“I like those little bone decorations on his shert,” Ulf the Archer commented. “Methinks my Helga could make some for me from antlers.”
Buttons now. Please. This is way off subject. “Listen, everyone, the situation here at Hoggstead is dire,” he proclaimed, as if they didn’t already know that. “Here is what we’re going to do. It’s too late in the season, and the fjords too frozen, to go to any of the market towns to replenish our supplies. So, Gorm, you will take one of the wagon sledges and head east on the frozen fjord. Stop at every estate or farmstead along the way until your wagon is full of foodstuff. Anything and everything that is edible, from oats to meat. And ale or mead, as well. You will use this to pay for the goods.” He lifted one of the sacks of gold and silver coins that lay before him.
He saw several eyes widen at his being willing to part with his precious wealth. That was the old Cnut, they would soon learn, although he had to admit it hurt to part with so much. He’d liked collecting so much wealth. Truth be told, he still did. Once a glutton, always a glutton? He hoped not.
Gorm nodded. “Many are as bad off as we are with the famine, though. I cannot guarantee results.”
“Just keep going ’til you fill the wagon, even if it’s only a little here and there. Take as long as you need, but hurry, if you can.”
Gorm nodded again.
“And you, Farle,” Cnut said, raising another bag of coins, “you will do the same with a sledge to the west.”
“I hear Jarl Rolfsson had a fair harvest,” Farle informed him. “I will try there first.”
“Arnstein and Ingolf, you will start ice fishing. That spot beyond the cliffs has been good in the past. And Olaf and Gudrik, travel as far as the ocean and see what fish or seabirds you can catch.”
He could see that his men were pleased with his plans so far. They were good men, not the lazy oafs they’d apparently been of late. They just needed leadership.
“Andor, Gismund, Njal, and Sven, you and I will pick five men each to form hunting parties. Choose the best archers. I know, I know, it is difficult to find game this time of year, but needs must. We will go in five different directions. Two of you can take the dogs.” Hoggstead had a number of prime elkhounds that were good for hunting, the ones that had been banished from the hall his first night back. “First one to kill a deer gets a silver coin. A wild boar, two silver coins. And a bear, please God, merits gold, I would think.”
There was much laughter and clapping.
“And what do I get if I catch me a whale?” one man called out.
“A bucket of ale,” Cnut quipped. The only way any of the Vikings were able to catch a whale in their longboats, which were often smaller than the sea mammals, was if the animal washed up on shore. They should be so lucky now!
Cnut glanced at one elderly warrior, who had seen at least fifty winters, and said, “Aslak, you ever had a talent for setting snares. Dost think it’s too late to catch us some rabbits, or possum, or quail, or grouse?”
Aslak tossed his long gray beard over one shoulder and boasted, “Not for me!”
“Let us all set forth at first light on the morrow, and may God be with us,” Cnut declared.
The others did not catch his reference to a single god, but Finn did, and he frowned. Cnut wasn’t sure how his Vikings would react to his conversion. His conversion hardly mattered at the moment, considering the desperate circumstances, though a multitude of prayers wouldn’t hurt.
You can say that again, he thought he heard a voice in his head say.
Michael? he immediately inquired of the saint who had been ominously absent of late. What’s up with this time-travel business? And why did you send Andrea back here with me?
His head was as silent as a hollow melon.
But then Finn said, “Your lips are moving. Are you talking to yourself?”
“Would seem so. Guess I lost a bit of my mind as well as half my weight while I was gone.”
Cnut went with Finn then down to the village where he attempted to assure his serfs and cotters that he planned to help them. The people were angry and bitter. No surprise there. But also hesitantly hopeful.
“Why should we believe you?” one young man asked.
“Because I give you my word. Because you have no choice.”
It took him hours before he talked with all the villagers and farmers, sometimes in groups, sometimes individually. Starting tomorrow, each person who came up to the castle would be handed an allotment of food per person, only a daily amount at first because of the scarcity, and it would be plain fare, he told them, but filling.
Several women carrying babies began to weep.