Arild's Stake: A Viking Romance

It was a matter of "He loves me...He loves me not."
Westfaldingi Viking Arild af Bekkajordet did not expect to have an unaccounted booty in his longboat. The stowaway, Ginetta, was the young bride he saved from a loveless marriage with an old groom during a raid in a village in Nantes. In Vestfold, Norway, she became a thrall in his mother's household and she also took the fancy of his uncle Ulf who commissioned him to build longboats. His uncle wanted the thrall as a giveaway along with the boats but Arild stalled the deal by giving the thrall to his mother citing the thrall was too young to be his uncle's sex slave. The thrall's fate had a sudden twist when Valgerd, Arild's mother, became ill and if she died, Ginetta would be her companion (ledsager) in the afterlife; but if she survived the illness, the thrall would be given to Ulf. It was up to Arild to make a move to be able to claim his stake on the enthralling Ginetta.