Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 01] (29 page)

The high church leader stood at the quayside, blessing Thork’s five ships and the kneeling sailors, tossing holy water into the air with a gold scepter he dipped repeatedly in a gem-encrusted bucket.

No sooner did the priest turn his back than the sailors exhorted their own Viking god, Thor, patron of the seas, as well, to guide them as they sailed through the waters of his domain. A massive roar echoed through the air then as the three hundred sailors raised their arms to the sky and yelled exuberantly, “A-Viking! A-Viking! A-Viking!”

Holy cow!
They weren’t going raiding now, Ruby thought. Maybe it was sort of like a rebel yell.

To Ruby’s relief, Aud had convinced Thork to leave Tykir with her and Dar for the time being, promising they would guard him every minute. Heated arguments had flown back and forth for two full days, but finally Aud had won out, aided by Tykir’s tearful pleadings. Eirik was traveling with them to Athelstan’s court where Thork reluctantly had agreed to place him for fostering with his young uncle Haakon, but only on the condition that two of his servants remain with him as bodyguards.

Thork’s decisions relating to the two boys represented a compromise in his long-standing refusal to present the boys openly as his sons. As much as she had encouraged Thork to do so, Ruby hoped their safety wouldn’t be jeopardized.

Selik waved to her from one of Thork’s other ships as they eased out of the harbor. They would head southward down the Ouse to the Humber, then eastward to the North Sea, and south to their first stop, Kingston, just southwest of London.

As the crews raised heavy masts that must have weighed more than five hundred pounds and hoisted colorful red and black checkered sails, Ruby watched Thork in fascination. Expertly, he directed the giant men who moved like lightweight ballerinas as they maneuvered the ropes attached to the yardarms and square sails, hoping to catch the late-August winds.

The serpentine ships, with their richly carved wood prows, sliced gracefully through the water like the fierce
dragons they represented. In shallow waters, the men lifted the lightweight boats out of the water and carried them on their shoulders while Ruby walked the shoreline.

Ruby hadn’t had much chance to talk to Thork since they set sail, although he’d smiled enigmatically at her whenever their eyes happened to meet. His expression spoke volumes of the unfinished business between them. But he did not seem angry with her, just determined to exact some revenge.

At another time, Ruby might have thrilled to think what that might be. She’d won a victory of sorts at the Althing, but it had been at Thork’s expense. There was no question that a reckoning would come eventually. But all she could think about was Thork’s decision to marry Elise. She glanced miserably at him now and saw the heavy betrothal ring gleam in the bright sun as he worked the sails.

A heaviness of spirit weighed her down at what she considered his betrayal. Ruby knew all the reasons why Thork felt it was necessary to secure an alliance with Elise’s family. She told herself she was being irrational and selfish. After all, she might return to the future at any moment.

Ruby’s mind accepted the logic. Her heart was a different story. Despite everything, she wanted Thork for herself.

Ruby shook her head free of the sad thoughts and turned back to the activity surrounding her. Thork acted the helmsman to his crew, moving the tiller on the steering oar to change direction, guiding them around treacherous rocks. The sixteen sailors on each side of the ship sat on large wooden chests, which held all their personal belongings, as they strained mightily, rowing the long wooden oars. Another thirty-two men stood ready to spell them or to assist, two men to an oar, during times of danger. Heavy battle shields gleamed in the sunlight from where
they hung compactly along the outside of the boats.

Thork loved this sea life. Ruby could see that as he threw his head back often, inhaling deeply of the tangy air, and smiling. How could women, or children, compete with the exhilaration this life-style gave the Vikings? Ruby wondered.

“You should stay under the canopy,” Thork advised, coming up behind her. He pointed to a canvas shelter that had been erected for her in the center of the ship near the mast pole. “By midday the sun will bake your fair skin.”

“I’m too excited to sit down right now, but I promise I won’t get in anyone’s way,” Ruby said woodenly, knowing she needed to avoid contact with Thork as much as possible.

“Best you do not,” Thork advised gruffly. “’Tis easy to fall overboard, especially when we hit the open seas.”

“When will that be?”

Thork shrugged. “We camp tonight along the Humber. The next day, winds willing, we will reach the North Sea and camp on its shoreline.”

Thork stood with feet widespread to counteract the rocking motion of the ship. His sun-bleached hair, like that of his sailors, had been braided to keep it off his face in the wind.

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Ruby’s mouth.

“My appearance amuses you in some way?”

“No, I was just marveling that I could be attracted to a man who wears braids.”

“You are attracted to me?” Thork asked in a low voice, leaning closer to her as they both rested their arms on the rail.

Ruby slanted her eyes sideways at him. So now he chose to talk to her—when it was too late.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you since
we first met?” she replied wearily. “As much as I hate the dark side of your nature, the one that could possibly blood-eagle a man, as much as I disapprove of your militant life-style, I recognize that you’re the other half of me.”

Thork inhaled sharply.

Ruby wanted Thork to understand why she was so hurt and why his actions had sealed her future—a future without him in it. “We are soulmates, Thork. Whether you accept that we knew each other in another life or not, I believe you and I were meant to be together just as much today as we were in the future. At least, I did before you announced your wedding plans.”

Thork ignored her reference to Elise. “Feeling like a
soulmate
, you let your husband leave. Nay, you drove him away.” His forehead creased in puzzlement.

Ruby felt her face flush with heat. She brushed a wisp of hair off her face distractedly. “I didn’t realize my mistakes then. I would change things if I could go back.”

“And so, even as you proclaim I am some vital part of your life, you yearn for your husband.” Thork’s eyes searched her face intensely.

“You don’t understand. To me, you and Jack are the same man.”

He shook his head despairingly at her refusal to face the facts.

“Hah! What I understand, and you do not, is that there never was a husband. Ruby, you have been caught in lie upon lie. You are a virgin, unwedded and unbedded. But know this, sweetling, the latter will soon be remedied the first private moment we have.”

“No, it won’t. Your engagement to Elise changes all that.”

“I am not wed yet,” he countered, moving closer.

“But you will be,” Ruby pointed out and put more distance between them.

“What difference does the betrothal make to you?”

“A lot! Oh, Thork, how can you even ask such a question? I can’t…I won’t be a one-night stand for you.”

“Hah! More like a one-month stand! Besides, why all the scruples when a week ago you came to my sleeping chamber more than willing?”

“That was different.”

Thork arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

Ruby turned to face him directly, her eyes pleading with him for understanding. “A woman needs to think a man makes love with her because he cares for her, that there is at least the possibility of commitment. When the man is promised to another woman, they don’t make love. They make lust.”

Thork laughed. “Lust sounds pretty good to me. Yea, methinks I will settle for that.”

“I won’t.”

“’Tis out of your hands now,
soulmate
,” Thork declared with a low laugh, turning to walk back to his shipmates. “Best you accept that here and now. The course has been set and cannot be changed.”

Ruby suddenly realized that she had a rapt audience. The men snickered and looked to Thork to catch his reaction to her shrewish behavior. Clearly, many of them could not understand Thork’s attraction to her, especially when she behaved in such an unfeminine way.

“Thork, if you cannot handle a simple wench, I would be glad to take her on this ship,” a grinning Selik called out from the rail of his ship, which rode close beside theirs in the wide river. He goaded Thork with further taunts, egged on by the cheers of his shipmates.

At first Thork frowned, but then he laughed and directed his friend to do something very vulgar to himself. Then he asked Selik, “Why do you not pick up an oar and work off some of that misplaced mirth?”

“’Tis much more fun watching you be snaggled by a mere wench.”

“You are one to talk of being made the fool by a woman! The wenches lead you around by that tail between your legs.”

The sailors laughed lustily at the ribald exchange.

“Oh ho! Now I learn the truth,” Selik hooted. “You are envious of my male prowess.”

“You witless whelp! We shall see who has what when the ships are pulled ashore tonight.”

Late that afternoon, when they entered the mouth of the Humber River and the five boats pulled toward shore for the evening’s campsite, Thork deftly jumped from the rail of his ship to that of Selik’s. In the blink of an eye, having the advantage of surprise, he picked up Selik, who equaled him in size, and dumped him in the shallow water. The men in all five ships laughed at the spectacle of Selik coming up sputtering out of the water, shaking his hair like a shaggy dog.

Thork jumped back to his own ship and bragged loudly to Selik, “’Tis a cool head you need to match wits with a man, my boy.” Then he turned and flashed a dazzling smile Ruby’s way and teased, “’Twould be a pleasure to feed you to the fishes, as well, if you cannot curb your waspish tongue.”

“You and twenty other men!” Ruby challenged, disgusted with his childish behavior and this whole time-travel experience. She walked back to the canopy area for her personal belongings to be taken ashore.

In a flash, Thork scooped her in his arms and jumped up on the rail, weaving back and forth precariously. Smiling from ear to ear, enjoying the spectacle he made of her, Thork asked his shipmates loudly, “What say you, men? Wouldst she not make good fish bait?”

“Put me down! Stop being so immature,” Ruby demanded. She wasn’t afraid of the water, but heights had always alarmed her. When he refused to release her and continued to rock forward and backward on the rail, Ruby
did the only thing a woman in peril could do. Keeping her left arm wrapped tightly around Thork’s neck, she reached down between their bodies with her right hand and pinched his groin area as hard as she could, hoping he would put her back on the deck.

“Arghh! For the love of Freya!” Thork shouted in pain. He lost his balance on the rail, and they both spilled over into the river, lucky to land on their feet.

The water was shallow enough to wade thigh-deep to shore. Hampered by her wet garments, she was still able to walk proudly out of the water, throwing her shoulders back. When Thork came up out of the water with a whoosh, he glared at Ruby’s back. The laughing men stopped all activity to watch the hilarious spectacle.

Outraged, Ruby said a very vulgar word, one she’d never used in all her life.

Thork was laughing when he finally emerged from the water and directed his smirking men to get back to work. He couldn’t believe Ruby had actually said that obscene word. The impudent wench!

“I deserved the soaking for teasing you so,” he admitted, walking up to her, “but did you have to try to emasculate me in the process?”

Ruby turned to face him angrily, and Thork got his first look at the sodden clothing which outlined her body. He swallowed hard before grabbing her arm and pulling her into the trees. “Have you no shame, woman? You look like a wanton, flaunting yourself in front of three hundred men.”

Actually, she looked damned nigh irresistible to Thork with her tunic plastered to her slim form. Her nipples, puckered from the cold water, stood out like sentinels, begging for his touch. Even her short, wet hair hugged her face in an attractive manner, accentuating the sharp lines of her cheekbones, the greenish hue of her eyes, the creaminess of her complexion.

Thork groaned, hoping his men didn’t notice his half-arousal. Lord, the woman would be the death of him yet.

He had seen the hurt in her eyes the past few days. He knew that his decision to marry Elise offended her, but ’twas beyond his comprehension why that should be so.
Bloody hell!

“What would you suggest I wear?” she asked, hands on hips in an exasperated pose. “All my dry clothes are on the ship.”

“Stay here,” he directed and went off to get her garments. He saw Selik look at him curiously, glance down, then bleat with laughter like a bloody sheep.

When she’d changed, Thork told her to stay out of the men’s way while they set up camp. The one ship holding their horses was brought as close to shore as possible. Then all the men moved to one side so the boat tipped over on its side in the shallow water, and the animals walked off.

Fires already blazed with caldrons of meat and vegetables in boiling water. Tents were erected, with oil lamps on metal posts in front of some of them. Vats of cheese and butter were opened to be eaten with the bread baked early that morning in Jorvik.

“Do you think our Jomsviking comrades will return to Northumbria with us next year to prepare for the Saxon onslaught?” Selik asked worriedly while they set up camp.

“I know not. ’Tis why I did not tell my grandfather of our hopes. I did not want to raise the old man’s hopes needlessly. As you well know, the Jomsvikings may already be committed to other obligations.”

Selik nodded. “The hesirs you hired will help.”

“Yea, but I fear they will not be enough. That is why in the end I consented to the hated marriage.” He slammed his fist against a tree in frustration.