Chapter 3 The Market

"We're here," Bard said, breaking into the lower deck and shouting, "Get up!"

All the prisoners, who had behaved like lambs since the rebellion, had their hands tied behind their backs and were taken on board. Rosalie was struck by a sudden gust of icy Nordic wind in her face. She really wasn´t at her homeland anymore, and she doubted she would ever look there again. It was probably September, but she was not sure. She began to shiver, and her teeth chattered. She stopped to take a good look at the city.

Bard grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. "Come on, you little bitch."

They housed them all in something distantly, but really distantly, reminding of stables. Each of the prisoners was chained to one of the rings hanging on the wall.

Rose curled up in a ball trying to warm up but could not. After all, she was wearing only a light linen dress with short sleeves, which were only covering but not warming up. She had been wearing them since the day the Vikings invaded her village and kidnapped her. And thanks to that, there were already several holes in them. Her greasy hair fell to her eyes, and she soon gave up the fight. Her skin was covered in dirt.

Soon after, several slaves came, washed them, and gave them other clothes. However, it was still too thin for the weather around. They were immediately taken to the market. They divided them into groups according to what they wrote about them on the ship and trading could begin.

Rose was only at the end of her group, watching with horror what her captors were doing to sell the girls. One of them, a blonde woman around sixteen, was displayed on the stage completely naked so that buyers could see all her strengths. Even from a distance, you could see how red she was. The men bid, like obsessed. No wonder the girl was beautiful. Big blue eyes, like two sapphires, bordered by long black lashes. Tiny nose and full lips. Her straight straw-coloured hair reached almost to her hips. Figure with curves, huge hips, tiny waist, and lovely breasts. The seller praised her to heaven, claiming that she would give birth to many strong boys. He did not forget to emphasize the fact that she is still a virgin.

"What do I do? What am I going to do? I do not want anyone to buy me and I really don´t want to be displayed here like some livestock. And be naked before all those people. It's so cold," Rosalie was panicking and shaking.

Bard came to her, an annoying smile from ear to ear. "We'll finally get rid of you, you little bitch. I mean if anyone buys you." He chuckled at his own joke. „And if they don´t, I will just have to keep you. If you thought that you were suffering on the ship, now it´s going be much worse." There was a small pause probably to make his words sink it. "If you annoy me just a bit, I will cut your throat," Bard added, still smiling.

"I´d like to see you try." She smiled like an angel.

Before he could say anything in return, his commander made a gesture to bring Rosalie on the podium.

"And now we have one special specimen here. Rosalie. Look at her perfectly thick hair the colour of ripe chestnuts and mossy eyes. Besides, you will have a lot of fun with her, especially when you try to tame her. Which is hard. She is stubborn but passionate. The advantage of her is that she even speaks our language." He added with a smile on his face, "And I forgot to mention the fact that she is still a virgin."

The men cheered and began to shout offers.

"Mm... so far a thousand gold coins for our little Rose. What if I showed you more to see that it costs at least ten times as much?"

He nodded at Bard, and Rose tore his dress. She reacted immediately, grabbed the remaining pieces and pressed them to her body. The commander nodded at Bard again, and the warrior grabbed her hands and forced her to put them over her head so that her clothes fell to the ground and she stood naked on the podium.

The crowd cheered even more, and the offerings rushed at lightning speed. Suddenly, a buzzing crowd pierced a resounding deep voice offering fifty thousand gold coins. Rosalie knew that nobody would offer any more, so she looked at her new owner, hating the fact that she now had an owner.

He was a tall warrior with warm eyes the colours of the summer sky that reminded her of home. His blond hair ended under his jaw and was pulled back with a strip of skin. Rosalie was right. Nobody has offered more.

He went to Bard and asked him for some clothes for his new slave girl so that not everyone would stare at her. All Bard found was pants and a mid-thigh tunic. Her new pants were large but she tied them with a rope that was bounding her hands just a moment ago.

"Can we go?" The stranger asked, gallantly offering her a frame.

She smiled and nodded. They walked in silence for a moment, then the man looked at her.

"Are you afraid of me or are you just cold?" He looked at her with his blue eyes until a chill ran down her spine.

"The second one, sir," she whispered with her eyes to the ground.

"You should have said that before. But it doesn't matter, we'll do it this way."

He took off his fur coat, which he had slung over his shoulders, and wrapped her in it. She shivered, even more, when he touched her, but this time it wasn't cold.

"It's not far. Come."

Before long, they came to a small wooden house. The man unlocked the door and motioned for her to enter.

"I'm so sorry that it's so dirty here. I had no idea in the morning that I would have a visitor. Also, you must be hungry, can I offer you some soup? Codfish soup? I admit it tastes really bad but I and the cooking don't go together."

"I can cook you something else if you would like that sir." A shy smile was playing on her lips. "But I am starving. Can I please get the soup? My only food in the last few days was a small piece of bread."

"Okay then, I'll be happy to use your services. Yeah, and two things. First, be so kind and stop calling me sir. My name is Erick. And second, you don't have to be afraid of me, I'm not going to force you into anything you would be uncomfortable with. All you have to do is cook and take care of the household. I am quite busy and don´t have time for it because I have to take care of my men and land. And of course, my lovely ship. I'm going to chop some wood, I have run out of it again. Make yourself comfortable."

He left and Rose walked in the direction he pointed into the kitchen. In the cupboard, she took two plates and a spoon, wiped the dust off the table, and set them on top of them. She looked around to see how much work it would take to clean it all up. There were a few more pieces of wood left by the stove, so she added them to the fire and began to heat up the soup. When it was warmed, she tasted it and found it to be good, just tasteless. So, she searched the other sideboard and found salt, pepper and dill. She tossed it all into the pot, stirred it, and as soon as Erick arrived, she poured it into two bowls.

He was very happy with what she had done to his soup. "Miss, I pass you on to the head cook and declare that I will never cook in your presence." He pretended that the wooden spoon was a sword and placed it on her left shoulder, her right, and finally her head.

She giggled.

After the meal, while she was washing the dishes, he came to her and said, "We must agree on where you will sleep. It is clear to me that you do not intend to sleep with me in bed, but I do not want you to sleep on the floor, otherwise, you will catch a cold. So there is one possibility. There is one room where I store paintings, shields, swords, statues and much more. You will see. But there's a terrible mess. So we'll put those things somewhere else and I'll make you a bed. "

"Sir, oh I meant Erick, that's very kind of you, but it's not necessary. I've always slept on the floor at home and that's enough for me. "

"But you'd catch a cold and I don't want that, so the only other option is my bed or that room."

"I can lie down near the stove." She said quietly.

"No, you need to be comfortable and warm. We don´t want you suffering from fever, don´t we?"

"And if I cover myself with your cloak?" She said softly.

"Still not good enough. The bed or the room?"

"Evening is coming, so we won't have time to clean the room today." She objected.

"Very well then, you will sleep in my bed and I will lie down on the ground. I'll start removing all those things from your soon to be room okay?"

"Of course, I'll clean it up here for now. I can't look at all that dust. "

"He is so kind to me. I expected to suffer. Or that they will kill me right away. Some brute could have bought me, like Bard. But Erick, he is so kind and handsome. But still, I can´t stay with a man in one room if I am not married to him. Oh, stop that thought, Rose. Your life like that has already ended. No one will judge you or your family for something like that. I hope I'm not wrong about Erick, and he's really the kind of person I consider him to be." She smiled as she thought of her new owner.

She took a bucket, water, soap, and a rag and began to wash as much as she could. Two hours later, she was finally finished with the kitchen and hallway. All that was left was the dining room. When she wanted to move there, Erick came to her and made her go to bed because it was already dark outside.

Because she had nothing to wear except the huge pants and tunic she was wearing, Erick gave her one of his longer tunic, which reached to his knees, so that it covered her entire legs up to her ankles. Surprisingly, she looked quite good, so she decided to wear it for normal wear and sleep in the tunic she was wearing. Although it only covered her to her knees, it wouldn´t be seen under the duvet.

She crawled into bed and fell asleep right after. Erick had put fur on the ground and laid down on it.

※

During the night, Rosalie woke up shivering from the cold. Her movements on the sheet have woken Erick up too because he was an experienced warrior who was already been on many adventures and waking up to any noise was a skill he had to learn to survive.

He looked at her for a while and then laid to her and pressed her to his hot body. The shivering stopped in no time and she fell asleep soon after.