Miranda's Viking

by Maggie Shayne

  "Why do you assume they saw you leaving, and not entering?"

  "Entering, we carried the chests. Had they seen them, no doubt they'd have searched until they found them."

  She swallowed hard before asking the next question. "Is there a-another way out?"

  He met her gaze squarely, his eyes glittering in the darkness. "There once was." He turned his head so that the beam of light danced on the opposite wall, then slid lower.

  Miranda gasped when she saw the tiny tunnel, black and small, only large enough to crawl through on hands and knees. Her hands began to shake and she averted her gaze. Rolf gripped her trembling hand and pulled her toward the little hole.

  She stiffened, planting her feet as a full blown panic attack swept over her like a hurricane. "I can't go through that."

  "Miranda, there is no other—"

  "I can't!" Already her lungs felt as if they were constricting. "I'd rather stay here."

  His hands closed on her shoulders. "Miranda, if you stay, you will die."

  Faster and faster came her breaths. Yet she wasn't inhaling deeply enough to sustain her. Her heart raced. She could feel the pulse pounding in her temples. "I… can't. I can't, Rolf. Please… you go. Just leave me. I can't…"

  "Why?"

  His voice didn't just ask for an answer. It demanded. She pressed her palms to either side of her head and spun away from him, removing her hard hat as if that would ease her breathing. I'm not going in there. I'm not. I won't do it and nothing he says or does can make me do it.

  Chapter 15

  "Why, Miranda?" he repeated, more gently this time. "Where does this fear come from?"

  She shook her head. It wasn't as if she could talk about it, especially not to him. The question itself was eliciting the memories, though she fought to block them out. "We were in his car when…" she heard herself blurt. She forced herself to continue. "We—we were in his car when I told him I couldn't marry him. That damned tiny car."

  "Morsi," Rolf uttered in a low voice.

  She moved on shaking legs toward a stone outcropping, and sank onto it. She stared straight ahead into the dark, the images of that long-ago night flashing inside her mind. Why did she have to recall it all so vividly? Why now? "He asked me why. I told him. That was my mistake. I shouldn't have told him."

  She heard Rolf moving nearer. He stood behind her and his hands closed over her shoulders. "You told him his touch left you unmoved."

  She swallowed hard and lowered her head. Her eyes closed tightly. "He was angry." She recalled his expression, illuminated only by the car's dashboard lights when she'd admitted she'd been faking her response to him from the start. He'd looked murderous. He'd been murderous. "And then he stopped the car."

  "Miranda—"

  "And… and he locked the doors," she whispered, but she was barely audible. Her throat convulsed painfully. Forcing the words out hurt her. "And then… he hit me." Her fists clenched until her nails nearly pricked her palms right through the gloves. If she hadn't been wearing them, she would have drawn blood. "I couldn't get away from him. The front seat under me, the locked door at my back, my shoulders jammed between the dashboard and the back of the seat. Him on top of me, raping me. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe." As she spoke her breathing began to quicken again with the memory. "I honestly thought he was going to kill me."

  She wrapped her arms around herself and bowed nearly double. It seemed to Rolf as if she was trying to protect herself from the memory.

  He would kill Jeff Morsi. The dog would die slowly and painfully. Rolf knew that beyond any doubt. He wished in vain he had not left his sword behind at Miranda's home. But that would come later. For now, he had to bring Miranda into the present once more. He had to make her see that the danger was past. His arms went around her shuddering body and he pulled her into his lap as he sat on the cool stone floor in front of her. He held her hard, to be sure she knew he was there.

  "I was so afraid, Rolf. So afraid and repulsed, and so ashamed."

  "The shame belongs to him, Miranda. Not you."

  "No. I shouldn't have let it happen. I should have tried harder to stop him, fight him. But he hurt me. God, how he hurt me. When it was over, I was sick. I couldn't stop throwing up. I could barely walk." She sobbed in his arms, and Rolf held her more tightly.

  "Miranda, I understand now why you questioned me. Will you listen while I give you the answers you sought?"

  She sniffed and nodded, her head still resting weakly against his chest.

  "I was a boy of ten when a neighboring village was besieged by an enemy of the local Jarl. The sister of my mother, a woman still in the prime of her beauty and only recently wed, was raped by the marauders. Her husband, my uncle, was murdered before her eyes. She came to us, no longer the happy, lovely woman I knew, but a hollow-eyed ghost. All of my mother's comforting did little good. She took her own life less than a week later."

  She shuddered in his arms. "Why do men do it?"

  "No man takes a woman by force. Only a cowardly dog would act in such a way. This lesson I learned at a youthful age, and never did I forget. Later, in my rage, I put aside many of my father's words, but the lesson of my aunt Helga I remembered always. I have never forced myself on a woman, Miranda. I am sorry I did not assure you of that sooner."

  She swallowed hard. "Why didn't you?"

  He thought her shaking was subsiding a bit. He held her harder. "Because it wounded my pride to be asked to defend myself against such a charge. Perhaps I wished you to believe in me without my explanations."

  Her head lifted, and in the glow of the light beams her tears glittered like diamonds. "I did, you know," she whispered. "If I hadn't, I never would've been able to let you make love to me."

  "I ask too much of you, Miranda, to believe in my innocence when I refuse to explain. I was enraged after my exile. My king and my friend, Knut the Great, turned his back on me. My country banished me. I felt I had no more to lose. I was determined to build a great city to show them all my worth. For that, I needed gold and silver, iron and steel. So I put aside the ways of my father. I raided every coastal village I came upon. Yet my men knew that rape and murder were forbidden on pain of death. The only blood to stain our swords was the blood of those foolish enough to defy us. For those few brave men, Valhalla awaited." He paused to allow her time to consider. "I was not guilty of the crime for which I was banished."

  "I know that," she said.

  He lowered his head and pressed his lips into her hair. "Do you also know that I would die before I would let harm come to you, Miranda? Do you know that I would use my sword to remove the fingers from my hands before I would cause you pain?"

  She lifted her head and stared into his eyes, shadowed now in the dim light. "Do you mean that?"

  "I can prove it to you, lady. For do you choose to remain here, I will remain, as well. I will die at your side, rather than take the path to escape and leave you behind."

  She shook her head and he thought her eyes widened. "I can't let you do that."

  "Nor can you stop me."

  She drew a long, slow breath and squared her shoulders. "How long is the passage?"

  "Not long. But I must warn you it becomes smaller before it grows larger again."

  She closed her eyes tightly and he saw her catch her lower lip in her teeth.

  Stroking her silken cheek, he whispered, "Nothing will hurt you, Miranda. I will be close to you all the time."

  "I know."

  "Are you ready, then?"

  She nodded, but he felt her body trembling. The merciful thing to do, he thought, would be to knock her unconscious and drag her to safety before she awoke. The very thought of raising a hand to Miranda caused Rolf's stomach to heave. He couldn't do it. Did her life depend upon it, he could not harm her deliberately.

  Questions raced in his mind, but he held them back. Now was not the time to ask her the things he longed to know. Why, for instance, she had not taken steps to see that Morsi
was punished for his acts? Surely her society had laws providing for the protection of its women. He simply could not fathom the reasons a woman like Miranda, a woman intelligent, capable and respected by all who knew her, would allow herself to be wronged in such a way without seeking retribution. It baffled him. It seemed so foreign to her character.

  Rather than question her in her agitated state, he rose, setting her easily on her feet. He retrieved her helmet from the floor and placed it upon her head, fastening the chin strap securely. Taking a firm hold on her hand, he drew her to the small oval opening in the stone wall. He released her hand and slipped his legs into the tunnel. Once inside, he rolled over onto hands and knees. Facing her, he extended a hand. When she took it, he moved farther back into the darkness. The cold stone touched his sides. Only inches of space separated him from the stone above. "Come, Miranda. Come to me now."

  He heard her movements, and saw the approach of her light. Her grip on his hand tightened as she crawled toward him. "Look only at me," he instructed. "Nothing else." She said nothing, but he heard the quickened pace of her breathing. He touched her face. "Come with me, Miranda. It will be over within a few moments, I promise you." Awkwardly he crawled backward, keeping his senses attuned to her, feeling the heat of her body, hearing the brush of her knees over the stone as she crawled toward him. He moved slowly enough so she was never beyond his reach.

  The tunnel sloped downward, then leveled off. The passage narrowed until Rolf had to stretch his legs behind him and push himself backward lying flat on the stone. Miranda could still crawl, but he knew the ceiling must be pressing down on her back, the walls against her sides when she moved slightly off center. Her breathing became harsher and she stopped moving. Panting, she fought to speak. "I… can't. I can't go—"

  Rolf reached out to cup her face in his hands. He brought his head close to hers, touched her lips with his. "No harm will come to you, Miranda. Nothing here can hurt you. There is only you and me. Nothing else."

  "I—" she fought for air "—I want to go back!" He heard the tears in her voice, the overwhelming fear.

  "It is farther back than it is to the outside now, Miranda. Trust in me, if you can. Here. Hold my hand." He gripped her hand in his again and pushed himself backward with the other. Her hand felt as cold as the stone, even through the glove. It trembled violently, but she came with him all the same. He thought there could be no measure of the courage it took for her to forge ahead when she was nearly paralyzed with fear. He wished for greater strength, for unnatural speed, as he kept pushing himself backward. He spoke to her constantly as they struggled on.

  Finally the tunnel widened again. A few yards more and its breadth was enough to accommodate them both, side by side. Rolf turned himself around and drew her up beside him. He was able to get up on his hands and knees again. "It is not much farther," he assured her. He wondered that she didn't faint with the rapid pattern of her breathing. He felt icy moisture dotting her face when he touched it again, and wished he knew a way to ease her torment.

  At last they rounded the final bend in the passage. His light beam found the half circle of the tunnel entrance and then the snow and ice beyond. He heard her gasp deeply, and her pace increased. Rolf stayed at her side until they crawled out into the biting wind.

  He stood then and helped Miranda to her feet. Instead of standing on her own, she collapsed against him without warning. His arms encircled her to hold her upright. The hammering of her heart alarmed him. He flicked the button to extinguish his light, then hers. Easily he scooped her up and began trudging down a snowy slope toward the village of tents and scientists that seemed so out of place in this barren land.

  The place was oddly silent and seemingly abandoned. Rolf crouched low to enter the first tent he came to, and once inside, he lowered Miranda to the folding cot near the back. The tent was warm, a little heating device eliminating the chill. He tugged a blanket over her and knelt beside her, searching her face in the light of a lantern someone had left ablaze. "Are you all right, lady?"

  She nodded, pressing a hand to her chest and forcibly, he thought, regulating her breaths. "I'm sorry. I'm such a coward."

  "No, Miranda. You have the courage of a warrior. I've known few men in my life who could face such a powerful fear and conquer it."

  "I couldn't have… if you hadn't been there. You saved my life, Rolf."

  "If I did. then it is no more than you did for me." He watched her face for a long moment, feeling an unnatural tightness in his chest. He hadn't realized the might of the feelings for this woman until tonight. When he recalled his thought to curb his fondness for her, to avoid the pain she would cause him in the end, he nearly laughed at his own ignorance. It was too late for him to hope for mercy. It would kill him when she told him to go, when she continued with her life without him.

  Miranda sat up slowly, one hand pressed to her forehead. "Rolf, we have to stop Jeff. Erwin and Fletch are both in danger now."

  "I will go. You remain here, warm and dry. Rest here. Where are the others you spoke of?"

  "Probably heard the explosion and are all at the original entrance trying to determine the cause." She threw back the cover. "I'm not staying here. We have to go. Quickly, Rolf. I pray we're not already too late." She got to her feet and came toward him. "My God, if I'd come forward about what he did to me two years ago, Jeff might be in jail right now. If anything happens to the others…"

  Rolf's questions leapt to mind again. "Why did you not, Miranda?"

  She shook her head, her eyes focused on the floor. "I was afraid."

  "Of Morsi?"

  "Yes, and of the stigma that would be attached to my name. No matter how much evidence there is in a rape, Rolf, there are always those who refuse to believe the victim, or who somehow find a way to claim it was her fault. I didn't think I could bear that." She bit her lip. "I was wrong. But I kept silent. He hadn't hit me in the face, and the other bruises were easy to hide." She looked up at him quickly. "I can't back down in fear of him this time, Rolf. I have to come with you."

  "Please, Miranda, stay. I will not allow you to put yourself at risk again."

  She lifted one hand to his face. "I'm going with you. I'm afraid—" She broke off, and shook her head.

  "Afraid of what?" he prompted.

  She lifted her gaze to his. "Afraid that if I let you go, I'll lose you. That's not something I can allow to happen."

  He stared at her concerned face, trying hard to see the meaning behind her words, but failing. She couldn't mean that she had come to care for him. He knew he was unworthy of such a magnificent woman. Before he could argue with her further, she slipped past him out of the tent, and trudged determinedly over the frozen ground toward the sea. "Fletch is alone on that ship, and God knows where Jeff is."

  Rolf caught up with her only as she was climbing into a small and battered-looking metal canoe. "They've got to have already gone back to the Mermaid,'" she said breathlessly. "The boat is gone." He knew her fondness for Erwin Saunders, and her greater love for Fletcher Travis. He felt a sharp concern of his own for Travis, for he'd grown to like and respect the man.

  Rolf shoved the small craft into the sea. He stepped into it, sitting quickly as it wobbled. Miranda handed him a short, stubby paddle. She sat with her back to him holding a similar one. "Like this," she told him, lifting the paddle to demonstrate the proper grip. "You paddle on that side, and I on this. Ready?"

  Rolf dipped his paddle as she did hers and pushed the water away behind them. He had to adjust his stroke right away, for his was so much more powerful than hers that the craft began to veer to the right. He soon mastered the rhythm. The sleek little craft knifed quickly through the mercifully calm sea. Soon they bumped against the hull of the Mermaid.

  Rolf had no idea what Jeff Morsi's reaction would be to see them both alive when, no doubt, he'd thought them dead and buried. He only knew that he would not allow the dog to harm Miranda, or to draw another breath now that he knew how mu
ch harm he'd already done.

  The rope ladder still hung over the side of the Mermaid. Rolf easily scaled it, then stood watch as Miranda climbed up to join him on the deck. He held her waist in his large hands as she clambered aboard. He tied no line to keep the little craft from drifting. Better to let it go and not announce their presence, Miranda guessed.

  Miranda's heart leapt into her throat when she heard footsteps. Rolf's arm came around her fast and sure and he drew her into the shadows. The steps passed. Rolf held on to her hand, and together they moved down the shallow stairs to the area housing the cabins.

  Rolf moved steadily, silently, in the direction of Jeff's cabin. Miranda tried to swallow her fear. Rolf stopped outside the door. He pressed her back against the wall and signaled her to stay there. Then he slammed open the door and leapt inside with murder in his eyes.

  Miranda braced herself. Nothing happened. Only silence came from the room, and she turned, unable to stay still another second, and went inside. Jeff Morsi's body lay crumpled on the floor, a neat round bullet hole between his eyes. She screamed. She couldn't help it. She turned into Rolf's ready embrace and sobbed uncontrollably.

  "What the hell—"

  At the sound of Erwin Saunders's voice, Miranda tugged free of Rolf's grip. Relief washed over her when she saw him. "Thank God," she breathed, moving forward automatically to embrace him. "Thank God you're all right," she sobbed. "We were afraid Jeff had killed you."

  "Jeff had—" Saunders tensed and held her away from him, searching her face. His hard expression eased at once, and he hugged her once again. "And I was certain he'd killed you, Miranda. I tried to go for help, but he forced me back here at gunpoint."

  She sniffed, and wiped her tears away with a finger. "He wanted the credit for everything," she concluded. "Oh, Erwin, what happened here?"

  "There, there, child. Calm yourself. Everything is fine now. Come, both of you. To your cabin. I'll fix you a warm drink and explain everything. The authorities have already been notified. They're on the way."