There was a brief silence. Eyvind knew he should say something; there was no doubt what his mother would think of such talk. But his mind was showing him an image of glossy-haired Halla, brown locks drifting over pale skin in the flickering candlelight, and the involuntary stirring of his body silenced him.

“That’s nothing,” said Somerled.

“What do you mean?” Knut hissed.

There was another silence.

“Never had a girl, did you?” Somerled asked casually.

Eyvind’s jaw dropped. The others stared round-eyed. Then Ranulf found his voice.

“You mean…? Don’t be stupid, Somerled. Of course we haven’t, and I bet you haven’t either.”

“Ah,” said Somerled. “But I’m not a farm boy, am I? Things are rather different at court. Don’t believe me? I’ll tell you all about it, if you want.”

One of the shepherds rolled over in his sleep, muttering something about keeping quiet or he’d give them what for.

“Go on, then,” whispered Knut, edging closer. And Somerled did, in considerable detail. By the end of it, Eyvind was feeling very uncomfortable in more ways than one. There was the hardening of his body, something that did happen to him sometimes, now he had passed his fourteenth birthday. There was a thing you could do to make that go away, but he could hardly do it now, with the rest of them there. And he felt a growing unease, for although Somerled’s tale had the ring of truth, there was a wrongness about it that troubled him.

“Somerled?” he whispered, when it seemed the account was finished.

“Mmm?”

“What if the girl went and told her family? What if you got her with child? There would be compensation to pay. That sort of thing can be the start of a blood feud if you’re not careful.”

“Oh, dear, Eyvind. So serious. It doesn’t take much to secure a girl’s silence, believe me. I cover my tracks very well. You should know that. After all, it was you who taught me about hunting.”

Eyvind lay thinking. In a way, he was impressed. It did appear Somerled had done what none of them expected to try before they were fifteen at least. But Somerled’s account had troubled him.

“Somerled?” he murmured. The others seemed to have fallen asleep.

“Mmm?”

“The way you said it, about the girl struggling and—well, it sounded as if she didn’t want to…to…you know.”

“So?”

“Then you did something wrong.”

Somerled gave a weary sigh. “If a fellow held back because of that, the race of mankind would come to an end, Eyvind. It’s a fact of life.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll learn in time. Women aren’t made like men. They simply don’t enjoy it, not the way we do. They only submit because they’ve got no choice.”

“But—”

“But what, Eyvind?” Somerled was starting to sound a little testy.

“What you said—that doesn’t make it all right to force a girl. To do that is…it is lacking in honor.”