Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

“Where are we now?”
    “Coming on about five miles from Vik,” Dooley said. “We stopped when you woke. The dogs needed the rest.”
    He heard Källa’s snort. “I’ll push the sled the remainder of the way, Mr. Dooley. Go on in with your friend. He can’t stand it much longer. Annika can’t, either.”
    David truly couldn’t. He returned to the troll, holding her gaze with every step. She drew back from the hatch and stood, making room for him.
    He caught her up against his chest, loving the warmth of her skin, the silly bows on her drawers, the curve of her mouth, and the dimple in her chin. “Is this Rutger Fatbottom?”
    “Yes.”
    A footstep sounded behind him. “Turn away, Patrick. I need to kiss her properly.”
    Slow and sweet, her arms linked around his neck, her lips clinging to his.
    At his back, another step sounded. A throat cleared. A female throat. “You’re supposed to be resting, little rabbit.”
    Annika quickly pulled away and scampered to the bunk, where she sat with her face in her hands. Heart thumping, David sat next to her. In a wooden seat across the hearth chamber, Dooley laughed himself into tears.
    “In front of my mother ,” she whispered, her cheeks blazing. “That was so improper.”
    He grinned. “And I’m just an ignorant man from the New World.”
    But he wouldn’t do it again. Only proper behavior, from this moment on—and until he had something more to offer her, a promise that he could keep.
    Thankfully, Frida didn’t look upset, just amused—and was holding his aunt’s hand. Hildegard dropped a kiss to her mouth before climbing up the ladder. Such an ordinary, familiar gesture. David had done the same to Annika.
    Familiar, but still surprising to see them. David supposed he’d become used to it soon enough.
    He braced his back against the steel wall behind the bed, realizing that his short venture outside had left him out of breath. Annika was, too. She drew up her knees and rested her cheek on her folded arms, already looking worn again. Frida stoked the furnace, then sat on Annika’s opposite side. She removed her heavy coat, revealing a green tunic, and slipped her arm around her daughter’s shoulders.
    Frida’s gaze moved from Annika’s face to his. A wistful sadness crossed her expression, followed by fierce pride. She tweaked one of Annika’s curls and said in Norse, “I didn’t think I would lose you so quickly again.”
    “You won’t.” She squeezed her mother’s hand.
    David fought the painful twist in his chest. He wouldn’t think the worst. Nothing about the future had been settled. He didn’t even know yet what they’d find in the town ahead. He looked to Dooley. “What happened at Vik, then?”
    “Don’t rush into it now.” Leisurely, Dooley withdrew his pipe and a small bag of tobacco. “There’s only the first telling of it once.”
    “And yet the second telling always takes longer.”
    “That is the natural progression of it, as I recall details that I’d failed to mention before.”
    “Details, or embellishments?”
    “It’s a true thing that I’ve fattened up a story or two. But this one doesn’t need any,” Dooley said. He puffed up a small cloud of pungent smoke. “Well now, then. You and Miss Fridasdottor hadbeen gone two days when di Fiore’s ferry cruiser flies in over Vik, and leaves our cargo sitting pretty in the street. Of course we realize that this means you’ve likely been taken, because we don’t imagine di Fiore had a change of heart—though that’s what the ferry cruiser’s captain says happened. Now, we thought for certain that you were being held at the rail camp.”
    “Because you didn’t know of the glacier camp,” David realized.
    “We didn’t. Now, I’ve worked up some anger by then. All but steam coming out of my ears, I suppose, as everyone walking at me was suddenly taking another path. But that Captain Vashon, she’s got the same bee under her arse. So she comes to me with this flinty look in her eyes and she says, ‘Prepare your sled, Mr. Dooley. I’m taking it to the camp and I’m bringing our people back.’ And my reply is that she sure as bloody hell isn’t leaving without me.”
    Dooley was working himself up a bit now. Red in the face, chest puffing up.
    “Exactly like that?”
    “It must have not been much worse as I wasn’t slapped for it. So we gather up all the weapons we have, and we’re ready to storm that camp looking for you. Vashon was some