Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (53 page)

             
Alodie bit her lip - how to explain to a ninth century warrior that the answer to his question as far as she was concerned was to stun your assailant with a quick blast of your citizen issue psi gun then press your personal issue  alarm and wait for the police.  “Er no, you’re supposed to - er - talk them out of it”

             
Herger guffawed and planted a huge kiss on Alodie’s forehead “You jest, my love, no country could be so - so cowardly - not even Bohemia - why, some of our Viking brothers are from that country and I am sure
they
would not take kindly to such an arrangement - the world is better rid of such men as Luke and well you know it”

             
“Tom and Nerissa - you said they were well?” asked Alodie suddenly.

             
Herger grinned.  “I have never seen a bonnier lass nor a more strapping lad, you did a wonderful job there girl!  They are in the safest place my love.  I have left a small force guarding them.  If I had just been going to rescue you from your second - no third marriage I would have taken them with me but as I was going to war I thought it better to leave them where they were”  He took her chin in his hand.  “Talking about Edric, where does he fit into all this?  How is it you were marrying him just after the death of the late and unlamented Luke.  You cannot tell me this was a forced marriage”

             
Alodie swung her legs out of bed, walked over to the side table and poured herself a cup of wine, taking a deep swallow she turned to Herger.  “Edric was a dear friend of Luke’s and of mine for that matter but when Luke began to drink and whore in earnest Edric became, as did everyone else, disgusted with him.  He told me himself that he challenged Luke to a fight to the death just before the end of the Exeter campaign” she took another swallow and continued “when Luke died he came over straight away with his father, Aelfric, and was with me at a very sad point in my life, you see Oswy died a few days after Luke” she finished her drink and put the cup back on the table then sat back on the edge of the bed.

             
“You loved Oswy did you not?” asked Herger quietly.

             
Alodie nodded.  “He was like a father to me” she wiped a tear away.  Herger knelt up and slipping his arm round her shoulder pulled her back onto the bed.

             
“I too liked Oswy, he deserved better for a daughter than yon bitch Emma”

             
Alodie turned and looked at him, puzzled.

             
“Emma?  You know Emma?”

             
He laughed.  “Surely, she came creeping into Bredond about a week after we had invested it and began singing like a bird, telling us the number of men in the fyrd, who commanded them, everything.  ‘Twas she who told me you were in 
Winchester
after your hurried departure from our wedding feast.  I thought you were dead until then, she also said she wanted us both to burn in hell.  I have never seen such malice in a human being in my life before.  She would do harm to you if we let her, I know it”

             
“What happened to her then?”

             
“She ended up in
Norway
as one of my mother’s thralls and a great lazy lump she was too.  When I came out of my death sleep, or coma as you called it, I insisted my mother get rid of her, sell her, she gave me a feeling of distaste such as I do not remember feeling for anyone else before” he rubbed his cheek where a thin silvery line still marred his flesh.  “We had high words, Emma and I, she flew at me with a knife and in the excitement she escaped.  I hope she is dead, I trust she is, Norway, even in spring, is not a place to be outdoors at night, you can die of cold in June in my homeland, but I am worried she may still be alive to plague us.”

             
Alodie sighed, “Poor Emma, she worshipped Luke”

             
Herger smiled and kissed her on the chin.

             
“They would have made a good pair.  I swear, woman, you would find something nice to say about Loki himself, the woman is evil and she loathes you more than anyone else alive.  Save your sympathy, preferably for me, I suffer when I am in your presence from an almost constant stiffness in the nether regions”

             
Alodie smiled “Herger I am so tired, I have had a terrible day and this bed is incredibly comfortable”

             
Herger wagged his finger at her.  “Oh no, my lady, you have turned the conversation too neatly, I need to know about Edric”

             
She sighed.  “There is nothing to tell, Edric very kindly took all in hand when Luke and Oswy died, he offered me a shoulder to cry on”

             
Herger snorted.  “I’ll wager he did!”

             
“He then said he had always loved me and asked me to marry him.  I refused him but he pointed out that Tom and Nerissa needed a father to take care of them”

             
“Which they already had!”

             
“Be reasonable - I thought their father was Rorik who, Swein had informed me, was living in wedded bliss with his soul mate.  I had no idea that ‘Rorik’ was actually ‘Herger’ and I was already married to him!”

             
“You could have refused to marry him on the grounds that you were already wed, you used that on Luke for long enough”

             
Alodie nodded.  “No I could not.  As far as everyone in
Winchester
was concerned Herger was killed by a thunderbolt, remember, anyway I did not think anything of Luke, I did not want to marry Luke, he repulsed me”

             
Herger sat bolt upright and took Alodie’s shoulders in his hands.  “Whereas with Edric, you do think something of him, you want to marry him and he certainly does not repulse you, am I correct?”

             
This was getting out of hand.  “Herger, Edric is a kind, sweet man who loves me deeply.  He wanted to take care of me and my children, what was I supposed to do?  Spit in his eye?  Go into a convent?  As far as I knew the father of my children was gone from me forever and my Norse so-called husband was a dead deformed bloodthirsty lunatic.  Edric offered me a way out.  Have you any idea of the difficulties encountered by young widows in
Wessex
?  Have you never heard of forced marriages?  They are frowned upon but legal” then she laughed, hollowly “of course you have, ours was a forced marriage, I forgot!”

             
The Norseman let go of her shoulders and she fell back onto the bed.  “Which marriage I suppose you regret?”

             
“Herger, I would have liked to have had a choice in the matter.  I do not like being made to do anything against my will, no one does”.  She was beginning to get very angry, again a man was acting as if he owned her, the fact that she loved him, he was her husband and the father of her children made no difference, no one owned Alodie Austen, no one.

             
Herger grabbed her shoulder again, Alodie winced.  “Did the bastard have you?” he snarled, she shook from his grasp and turned away from him, he pulled her back.  “Is that a denial or an admission?”

             
“I deny nothing Herger, whether I gave myself to Edric or not has nothing whatsoever to do with you.  Remember the thralls you tried to bed?”

             
He snorted “That was different, they meant nothing to me, and anyway, as I told you, I abandoned the idea when it came to the point”

             
“But the will was there on your part?”

             
“Loki’s balls woman, I am a thirty one year old man, if I don’t have a woman every so often I get headaches!  For a woman it is different, she has to have feelings for any man she beds”

             
Here we go again
thought Alodie. 
A man cannot be blamed for giving in to temptation, it is all the fault of the woman for tempting him in the first place.
  She sighed. “Very well, Herger, since you demand to know I will tell you, I have given myself to Edric on three occasions.  He loved me, he begged me and he was going to war.”

             
Herger threw himself from the bed.  “You slut!” he hissed.

             
Alodie laughed “I am a slut for giving myself to my betrothed, you are totally blameless for attempting to bed some smelly Norwegian fisher girl!”

             
“I tell you they meant nothing, Alodie” he snapped his fingers “less to me than that, you were my lodestar”

             
“If it makes you happy I will tell you.  I do not love Edric.  I loved a man who had, as far as I was concerned, left me with child to marry another, I still love that man, I always will love him.  Would it have been easier if I had lied to you and told you that Edric and I had not bedded?”

             
“It would” said Herger, then he shrugged and came back to bed.  “I am sorry Alodie, what I said was unfair, where you are concerned I cannot see reason”

             
“At least Edric did ask me, you just took” she said quietly.

             
He smiled.  “I don’t recall you struggling so much in the glade  when I took your maidenhead”

             
“That was my choice Herger.  I am with you now, at this moment, by choice, I love you and you love me, our peoples are enemies which is unfortunate, but a fact, and if and when I choose not to be with you I will go”

             
Herger laughed.  “Talk sense, woman, apart from being my wife, you are a captive of war, our mutual feelings do not enter into it.  You cannot leave, you are mine, as much mine as my - horse”

             
“Bought and paid for!” snapped Alodie.

             
“Yes, bought and paid for, and a thief’s bargain at that!” he said and pulled her toward him.  The smell of sandalwood invaded her nostrils, she laid her head on his broad chest and she could hear the slow beat of his heart.  She ran the tips of her fingers over the muscles in his arms and shuddered, he could snap her like a twig.  “Are you going to beat me then Viking?” she asked.

             
Herger sat up sharply, she fell back onto the pillows.  “Don’t be ridiculous, I would as soon cut my own throat, I love you, you are my woman, you are here with me now and here you are going to stay, but I must know, do you still have feelings for Edric?”

             
Tiredness was creeping up Alodie’s limbs and invading her brain, her eyes shut.  “I have feelings of deep friendship for him, those I will always have, that is all” with that she gave in and fell asleep.  When he heard her breathing become deep and regular he leaned over and kissed her head.

             
“You are mine, Valkyrie, your
‘dear friend’
will have to die”

***************************

             
The sound of birdsong filtering through the shutters woke Alodie as the sun climbed over the low eastern hills the next morning.

             
Memories flooding back, she opened her eyes and turned to be greeted by the sight of Rorik, no Herger, deep in slumber.

             
Her mind flew back to the times she had prayed she would someday wake up next to him, the man she loved beyond all, the man she had tried to persuade herself she hated, the father of her children - it seemed they were bound together by an invisible cord, and yet it could not be.  She could not stay with him whilst he thought of her as a possession.  If he had only come for her when he was meant to, if the accident had not happened, if Alfred had not made her marry Luke - if, if, if.

             
In sleep he looked strangely young and almost innocent, as though all the terrible things which he had done and witnessed had been wiped away.  Gently, so as not to wake him, she ran her fingers down his cheek, the roughness of the stubble grating against the tips.

             
Fighting the tears, she swung her legs from the bed and walking over to the bathtub scooped some cold water into her hands and splashed her face.  Herger  stirred and reached out his hand across the bed as if to feel she was still there.

             
He must not wake up, it was imperative that she get away this morning, if she did not leave him now she never would, and apart from her own feelings there was Aehlswith to think of - she must be returned to Alfred.  Trembling, she raised her arm, double checking that the psi gun was set on stun, and pressed the button.  A high pitched whine filled the room for a second then Herger grunted and fell back into a deep slumber.  He would awake in about three hours.

             
Alodie glanced round the room in an attempt to find something to wear.  There was an oak chest at the bottom of the bed, and lifting the lid she discovered several lavender scented garments.  Rummaging through them she found several kirtles but no gunnas, slipping  the plainest over her head she walked to the mirror.  Whoever this had been made for had been a strange shape, the kirtle was the right length for her but it was very tight in the hips and baggy round the shoulders and waist, almost as if it had been made for a man.  She shrugged and fastening her own belt round her waist slipped on her shoes and made for the door.   As she was about to lift the latch she turned.  She had noticed some parchment in the bottom of the chest and there was a quill and ink on the dresser, retrieving a sheet she walked over to the dresser, dipped the quill in the ink, then stopped.  What to say?  How to explain so he would understand?  To him a woman was a possession, a woman with the independence she had taken for granted all her life was totally unheard of.  The ink was slightly dry but it would do.