Slave Girl
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Slave Girl is a book by Jackie French which was published in Australia in 2006 and in Britain in 2007.
[edit] Spoiler Warning - plot or ending details follow
It is about a girl called Hekja who is taken as a slave by the Vikings when they raid her village. Hekja hates the Norse and will not share her beautiful gift of singing with them, even if it does mean that she would not have to mind the cows as a thrall if they heard her. Hekja's spirit and sheer determination means that she soon finds herself joining her mistress Freydis's expedition to Vinland. Hekja befriends Freydis's brother's thrall Hikki and sings for him when they are alone.
Cheeses are traded with the locals and the Vinland winters are so mild that the cattle can be left out all year round. Freydis and several other women in the colony are pregnant. Things in Vinland are going swimmingly. So swimmingly in fact that Hikki asks Hekja to marry him. Hekja is taken aback and tells him to wait until she has finished serving her mistress in two years time. Before he can hear her answer, Hikki is killed by an arrow during a raid by the locals. Hekja orders him to be buried on a hill overlooking the land where he wanted them to live. She claims this his land and that nobody else should build on it.
The book ends by Freydis having a baby boy and calling him Erik after her father. Hekja marries a Skald called Snorri and also gets adopted by Freydis. As Hekja leaves Vinland to go back to Greenland, she says goodbye to her second mother, as Freydis is staying in Vinland. The next Hekja hears of the settlement where she lived, it was a ruin.
