Hearts Aflame (35 page)

At last he said, “Go on.”

“My own chains were only removed earlier this week when the Saxon’s King and his nobles came here. I was harassed by some of the lords, and Royce had my chains taken off so I could look to my own protection while they were here. But they left this morn—or, rather, yestermorn—and my freedom would have been lost again if I did not swear not to try to escape from here.”

Frustration marked his words. “You condemned yourself willingly to never leave here?”

“Nay, I compromised. When Royce weds, I am freed from my word.”

“When will that be?”

“Soon.”

He relaxed some, digesting that. She felt it in the easing of his grip on her hand.

She said, “Now tell me, before I burst. How did you escape? I saw you wounded.”

“You saw?”

“Shush!” she hissed at his raised voice. “Of course I saw. I could not stay on the ship after I heard the sounds of battle. I had to help.”

“You, help?”

She ignored the scorn of that. “So I did not help much. But at least I took down the Saxon who wounded you.”

“
You
did!”

“Selig!”

“Odin’s teeth! You could have been killed!”

“But I was not. Alas, he was not, either. I only wounded him. He recovered and has since done me a good turn, though I would have still tried to kill him. I am glad now I do not have to.” Selig was shaking his head at her, and she added impatiently, “Well, tell me. The last I saw of you, you were lying unmoving on the ground, covered in your own blood.”

“Aye, my wound was bad. I came to my senses as the carts left, taking the captured away. I had been left with the dead, and as we were all thought dead, no one was left behind to watch. But I did not know if they would return or not for the burials, so I managed to drag myself away from the carnage in case they did come back. I meant to stay hidden in the forest for only a few hours, then to follow and see where you were taken. But as I said, my wound was bad.

“I lost consciousness again and did not wake until that night. I found myself too weak to even rise at that point. I do not know how long I stayed there. The cursed wound festered. A fever raged, but I recall little of it. I know I left my hiding place at some point. I remember wandering, searching for the Saxons.”

“As if you could have done much good if you found them,” she chided.

“My mind did not grasp such logic.” He smiled at her. “I only know I kept moving, kept trying to find you and the others before it was too late.”

“Too late?”

“I did not think any of you would be allowed to live. I thought you would be taken to the lord of those Saxons who ambushed us, so that he could dispose of you.”

“He very nearly did,” Kristen admitted softly. “This place, Wyndhurst, has been raided before by Vikings.
He lost most of his family in that raid, and has hated Vikings ever since.”

Selig chuckled. “No wonder he let me stay. I told him the same had happened to me. He must have commiserated.”

“How could you tell such a story?” she demanded sharply. “God’s teeth! He will tear you apart if he finds out who you really are. And to think I only worried that you would be chained and confined with the others if he knew!”

He grinned at her surliness. “He will not find out. Ohthere and the others have enough sense not to hail me when they see me.”

“If they do not faint dead away, as I nearly did,” she retorted.

“I noticed your quick recovery.” He laughed.

Kristen hit his chest in exasperation. “Will you just finish your tale!”

Selig choked back another chortle. “You have lost your sense of humor, Kris.” He gave in when she hit him again. “Very well. I have said I wandered. Even now I do not know for how long, nor how long I lay near death the last time my senses left me. I woke up in the hut of an old Celtic woman. It was she and her daughter who found me on their way back from market at Wimborne. It was a day’s ride from where they found me to their home farther north.”

“Where is that?”

He shrugged. “I do not think I could find them again. Loki has had a fine time with me. You would not believe how lost I have been.”

“You had only to find the river,” she pointed out.

“Aye, so I thought,” he said with a measure of disgust. “I was with the old woman for nearly two weeks. She was suspicious of me because of the way I was dressed, and I mumbled in a foreign tongue when I
was delirious. But because I also spoke Mother’s tongue, which was hers too, she nursed me back to health and even led me to a trader, who took my belt and gold armbands in exchange for these clothes you see and a broken-down horse. She even directed me to the nearest river.”

“So?”

“So
that
river was so far west of here that I had nearly reached land’s end. The problem was that I did not know in which direction I had wandered, or whether I had managed to cross the river somehow in my delirium. I had no way of knowing if the Saxons I sought were east or west of me. And when she directed me west, I assumed I had wandered east. So I went west, to the waste of good time.”

“And when you found that river, you knew you had gone the wrong way?”

“Aye. But then I did not know how far from the river I sought, where you and the others would have been taken, so I was forced to stop at every fortified hall as I progressed back this way. I gave the same story to each lord, which stood me well. But I moved on as soon as I ascertained they had no knowledge of Vikings come from the sea. I did not know when I came here that I had found the right place, until the lord admitted they had also been raided this summer.”

“And your wound is completely healed?”

“Aye, it bothers me no more.”

“Well, it is fortunate you said you were from Devon and not Cornwall, or you would not have been welcomed here.”

He chuckled. “I learned of the hostility between the Cornish Celts and the Saxons at the first hall I approached. I nearly found myself in chains there, but you know what a golden tongue I have.”

“Aye, I know it. Oh, Selig, I am so happy now—”

His fingers at her lips stopped the rush of her exuberance. “Make me as happy, Kris. Tell me you suffered no ravishment by these Saxons.”

“Ravishment? Nay, I have not been ravished.” She did not give him a chance to feel relief. “But I have been well and truly bedded by Lord Royce.” Air hissed through his teeth, but she quickly put her fingers to his lips, as he had to hers. “Do not say something that will make me sorry for speaking plainly to you, Selig. I think I love the Saxon. I am more sure about wanting him. I have wanted him from the first…well, mayhap not that soon. But I was fascinated by him from the first, when he rode into the yard where we were all chained, and looked at us with such loathing. He gave the order we should all die. But he had changed his mind by the next day and came out to tell us we would be put to work building his stone wall.”

“We? He put you to such work?”

She laughed. “Aye. Thorolf and the others helped to disguise me. I was thought a boy, and that lasted for about a week. But the men could not keep it straight that I was supposed to be a boy. They kept helping me, and I think that is what gave me away, or at least it drew too much attention to me. The Saxon concluded that they protected me because I must be their leader. Anyway, that is what led to his finding out I was a woman, and I was moved into the hall then.”

“And into the Saxon’s bed?”

She hit him solidly in the belly for that. He bent over double with a loud
whoosh
.

“Thor’s bones, Kristen! Have a care!”

“Then you have a care what tone you use,” she warned angrily. “I am a woman full grown. I am not answerable to you for what I do. And I did not go right to his bed.” She was not going to tell him everything she
had told Thorolf. She ended more quietly, “The truth is, he resisted me.”

“What?”

His amazement made her grin despite her annoyance with him. “God’s truth. I knew he wanted me, but he fought it. No man has ever resisted me before.”

“Well I know it, for how many heads have I clobbered for their lack of resistance?”

She couldn’t help but giggle at that. “But the Saxon did fight his attraction to me, and the more he did, the more I came to want him. I deliberately tempted him, Selig.” That was hard to admit to one’s brother, but she wasn’t going to have him blaming Royce for seducing her, when it was in fact the other way around. “Two weeks ago the victory was mine—he took me to his bed. I have slept in his chamber ever since. I just came from there now.”

“You really love him, Kris?”

“I must. I do not agree with everything he does. I have been furious with him many times. But I could not hate him, not even for chaining me, when I hated those chains more than anything.”

“And what does he feel for you?”

“I do not know. I have his protection. He has shown some concern for me. But that is no more than he would give any possession of his. Yet he did naught to me when I tried to escape. And I know he did not really like chaining me. I just do not know,” she finished.

“Does he still want you?”

“Aye, that has not changed.”

“Then—”

“He will still marry someone else.”

“Aye, you did mention that,” he said, then suddenly exploded. “By Odin, nay! He
will
marry you.”

She shook her head at him. “Selig, I am his slave. To
his thinking, why should he marry me when he already has me in his possession?”

He grunted. “Father could tell him a thing or two about that.”

Laughter glittered in her eyes. “Aye, he could, but he is not here to.”

“Then I could—”

“But you will not, for Royce is not to know you are my brother, at any cost.”

“Then what do you do, Kris?”

Her chin hardened. “I will enjoy this man while I can. When he weds, I will leave here.”

“Just like that? Even though you love him?”

“What else can I do? At least you are here now to help me escape when I am ready. And if you can help the others to get away any sooner, do so. You can come back for me.”

“So be it.”

She clasped his face in her hands and kissed him. “Thank you, Selig, for not scolding.”

He squeezed her tight. “As you said, you are not answerable to me. But Odin help you when you try to explain all this to Father.”

“Oh, unfair, to remind me of that!” she cried.

He whacked her bottom playfully. “Come, we have been out here too long.”

The sky had begun to lighten, too much. “Aye.” She stepped back to the door, but hesitated there, touching his cheek once more. “I will not speak to you again for a while. And do not be surprised if I ignore you completely in the hall. He has already warned me to stay away from you.”

He chuckled. “He probably thinks I will harm you if I know you are a bloodthirsty Viking.”

“Whatever his reason, his anger is not pleasant, so do be careful, Brother.”

They were extremely quiet in entering the hall, to no purpose. Royce was there, angrily kicking several of his men awake. He stopped when he saw her. And then his eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw Selig beside her.

“We were outside for the air,” she whispered quickly to Selig as Royce approached them. “We only met on coming in.”

“Is he going to believe that?”

“He will have to.”

But Royce did not ask any questions at all when he reached them. He simply grabbed Kristen’s wrist and began to pull her toward the stairs, shouting over his shoulder at Selig: “Wait where you are.”

Kristen tried to yank her hand loose from his grip, succeeding once halfway up the stairs, but he caught her again and continued to drag her after him. “Curse you, Saxon, you had better have a good reason for handling me so!”

He did not answer. He tossed her into his chamber and locked the door. She stared at it in amazement, tested it to be sure it was locked, then banged once on it in anger.

“Oh!”

In the hall below, Royce nodded to Selig to follow him, and he led him out to the front of the hall, shutting the door behind them. Selig turned, and Royce’s fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him flat on his backside.

Royce stood over him, his face set in hard, angry lines. “I will not forbid you the hall, Gaelan, but I forbid you to go anywhere near that woman again. She belongs to me and I am careful of what is mine.”

With that Royce reentered the hall. He left the doors open. Selig could have followed him back inside. He
did not. He sat there on the ground fingering his jaw, a slow grin turning his lips, then finishing in a chuckle.

Upstairs, from the window that overlooked the front yard, Kristen had watched the whole exchange. Her hands had gripped the window ledge, until she heard that chuckle. She turned away, shaking her head, disgusted with all men in general.

Chapter Thirty-eight

A
polished hand mirror sailed at his head when Royce opened the door to his chamber. A silver plate followed. He spotted Kristen across the room, digging through his coffer for something else to throw.

“You must not be angry, or you would be throwing weapons instead.”

“Do not tempt me, Saxon!”

He had kept her locked in his chamber the whole day. She had not eaten. She had spoken to no one. She had lost her temper long ago.

“Why have you confined me?” she demanded.

“I woke this morn to find you gone. I went below to look for you and you were not there, either. I thought you had broken your word.”

“You lock me in here for what you
thought
I did?” she stormed. “But you know I did not break my word, nor will I! So why?”

“What you were doing with the Celt is another matter,” he said harshly.

“Is it?” she sneered. “And what am I supposed to have done with him?”

“’Tis what I want to know, Kristen.”

“Then you had best ask him, for I am too furious with you to tell you aught!”

He closed the space between them in a few angry strides. Kristen joined her fists and raised them, daring him to take the last step. He stopped, glowering at her.