“I Can’t Bear Children,” She Told Giant Viking — He Grinned, “My Five Sons Already Love You”
Chapter 9
The wedding took place in the small chapel overlooking the fjord, with the mountains standing sentinel in the distance and the spring sun casting golden light across the water.
The entire village came. Not out of approval — some still whispered, still judged, still wondered why Stoneback had chosen a barren woman when he could have had anyone. But they came because Brinhild had healed their children, comforted their dying, fed their hungry. She’d spent years sowing kindness in soil that had given her nothing but thorns, and now, finally, the harvest was coming in.
The boys stood at the front, dressed in their finest clothes, their hair combed and their faces scrubbed to a shine. Leif was practically vibrating with excitement. Bjorn stood with quiet dignity. Olaf held a small bouquet of wildflowers, his eyes wide with the importance of the moment. Ulf clutched a new wooden horse — carved by Hal this time, a gift from his father to his new mother.
And Eric stood at Brinhild’s side, offering his arm to walk her down the aisle.
“You’re supposed to be standing with your father,” she whispered.
“I’m supposed to be where I’m needed,” he said. His voice was steady, his eyes direct. “And right now, I need to walk you to him. So you know that you’re not just gaining a husband tonight. You’re gaining sons. And we’re not going anywhere.”
Her eyes burned, but she didn’t cry.
She walked toward Hal with her head high and her heart open, Eric’s arm warm and solid through hers, the other boys falling into step behind them like a guard of honor.
The ceremony was simple — vows spoken in the old tongue, hands bound with a ribbon blessed by the priest. When it was done, Hal leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear.
“Welcome home.”
The feast that followed lasted until dawn. Music filled the hall, and the boys danced with an energy that seemed inexhaustible. Brinhild danced with each of them in turn — stepping carefully with Olaf, spinning wildly with Leif, holding Ulf in her arms and swaying to the music.
Near midnight, she found herself standing by the open doors, looking out at the fjord glittering under the stars. The silver ring was gone from her finger, replaced by a new band — simpler, stronger, a circle of bronze that Hal had forged himself.
“It suits you.”
She turned to find Hal beside her, two cups of mead in his hands. He offered her one, and she took it, their fingers brushing.
“I used to think that ring was all I had left,” she said, touching the bronze band. “Proof that I’d been loved. Proof that I’d loved someone.”
“And now?”
She looked at the hall — at the boys sprawled across benches and floors, exhausted and happy. At the fire burning warm in the hearth. At the home that had somehow, impossibly, become hers.
“Now I have proof that love keeps growing,” she said. “That it doesn’t end when someone dies. That it finds new shapes, new homes, new people to hold.”
Hal followed her gaze. Eric was trying to wake Leif, who had fallen asleep mid-sentence. Bjorn was stacking empty bowls with mechanical precision. Olaf was curled up beside Ulf, who clutched his wooden horse even in sleep.
“Did Sigrid really ask you to find me?” Brinhild asked quietly. “Or did you make that part up?”
Hal was silent for a moment. “She wrote that she had a friend named Brinhild, and that if she ever needed help for the boys, she should ask you. But she didn’t tell me to find you. She told me to find someone like you.”
“But you found me.”
“I found you.” He set down his mead and took her hands. “And I think — I believe — that some meetings aren’t coincidence. Some people are placed in our path because the universe knows we’ll need them.”
“I don’t know if I believe in fate,” she said.
“Believe in this, then.” He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “Believe that I love you. Believe that the boys love you. Believe that you belong here, with us, forever.”
She looked at the bronze band on her finger — a new symbol for a new life.
“Forever sounds good,” she said.
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**THE END**