Chapter 6

Freyna recognized the people coming down the lane and yelled out, "Wil, people are coming. You should start charging to train here."

"What helps them helps us. Don't you like company?" he yelled back.

She harrumphed and walked into the house to tell the other women that there would be more mouths to feed.

"Jorna, good to see you. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Wilhan said when the people got closer.

"These are my boys, Pawli and Sven. Pawli's about ready to go out in the world for the first time, and young Sven here could use a good beating, so we thought we'd come by and see if your boys would like some new meat to chew on."

"Sure, let me show you the wooden practice weapons. They're in the shed with the shields and weapons Lorgar had for his obligation to the clan."

"Did you get that obligation along with the farm, or was that between Engruth and Lorgar."

"I'm not sure since they cut back on my land allotment. If I'm not told otherwise the equipment is going to the southmark with me. Asking about it might cost me something so I keep my mouth shut about it when I'm in town. The boys are busy stacking hay and I'm about to go help. You can spar till we're done, or help; if you help, we'll have more time after supper..."

Neighbors had been stopping by frequently ever since the babies were born. Word got out that Wilhan liked to spar while the women folk visited, and soon men started showing up without their women. They often stayed for several days. Wilhan put them to work whenever he could get away with it.

"Wilhan, what are those odd heads we saw in weapons shed?"

"What's that, Sven, the fat things with the short barbed points? When my brothers and I were fighting the Helvezii, some spears were thrown and some men had to drop their shields when they couldn't get the spears out fast enough. It got me thinking. Those things you saw are spear heads made to penetrate a shield and then hold fast. They go on a thick shaft, about twice as thick as a normal shaft -- short and heavy so it can't be chopped off quickly. I think that if our line threw those as the enemy is charging, we could take out a lot of shields. They work pretty well with our shield teams. A team can get three of those things off and still have time to switch weapons before the lines crash. It worked when we tried it with six or eight people, but we need a group like you showing up to try things like that."

"What's a shield team?"

"Basically it's a tall man with an extra long spear and two short men with short spears staying together on the battlefield for as long as they can. The tall man stays protected and uses a long spear over the top while the short men jab low. You and your brother look plenty tall enough to be pikemen."

"Why would you want to fight like that? It's not as honorable as fighting man to man."

"The way I look at it, when shield teams can be used the quarrel is between kings or chiefs, and when that happens we farmers are fighting for duty, not personal honor. Then killing is a job to get done as efficiently as possible, honor be damned. Anyway, in battles like that there are plenty of opportunities to fight men face to face -- if you live past the initial crash of the lines. It's not much different than fighting with a shield mate during a raid. It's always good to have someone watch your back."

"You fought the Nwevii, too. Were they really naked?"

No, it was too cold each time, and they didn't have time to prepare for a battle, so I don't know what they wear to war. They did tie their hair on those knots that they think are magic. A helmet would do them more good. Many men around here will tell you otherwise but there is no shame in wearing armor. Those men say it's the coward's way, but they all use shields and pick up helmets on the field as soon as they can -- if they don't have them already. They rather sell mail than wear it because it is heavy and it takes a while to get used to. You feel vulnerable in it at first. Since my shield men like to poke at shins and feet during practice we made some greaves out of rawhide and wood. I have some for myself made out of tough boiled leather, bracers too. Do you want to see them?..."

When word got out at the local spring festival that men had been training with Wilhan over winter, many nobles who felt that their sons could be better fighters asked Wilhan if he would train them. His usual answer was, "Warriors were always welcome if they are willing to work around my schedule, do what I tell them, and sleep in the barn." He did promise some special attention for relatives of his wives, though. As a result the farm was a popular place over the summer, and women often came along with the men to socialize.

When Wilhan had work to do, which was much of the time on the farm, he sent the sons of the idle rich off to do physical exercises instead of farm work. Normally these types of things were races or contests of strength that showed off natural ability, but when you have to run several miles a day every day, or do pushups, or lift rocks and logs on a regular schedule, you start to see improvement in yourself; so the men quickly accepted the training schedule. Wilhan also wanted them tired when they practiced. Warriors were tired during ninety percent of their fighting, even during raids, and that was when they made mistakes.

Things slowed down as harvest time approached again, and after the last of the summer's trainees were riding away Wilhan went into the house and called Freyna over to talk with him.

"You'll be twenty next spring, and more than one man from a good family has asked me about you, as did several from lesser families. Your grandfather obviously would want you to marry one of the former, but I just want you to be happy and pick the best man possible, so if you want to be a yeoman's wife I'm willing to consider it. Your dowry will be large enough for him to make something of himself if he has a head on his shoulders, but I won't let a fool have you, and your sister wouldn't let me if I would. Frankly, after the last spring festival and this summer I don't think there are any men around who you haven't talked too, and they all want you as far as I can tell. You can have your pick of them, and now's as good a time for you to get engaged as any. You should decide soon so that I can start negotiations with the family during the harvest festival."

Wilhan wasn't sure what he said, but it was obviously the wrong thing because Freyna started crying and ran out.

"What in the five hells did you say to her!" Henna said as she rushed out the door to catch up to Freyna.

As Marin went by to find out what was wrong with her sister she simply whacked Wilhan on the head with a wooden spoon.

Wilhan was still confused about what he did or didn't do a half hour later when his two wives returned with a red eyed and embarrassed Freyna.

Henna had her arms around Freyna's shoulders half comforting her and half keeping her from running as they stood a step behind Marin.

"Wil, do you like my sister?"

"Of course, Mari, what's the problem?"

"Do you think that she would make a good wife?"

"Absolutely, that's why I told her that she can start looking for a husband."

"She already found the man she wants."

"Good. What's the problem then? Why did I get whacked with a damned spoon?"

"He's already married."

"She doesn't want to be a second wife? He can't afford her? Who is it? I'm sure we can work something out."

"She would be a third wife, and he can afford her."

"So why is she so upset?" Wilhan leaned to the side to see around Marin. "Freyna, why are you so upset?"

"He doesn't know that she likes him." Marin continued.

"So we tell him. Any man would be a fool not to want her as a wife."

"Wil, who do you know that has two wives?"

"I don't know. I don't ask. That just opens the door to complaints about wives, and I'd rather be the complainer than the listener."

The dour look that came over Marin's face told him that he wasn't getting any pussy later.

"Just tell me so we can work something out." he said.

"You! You Dummy. She's liked you ever since you flirted with me at that spring festival. She was with me. Remember?"

Freyna looked like she wanted to disappear.

"Sure, she was just a skinny kid then." Wilhan leaned to the side again. "You were just a skinny kid then."

"Yes, but you flirted with her, too. That was the first time a boy ever paid attention to her; and then she had to sit by while Henna and I debated about marrying you. She said that she was ready to marry you as soon as Ethy told us what you did to her."

"Ethy told you! If her husband ever finds out, he'll kill me."

"Don't worry, she's not that dumb."

"So what do we do?"

"You marry her. That is, if you want to."

"But she's your sister."

"So? Your other wife is my stepmother."

"Yeah, that is kind of weird if you think about it -- but this is different. She's your sister, and we share a bed. I wouldn't want any of my brothers lying next to me naked and sharing any of you."

"Would you want any man lying naked next to you?"

"Well ... No."

"It won't be a problem. I taught her how to play with herself, back when we all shared a bed."

If Freyna could have made herself any smaller she would have.

"Let me think about it for a while." Wilhan said, not knowing why they had made Freyna stand there embarrassing both of them. Maybe they thought that he wouldn't refuse if he were put on the spot like that. Crazy wife logic eluded him sometimes.

The next spring, Freyna and her big pregnant belly stood proudly beside her bridegroom as the priests blessed their union. Remembering what the midwife had told Henna and Marin, Freyna said that she didn't want to wait on that part of the marriage.

Several months before, that subject was what was being discussed inside while Wilhan went outside to decide if he wanted a third bat-shit crazy wife. By the time he returned it had dawned on him that so far Freyna was the only woman within miles that seemed to be sane almost all of the time, and he couldn't think of a good reason not to marry her.

There wasn't any real stigma against premarital sex for an engaged couple. The law held that a man's word to a woman was binding. If they both said that they were married then they were, as long as both families agreed. The priests were simply blessing a union and presenting it to the goddess. It was not their place to give permission for a couple to have sex.

Freyna insisted on a big wedding banquet with the nobles of the clan present, just like her sister's. From the first time that Ethanda suggested Marin marry Wilhan, Freyna was enthusiastic about the idea. Initially she was just happy to be part of the new family, but something changed when she heard her sister and Henna talk about their wedding night. What she began feeling was part jealousy and part envy. When they finally all lived together her hand always ended up rubbing her pussy whenever she heard moans of passion from the other room -- much to young Toria's annoyance at the time since they shared a bed. Longing turned to hero worship after Wilhan killed two men in one day. The fact that he gave her part of the money for her dowry may have been the turning point. No one had been that nice to her since her mother died.

The day after Wilhan agreed to marry Freyna the three women strongly urged him to take her virginity to seal the deal. Freyna promised to be faithful, and obey him, and every other thing that the priests would ask her later. She had memorized the ceremony, and she said those words as she excitedly took Wilhan's clothes off. There was little hesitation about anything on her part. What she had not directly observed about sex she had asked her sister and Henna to describe long ago. And she knew exactly how she wanted Wilhan to take her virginity -- from behind, as if he was a wild stallion and she was his mare.

Before lying down on the bed, the new couple kissed with their nude bodies pressing against one another. The intimacy of her beloved's tongue against her own stunned Freyna, and any apprehension she may have had about letting him use her body for his pleasure evaporated into the night. She was his, body and soul. Wilhan ran his hands over her torso and down to her cleft, but before he could bring her to an orgasm she sank to her knees and took his member into her mouth.

When Marin and Henna first told her about that particular act of love she was repulsed by the idea, but over time the repulsion had changed to acceptance, curiosity, and finally, desire. Wilhan's moans of pleasure made the act even better than she had hoped. Surely such sounds meant that he loved her as much as she loved him.

Before he reached his peak, he pulled her up and laid her down on the bed so that he could reciprocate. Like her sister, she was apprehensive about him putting his face in her most private area, which was odd considering what she had just been doing. She surrendered her body to him anyway and was glad that she did, but the more excited she became the more she thought about her duty as a wife, something she had long thought about, and that duty was to have babies for Wilhan, lots and lots of babies, strong sons if possible, sons that would grow up to be great warriors just like him. With that in mind she reluctantly pushed Wilhan's face out of her pussy.

"I want you in me now." she said. But as he moved up her body she stopped him again.

"No, I want you to take me from behind the first time. I want to feel you deep inside me."

There were two main reasons that she wanted him to take her deeply from behind the first time: the first was because her sister had admitted that she was reluctant to do it that way initially, and the second was because Marin said that it was now her favorite way. During the past year, whenever Freyna saw the horses mating, all she could think about was Wilhan as the strong stallion mounting her with that fire in his eyes.

Wilhan thought that if a woman said what she wanted then she knew what she wanted, so he thrust into her the same way that he would have Henna or Marin when they begged for it.

The tearing of Freyna's thicker than average maidenhead, and the stretching of her tighter than average channel, started her screaming in pain.

Wilhan immediately stopped, and Freyna put her face down on her arms and started sobbing.

Both Marin and Henna rushed in to see what had happened before Wilhan could even say anything. The commotion from behind caused him to pull out and turn, giving the two women a view of virginal blood running down Freyna's inner thighs.

"What did you do to her, you idiot?" They said in a tandemness normally heard only with identical twins.

"That's the way she wanted it."

"She doesn't know what she wants. You should have known better..." Henna scolded.

Freyna was getting a lecture on the other end from her sister, even while tears streamed down her face. "What were you thinking? We told you what it would be like when it first went in..."

After the family meeting finished, Wilhan's manhood was wilted. Freyna was in shock, both from the experience and for letting Wilhan down so he comforted her with gentle words and slowly started back with foreplay.

This time things went more smoothly and he slowly eased into her from the missionary position. Gradually he built up steam, and near the end, to her surprise, he flipped her over and pulled her up to her knees so that he could finish the way she wanted him to in the first place.

The emotional highs and lows of the past two days, combined with the soul jarring orgasm that took place when Wilhan pumped her full of his seed, soon put Freyna to sleep. This time it was Wilhan who was wide awake. He got up and went to spend time with Marin and Henna, who were busy feeding their babies.

"Everything worked out."

"We heard."

Their sleeping platform, a box filled with packed straw covered with a mattress of horse and hog hair, linen sheets, woolen blankets, and furs was too small for four people so Wilhan was sent to sleep in Freyna's bed. He didn't know why he wasn't allowed to sleep with the woman who was going to be his next wife, or already was -- he wasn't sure which it was. He had a vague idea why he didn't get to sleep with any of his wives, but he had no energy to ponder it right then; it was sometimes easier to do what he was told and then hope that the sun would still come up in the east the next day.

Freyna woke up before dawn to the crowing roosters and wondered why she was not sleeping with her husband. And since her sister and Henna were sound asleep she got up and climbed into bed with Wilhan to make things right. That was when she found out about morning erections.

Wilhan was still asleep when he dreamed of the goddess Nerthia herself sucking on him.

Freyna thought that he would surely wake up before anything happened, but instead she found his rod pumping her mouth full of creamy seed. Of all the options that she had, squealing in surprise was the one she took. But even as she squealed she kept her lips locked tightly around the head of his cock. She held like that as it continued to pump its load onto her tongue.

At first she automatically swallowed, and then when it struck her what was happening she became rather proud of herself and held the last spurts on her tongue to savor the flavor of the thick liquid. Wilhan woke up as she was kissing and licking his cock clean.

"That felt wonderful, what little I remember of it. Thank you." he said in a sleepy voice.

His orgasm helped in one additional way. The cause of the erection in the first place was his full bladder, and now that his member was soft it made things much easer for him after he rushed to the outhouse.

Dawn was breaking, which meant that it was time to get to work on the farm, and as Freyna went about her work of gathering eggs and milking goats and cows, all she could think about was the fact that she might have Wilhan's baby growing in her. The lingering taste of his semen gave her the idea that she now had the strength of his essence in her stomach nourishing her child.*

Just before lunch she cornered Wilhan in the barn and pulled him into an empty stall.