a strange land? Spring was on the way. He’d been looking forward to seeing the lambs being born, watching the barley come up, rowing out of the fjord with Bjørn and Sigurd to gather seagulls’ eggs from the islands. Now all that would go on without him.
He sat up. On mounded straw between him and the door, the twins slept, cocooned in blankets. Behind the partition, Bonny the cow swung up her head, rolled a large brown eye at him, and returned to munching and breathing and switching her tail. From a warm nest in the straw beside him, Loki got up, stretching and yawning.
Peer stared at his dog in dismay. How could I have forgotten him? But is it fair to take him on a ship, for weeks at sea?
Loki lifted a paw and scraped at Peer’s arm, probably hoping for breakfast. Peer took it, feeling the dog’s pads rough on his fingers. “Loki, old fellow,” he murmured. “What shall we do? Do you want to come with me?” Loki’s tail hit the ground, once, twice.
“Good boy!” Peer hugged him. He was fooling himself, and he knew it: Loki always wagged his tail when Peer spoke to him. But he didn’t care. He could never leave Loki behind.
At least that was decided. He lay back in the straw, stared upwards, and wished he could carry on sleeping—that today need never start—that he didn’t have to remember what Hilde had said last night. Peer’s my brother.
He burrowed under the blanket, trying to dive back into sleep and escape the aching throb of the memory. A brother! A safe, dependable brother, to be relied on and ignored. Didn’t Hilde know how he felt about her?
Perhaps not: he’d been so careful to keep things friendly all year. Perhaps she thought he’d got over it. He wished he’d kissed her again, even if she’d been angry. He wished he’d tried.
Oh, what was the use? Peer’s my brother! It was hopeless.
“Psst,” came a piercing whisper. “Peer! Are you awake?”
He raised his hot face from the crackling straw and saw Sigrid sitting up, arms wrapped neatly round her knees.
“Are you really going away to Vinland, Peer?”
“Looks like it,” he said gloomily.
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“But Hilde wants to, and I’ve promised to go with her.”
“Oh, Hilde,” said Sigrid crossly. “Why do you always do what she wants?”
“I don’t!” He thought about it. “Do I?”
“Yes, you do.” Sigrid sat up straighter and wagged her finger at him. Peer almost smiled, but she was quite serious. “You’ve got to be tougher, Peer. Sometimes Hilde ought to do what you want.”
Peer stared at her, speechless, until Sigrid wriggled and said, “What?”
“You’re a very clever girl, Siggy,” he said slowly. “And you are absolutely right!”
She beamed with surprised pleasure, and Peer threw back his blankets. “Time to get up!” And he pulled open the creaking cowshed door and stuck his head out.
The morning was sunny, but a wind with ice in its teeth blew down from the mountains. A seagull tilted overhead, dark against the blue and white sky, then bright against the hillside as it went sweeping off down the valley. Peer watched it. A fair wind for sailing west. So we really are leaving. Today.
But Sigrid’s simple words had acted like magic. He set his jaw. I’ve messed about long enough, trying to be whatever Hilde wants. From now on, I’ll act the way I feel!
He stepped out, alive and determined, and nearly trod on something shrivelled and whip-like lying by the corner of the cowshed. Loki ran to sniff at it, and backed off, sneezing. It was the troll’s tail. Peer poked it with his foot, and when it didn’t move, he picked it up gingerly by the tip. It was heavier and bonier than he’d expected, and cold to the touch. He threw it on the dung heap with a shudder. A rusty smear stained the bare earth where the tail had lain. Blood. He scuffed dirt over it so that Sigrid would not see, and went on into the house.
Gudrun and Hilde were sorting out clothes. Peer put away his faint hope that Hilde might have changed her mind. Astrid sat like a queen in Ralf’s big chair, watching them. She had little Elli on her knee, and was letting the baby play with a bunch of keys that dangled from her belt, jigging her up and down and humming some strange little song that rose and fell. Ralf, Gunnar and Harald were nowhere to be seen.
“Peer! Eat something quickly. Gunnar wants to catch the morning tide.” Gudrun’s voice was brittle.
“The men have gone down to the ship. Gunnar wants to load up more food and fresh water. We’re going to follow as soon as we can,” Hilde added. She glanced at Gudrun guiltily, but Peer could tell she was bursting with excitement.
“I don’t know.” Gudrun bundled up a big armful of cloaks, shifts and dresses. “You’d better just take everything. Peer, you can have some of Ralf’s winter things. You’ve grown so much this year. I was going to make new clothes for you, but now—” She broke off, folding her lips tight.
“Where’s Eirik?” asked Peer.
“Pa took him along to show him the ship,” said Hilde. “It would have been tricky to manage him and Elli and the baggage too. And of course Ma wants to come down to the ship as well because—” She stopped.
But for once Peer wasn’t interested in sparing Hilde’s feelings. He completed the sentence for her: “You mean, because she wants to say goodbye?”
Hilde flushed. There was a moment when no one spoke, and in the interval they heard Astrid singing to Elli, clapping the baby’s hands together at the end of each line:
”Two little children on a summer’s night,Went to the well in the pale moonlight.The lonely moon-man, spotted and oldScooped them up in his arms so cold. They live in the moon now, high in the air.When you are old and grey, darling,They’ll still be there.”
“I’ll take her, shall I?” Peer almost snatched Elli away from Astrid.
“What a strange rhyme,” said Gudrun nervously.
Astrid looked up: “It’s one my mother used to sing. What a lovely baby Elli is. Why has she got webbed fingers?”
“She’s Bjørn’s daughter,” Peer snapped, as though that explained it. His friend’s tragic marriage with a seal-woman was none of Astrid’s business.
Gudrun must have thought so too, for she said, clearing her throat, “Now, I wonder where the Nis is. I haven’t seen it this morning.”
Peer made a startled, warning gesture towards Astrid. But Hilde shook her head. “It’s all right, Astrid knows.”
“Knows about the Nis?” Peer looked at Astrid in suspicious astonishment.
“I saw it,” Astrid said. “I knew it wasn’t a troll. And don’t worry, I haven’t told Harald.” She gave him a sweet smile. “You’re a good liar, aren’t you, Peer? You fooled
