Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 01]

by The Reluctant Viking

  The surprise on Thork’s face showed Ruby he hadn’t been aware of his sons’ wishes.

  “I have already told you why I cannot be with them,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “I know. I know. That brings me to my third point,” she said, nervously drawing circles around his flat brown nipples, barely noticing his small gasp of pleasure.

  “Pray tell,” he laughed, probably expecting her to pop another of her surprises on him.

  “You don’t have to be sarcastic. I’m just trying to help.”

  “Odin save me!” he prayed, raising his eyes dramatically upward. “The wench would save me by having me give up Jomsviking to wed her.” He wrapped his arms around her tightly, though, amused with her arguments.

  “Do you want to hear the rest?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “No, but I wish you’d keep an open mind.”

  “Oh, I am more than open,” Thork countered, moving his thighs apart slightly and spreading her straddled legs in the process, making her sensitized cleft more exposed to his hardness.

  She groaned and closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them, she went on doggedly, “I think…I think you could solve all your problems by marrying me and then taking me and Eirik and Tykir to some other country where we would all be safe and not have to worry about any danger.” She exhaled after her long-winded plea and looked at him hopefully.

  “Like where?” Thork asked distractedly as her navel caught the attention of his exploring fingertips.

  “Well, how about Iceland?”

  “Are you daft?” he asked, then burst out laughing, hugging her warmly as he rolled her over onto her back. “Oh, Ruby, I love the way you make me laugh,” he said with a delighted chuckle as he playfully bit her neck. When his laughter finally stopped, Thork leaned over her, tracing the line of her jaw lazily with his thumb, then the outlines of her lips. A pulse beat wildly at the base of his throat.

  “’Tis time for honesty betwixt us, sweetling. Are you ready to be my bedmate or not?”

  Bedmate? Ruby hesitated, hampered by the lump in her throat. “I hoped for more.”

  “I cannot give more,” he said, looking her directly in the eye. “I want you, more than I can ever remember wanting a woman.” He, too, seemed to have trouble swallowing.

  Ruby closed her eyes for a second to savor his softly spoken words. Lord, she was falling in love with this man—all over again. This heady, overwhelming, dizzy euphoria could only be likened to the way she had felt in the beginning with Jack, when everything was new, and hope made anything possible.

  But Thork was not Jack, Ruby had to forcefully remind herself, as he continued, “I can only pledge my protection until the Althing, Ruby. You need to know that. But know this as well—I do not take this powerful attraction we share lightly. In different times, mayhap there could have been more betwixt us, but leastways I can promise you the best loving you have had in your life—for as long as we can be together.” He kissed her lips lightly to seal his words.

  “For how long?” Ruby asked weakly.

  “Until I leave.”

  Ruby winced. She didn’t like Thork’s offer, enticing as the prospect of sleeping with him would be, but she knew she had no other choice. And, besides, once she’d slept with him, she might be able to convince him otherwise. “All right. I agree,” she finally said and put her hands on both sides of his face, intending to pull him down for her kiss.

  But Thork sensed Ruby’s hesitancy. “Nay, we must first be clear on this arrangement. You will be satisfied being my bedmate? You will not be hoping for more, trying to change my mind? ’Tis no dishonor in being mistress, but ’tis dishonorable of me to bed you if you are hoping for more.”

  “Thork, I couldn’t stop hoping, but that doesn’t mean you would have to change your mind. If I’m willing to take the risk, why can’t you?”

  Ruby watched various emotions flicker across Thork’s face as he fought to make a rational decision. Then he asked thoughtfully, “You would ask much of me, Ruby, to give up my oath of Jomsviking, to stay in the Saxon lands, to enter an institution whose bindings I abhor, but what about you? Would you promise to never leave me? To never return to your own country?”

  Oh, my God! How could she have failed to consider that question? What if she returned to the future? There was no way she could ever make such a binding promise to Thork, not knowing when or if the time-travel might be reversed.

  Thork scrutinized her face and read her answer. Before she could say anything, he pulled away and moved off the bed, breathing heavily.

  “Thork, please let me explain. It’s not what you think. It might not be my decision to make.”

  “And who might be making that decision for you? Ivar? Athelstan?” he snapped icily. He threw up his hands in resignation. “Holy Thor! Why am I ever surprised by women and their machinations? You tried to trap me. And fool that I am, I almost fell for your ploy.”

  Ruby wept silently, unable to offer Thork an explanation he could accept.

  Finally he ordered, “Leave my chamber and do not dare to tempt me again, or I swear I will kill you with my bare hands.” Furious swear words spouted from Thork’s mouth as he threw her tunic at her and pulled her off the bed, shoving her toward the door.

  “Vigi!” he yelled out the open doorway into the hall, “Get your bloody arse here, or I will skin you alive.”

  “Thork, you’re making a mistake. Please. You don’t understand. Please. It’s not what you think.”

  Thork would not even look at her as she donned her tunic, despite her pleas.

  Soon a red-faced Vigi came running from a room down the hall, struggling to lace a hastily donned pair of pants. He cowered under Thork’s stormy vindictives, which ended with an order, “Tell Linette I want her—now!”

  “Oh, no! Oh, Thork, don’t do this. Don’t destroy the beauty of this thing between us. How can you be with Linette and not me?” she asked with tears choking her voice.

  “Because she expects naught of me,” he ground out, “and because she is honest, and you are not.”

  “Linette, honest? Hah! If you weren’t so blind—”

  Thork grabbed her by the upper arm and pushed her out into the hallway. “You have teased and tormented me for the last time, wench. Never doubt that the fire you ignited in my belly can just as easily be quenched in another sheath.” He looked pointedly at Linette, who was scurrying toward him expectantly with Vigi close behind.

  He pulled Linette into his arms and kissed her hungrily, uncaring of Ruby’s hurt, watchful eyes. The door slammed soon behind them both, but not before Thork ordered Vigi, “Keep the wench out of my sight, or you will suffer the bloody consequences.”

  Stunned, Ruby stared at the closed door, knowing what was about to take place. She pounded on the locked door and screamed, “This isn’t the end, you bastard. Just you wait and see. Just you wait and see.”

  Realizing the foolishness of her position, Ruby stopped. How could he? she cried with inner torment. How could he? She rocked back and forth on her heels in pain at his cruelty until Ella put a comforting hand on her shoulder and led her back to her tower room, under Vigi’s guard. She stayed with her, holding her hand until the harsh sobs stopped racking her body.

  “Your plan did not work, did it?” Ella asked gently when Ruby finally dried her eyes and blew her nose on a linen cloth.

  “Yes and no,” Ruby snuffled.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I tried to seduce Thork and ended up the seducee.”

  “Huh?”

  Ruby suffered miserably that evening when neither Thork nor Linette showed up in the great hall for dinner. The next morning Ella informed her that Thork had gone off for several days to Jorvik where he would ready his ship for sailing.

  “Linette went along fer the company,” she added, rolling her eyes dramatically. “And Gyda be spittin’ mad that Linette travels with her husband, sez she does not trust the
witch with her man. Aud and the master bin’ arguing sumpin’ fierce all day and she sez she will not speak to him till he gets the wench a husbin. And the master Dar sez all the trouble began when you came to the manor.”

  “Me?” Ruby exclaimed after Ella’s long-winded ramble. “What have I to do with Linette’s alley-cat morality?”

  “’Twould seem Linette hid her doin’s better till this past few days when you arrived.”

  Ruby realized as she looked up to the dais that evening that this time Ella had her facts straight. Aud deliberately turned her face away from Dar throughout the meal and talked only to her other eating companions. Dar’s face reddened as he downed one horn of ale after another, refusing food. Once he looked directly at Ruby and glared. It seemed Ruby had one more vote against her at the Althing.

  The next morning, after breaking her fast on bannock and cheese, Ruby sought out Aud. She found her in the large, separate outside kitchen where she was removing several baskets from their pegs on the walls.

  “I go now to gather mushrooms. Tomorrow we will dry them,” Aud told the cook.

  “Can I come with you?” Ruby asked.

  Aud jumped in surprise, clasping her chest. “Why?”

  “I used to pick mushrooms with my grandmother. I was pretty good at selecting the nonpoisonous ones, but you may have different varieties here. You could show me.”

  Aud looked suspicious and not too excited about her company, but she didn’t deny Ruby’s request.

  “Would you object if I asked Eirik and Tykir to come with us? Perhaps we could bring a basket of food with us and eat our midday meal outdoors by the pond.”

  A brief look of something akin to pain flickered on Aud’s face before she deliberately masked her face with blankness. “Eirik went with Thork and Olaf to help load the ships.”

  “How about Tykir?”

  After a long pause, Aud replied, “If you wish.”

  When their baskets overflowed with the succulent fungi, they returned to the pond and spread their food over a flat boulder. Tykir played merrily at the edge of the water, trying to catch a frog which kept eluding his slippery grasp. Ruby saw Aud gazing at him with sad, yearning eyes.

  Now that she had Aud alone, Ruby broached the subject that bothered her most. “Aud, I’m worried about Eirik and Tykir, especially since Thork will be leaving soon.”

  Aud got up and started to clear away the food items, not wanting to engage in this forbidden subject.

  “Aud, I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t truly care about your great-grandsons. If Thork insists on leaving them in someone else’s care, why can’t they stay with you?”

  “’Tis Thork’s decision. Whether I agree or not is unimportant. ’Tis for their own safety.”

  The look on Ruby’s face must have lacked understanding because Aud continued, “You have ne’er met Harald and his vicious family. Pray God, you ne’er do.” Tears misted Aud’s eyes and her voice cracked as she went on, “Our only child, Enid, a beautiful, gentle soul, went to him, despite our wishes. ’Tis not unusual for a Viking to have more than one wife, especially the high-kings. Two there were in Harald’s household afore Enid. She loved him so much it mattered naught, but when he put her and eight other wives aside for his new wife Ragnhild, in addition to numerous mistresses, the shame killed her. They say she took her own life, but, to my mind, ’twas the evil Harald who killed her.”

  Aud wiped her eyes angrily. “We tried to get Thork after Enid’s death, to have him live here with us, but Harald would not allow it. Ne’er mind that he has bred twenty sons or more, not that many of them lived to manhood. The brothers kill each other right and left in their ambition to succeed their father as high-king.”

  “That’s why Thork decided to become a Jomsviking, isn’t it?”

  “Yea. How he lived to age fourteen in that bloody household, I will ne’er know. He will not talk of it. I do know his half-brother Eric…Eric Bloodaxe, they name him…vowed long ago to see Thork dead and all that he holds dear.”

  “Oh, my God!”

  “Yea, and so you should pray for him. Eric fears Thork mightily, even though he renounced rights to succession. The people hate Eric and well he knows it. The least hint that Thork would fight for the kingship on his father’s death, and Vikings would clamor to his call.”

  Ruby nodded her head. “I can understand now why Thork feels he must pretend he has no sons, even why he thinks marriage would be impossible. Still, I have to believe there’s a better solution.” She thought about all that Aud had told her, then asked ruefully, with a laugh, “Did Thork tell you I proposed?”

  “Proposed?”

  “I asked him to marry me.”

  “No-o-o,” Aud replied in amazement, and then giggled.

  “He declined, but I’m going to ask again. I have to. That’s probably why he scooted off to Jorvik.” Inside, Ruby quivered at the prospect of approaching Thork again, but she knew she had no choice, and not just because of her safety. She couldn’t let this man she was beginning to love believe she lied to him.

  “I think you will not succeed,” Aud said gently, placing a comforting hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “In some ways, ’tis too bad. We need him here to help fight off the Saxons when they eventually come. We have ridden the fence here, adopting Saxon ways, trying to be peaceable neighbors, but ’tis foolish to think they will allow us to keep such valuable land without a fight.”

  “Then why doesn’t Thork stay?”

  Aud shrugged. “’Tis the Jomsviking. An honorable man does not break oath lightly.”

  Disheartened, Ruby sighed. “I’ve set myself an impossible task, haven’t I?”

  “Child, even if Thork agreed to give up Jomsviking and stay here, he could not wed you. He would need a wife with lands and the strong hands of her family—fathers and brothers—to join us in alliance.”

  Ruby asked hesitantly, “Would kinship with Hrolf bring a strong enough alliance?” What was she saying? How in hell could she get to this ancient ancestor of hers, convince him she truly was his granddaughter “fifty times removed” and then talk him into sending armies from Normandy? Maybe she was becoming as daft as everyone thought.

  “Do you tell me true? Are you Hrolf’s kin?” Aud’s face brightened and she clasped Ruby’s hands hopefully.

  Ruby put her right hand over her heart. “I swear to you, Aud, on the body of the Christ we both hold dear, I am kin to Hrolf.” She held her left hand behind her back with fingers crossed for her half-truth of omission.

  “Mayhap there will be a way out of this, after all,” Aud declared.

  Ruby wondered if she’d put her foot in her mouth once again.

  Chapter Twelve

  “By your leave, my fine lady, I would speak with you in my private chamber,” Dar said several days later with exaggerated politeness.

  Ruby looked behind her to make sure he’d been addressing her.

  “Yea, I mean you, wench, and make haste.”

  He and Thork and Olaf had returned the day before, but Thork parried her overtures to speak with him like a bloody gladiator, while Linette practically purred, ignoring the gossip she’d created by going off with the men.

  Ruby followed Dar into the small chamber off the great hall, where he conducted estate business. Seating her in a chair next to his by the small fireplace, Dar spoke his mind bluntly. “Aud would convince me that you are, in truth, kin to Hrolf.” He leaned back in the huge, carved chair, with legs outstretched casually, but his half-veiled eyes twitched nervously as he watched her every move speculatively.

  “Hrolf is a direct blood relative of mine.”

  “Do you swear it on the holy book of your church?”

  “I swear on the Holy Bible that I am kin to Hrolf.”

  Dar nodded, seeming to accept her word and weighing the implications. “Have you ever met the Marcher? Would he recognize you?”

  Ruby’s shoulders sagged and she shook her head.

  Dar gave a short wav
e of dismissal with the fingers of his right hand, which had been propping up his chin in a thoughtful pose. “Mayhap ’tis of no importance. To be sure, King Harald has more than fifty grandchildren and not met half by far, although only Odin knows how many still live. ’Tis not unusual that you have not met Hrolf.”

  “Why are you asking these questions?”

  “Mayhap I would be willing to intercede on your behalf at the Althing if ’twould help to keep my grandson here in Northumbria.”

  “You would help me get Thork to marry me?” Ruby smiled eagerly at the craggy old man.

  “Nay, I would not,” Dar snorted. “Thork must needs marry for lands and military might to aid our defense against the Saxons. I have a well-born maid in mind, Elise—half Viking, half Saxon she be—with lands and fighting brothers to dower and protect her in marriage.”

  Ruby’s heart dropped at Dar’s pragmatic words. “Then why would you help me?”

  “Methinks you would make a fine bedmate for my grandson. I see the attraction you hold for him, though I cannot fathom it myself. Perchance you could entice him to stay.”

  “Me? You give me too much credit,” Ruby exclaimed. “Have you seen how he avoids me and allows himself to be ensnared in Linette’s web?”

  Dar laughed. “Yea, he avoids you with a most peculiar vengeance and makes much ado in public over Linette. These old eyes see more than that, though. Methought you were clever enough to sense it, too.” His eyes raked her over scornfully, as if he were having second thoughts about her usefulness in whatever plot he was hatching. “Mayhap I do give you more credit than you warrant.”

  “I know Thork wants me in his bed—for now, at least—but I need more than that, and I certainly wouldn’t share him with that spider. It must be marriage or nothing, Dar.”

  “For a thrall, you make demands above yourself,” Dar seethed, slamming his wine goblet on a small table near his chair. “Mayhap you should consider which is more important to you, your head or your affronted virtue?”