‘Oh, right.’ Olaf scanned the shore, where a crowd was shouting greetings and calling out to their loved ones. ‘I can just see you two hiding something from your brother.’
‘There’s something to that…’ Surt kept his eyes fixed on the planks beneath his feet.
‘And if Mum found out…’ Leif began.
‘…we’d be in for it,’ Kari finished for him. The twins looked up from their shoes for a moment to exchange glances.
‘Exactly!’ concluded their father. ‘And you even hid them so that Ulf would find them. You should have come to me,’ he added, lowering his voice so that only his sons could hear him. He just didn’t realise that five of his sons had heard him, not four. ‘I would have understood, and anyway… You're growing up, I do understand that, but you have to think and behave yourselves. And yet you bring a whole chest full of indecent books on board!’ His whisper was even quieter than before. ‘And you can't even hide it properly! Really...'
‘So why did you throw it all overboard?’ Bragi asked defiantly.
‘Because I’m sure your mother would have found out about it straight away, and your brother would have sniffed out your hiding place!’ sighed the jarl. ‘All in all, be glad it ended like this and that the crew just had a bit of a laugh.’ Olaf wiped his brow and looked first at his descendants, then scanned the deck to check if anyone might be eavesdropping on them. It didn’t occur to him to look behind him, however, so he didn’t realise that Einar was sitting on the railing behind him, a broad smile on his face and mischievous sparks glinting in his blue eyes. ‘If you’d like, come round this evening and I’ll show you where I’ve hidden a few books.’ Their father gave his sons a wry smile, and they returned it.
‘Mum burnt them,’ Einar said casually, and his brothers and father jumped up as if on cue. The boy leapt down from the railing and ran over to hug his father. ‘She said
