Page 56 of Viking Vengeance Cruise

Her chest bucks with a silent laugh. “Thank you for that. Really. You’re easy to talk to.”

And that’s the problem. Because either Poppy Lindgren is exactly who she appears to be, a genuinely kind woman mourning her friend, or she’s an excellent actress who committed the perfect murder and is now plying the investigation with cookies.

“So who do you think could have done something like that to Astrid?” I ask. “You know, in the event she was poisoned. I mean, even if she had an allergy, I suppose it still could have been something nefarious that went down that night.”

“I guess you’re right,” Poppy says slowly. Her brow furrows as she mulls it over.

“She’s delicious when she’s pensive,” Magnus muses.

There is no HR department for the dead. I’ve checked.

“I know Sienna had a falling-out with her,” Poppy says finally.

“Sienna?” I’m genuinely surprised to hear it. “What kind of falling-out?”

That’s funny. Sienna didn’t mention any falling-out when we spoke in Gothenburg. Come to think of it, Sienna didn’t mention much of anything at all.

Poppy leans in, lowering her voice. “I saw them arguing at the bon voyage party. Sienna was crying, and I heard her say something like ‘You can’t do this to me, I won’t let you.’ It was intense.”

“Do you know what it was about?”

“Astrid discovered something about Sienna’s daughter.” Poppy sips her coffee. “Her daughter is older, in her thirties. I have no idea what Astrid found out, but I do know that Sienna is very close to her. I mean, she has to be. Sienna is always with her three grandchildren. Ages six, eight, and ten, I think?”

“That’s sweet that she helps out.”

“It is. Sienna’s told me her daughter has a very lucrative career and travels a lot for work, so she helps with the kids. But it’s been years and I’ve yet to actually meet the daughter. Sienna’s brought photos, but...” She shrugs.

I file that away, too. A daughter nobody’s met.

“So Astrid confronted Sienna about her daughter?”

Poppy holds up a finger. “I just remembered something else Astrid said to her that night. I was walking past them and I heard it clear as day. ‘We have standards about the families our members come from.’ What do you think she meant by that?”

“No clue, but it sounds downright cruel if you ask me.”

“Exactly.” Poppy blows out a breath. “I love—loved—Astrid, but she could be harsh when she thought someone wasn’t meeting her standards. And whatever was going on with Sienna’s daughter, Astrid clearly didn’t approve.”

“Oh, that’s rough.” I grimace at the thought. “I mean, as a mother, you know we’ll go to bat for our kids no matter what.”

She nods, and something steely threads through all that softness. “Any mother would go to great lengths to protect her children. The ends of the earth wouldn’t be far enough.”

“Agreed. The ends of the earth and several nautical miles past it.”

It does make me wonder what exactly could be wrong with Sienna’s daughter, but I don’t dare say that out loud.

“Oh, something else just hit me.” Poppy’s lips part in a small gasp.

“Those lips,” Magnus breathes. “The way they part in surprise. In my day, a woman parted her lips like that and a man abandoned an entire raid. Sometimes a fjord.”

“What is it?” I lean forward so eagerly I nearly send the rest of my cookie tumbling to the cobblestones. I’m about to shove it into my mouth for safekeeping when Magnus swoops in, eats the cookie, and steals a kiss right off my lips while he’s at it.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” I mutter.

“No, I’ll tell you,” Poppy says, mistaking my outburst for impatience with her.

“Sorry.” I cringe. “I didn’t mean to sound like that. I’m usually much more composed.” I cut the surly specter a look. Unlike some Vikings among us. Cookie thieves and kissing bandits, the lot of them. Somewhere in Valhalla there’s a wanted poster with his smirk on it, and I’d bet good kronor—Swedish currency—the bounty is payable in pastry. “But please, go ahead.”

“I was just going to tell you about poor Freya.” Poppy’s voice drops low. “She and Astrid were butting heads over something. I’m not entirely sure what it was about, but I overheard Astrid telling someone on the phone that Freya had ‘made choices that reflect poorly on the club’s values.’”