Love Never Dies

Part 13

A few days passed since that day with Ivar, I did not see him or that slave. Largertha made sure that she didn't come anywhere near me, I was grateful for that.

Because of Ragnar's death, a lot of people were coming to Kattegat. That was the greatest army ever assembled, since there was a lot of people in Kattegat, I was able to avoid Ivar.

But one night I could not avoid him anymore, there was a feast at the Great Hall, Largertha insisted that I was present. I was reluctant to accept but this is the least that I could do for Largertha, she has done so much for me.

I leave my children with the slave, I bathe and got dressed. When I entered the Great Hall, I could see that Largertha was at head of the table, and there was two empty places at the right. I saw Björn next to her, then Sigurd, then Hvitserk, then Ubbe, Ivar was not there.

I took a deep breath and I sat next to Largertha, facing Björn. That's when I saw Ivar crawling towards the table, I did everything I could not to look at him. He started to crawl faster when he saw an empty sit next to me, but before he could sit, a man sat next to me. He was tall, with bright blue eyes and long blonde hair, falling on his shoulders, I could see that Ivar was pissed that the man sat next to me. He sat next to Ubbe, never taking his eyes of me and the men.

"Hello, I did not have the pleasure to meet you. What is your name?" He says with a bright smile.

"Steena." I say looking down, he made me blush a little.

"You are Kaya's daughter." He says surprised.

"Yes I am, did you knew her?" My curiosity was visible.

"No, but my father did. He always talked about her and your father, it is a honor to meet her daughter. You are so beautiful." He says leaning closer to me.

"Thank you, what is your name?" I say biting my lips for contain my smile.

"Endre, my father was Gunnar." He says full of pride.

"I met your father before, I was a child. My father spoke about yours." I say remembering his father.

"Yes, he told me about you." He starts to lean closer to me and whispers in my ear: "My father and your father always joked about you and me getting married, if I knew that you were so beautiful I would come to Kattegat sooner, and made you my wife."

I laugh at his comment, for days someone else was not able to make me laugh, it was nice.

"You are direct." I say to him.

"Well, you do not become Earl being soft and not being direct." He says full of pride.

I was astonished to know that he was an Earl already, he was so young.

"You might be right." I say getting away from him.

Largertha leans to me and whispers in my ear: "Go dance with him, he made you laugh, I am sure that he can make you dance." The smile on her face was bright.

But before I could say anything to her, Endre gets up and says to me: "Steena, would you make me a happy man and dance with me?" His hand are in front of me.

I did not wanted to dance that night, but he made me laugh and he was easy to be around. And we could talk about our fathers.

I give him a smile and I say to him: "I am not sure if I will make you a happy man, but we can dance."

He leads me to the place where people were dancing, and we started to dance. I hadn't been able to dance in a long time, it was good to dance and not think about anything.