Viking's Love (53 page)

Joran eyed her sympathetically as she cried
against his side and patted her shoulder comfortingly. He heard his
brother-in-law come aboard and heard him shouting at them all to be
quiet. He pushed her away and lifted her chin and looked down at
her and shook his head.

“
You will not burn off his man parts,
little one,” Joran warned softly and stared into her tear-streaked
face. “I know you are hurting, but some day you will understand the
way of men. I am not saying what he does is right, but I cannot say
what I would do in his place. Do not hold it against
him.”

“
It’s not fair.” Meghera wiped at her
tears. “He doesn’t wait for me! I would wait for him!”

“
Meghera, you have much to learn about
life, and I’m afraid much of it isn’t fair,” Joran said
gently.

“
I hate him!” She sobbed anew, tearing
at Joran’s heart as she blubbered uncontrollably. “He treats me
like a baby! He acts like he is my father and not my husband at
all! I want to burn off his man parts!” She began to wail against
Joran’s side, her frail shoulders shaking as she sobbed
heartbrokenly.

“
Meghera, one day when you are grown,
he will regret all of this,” Joran said softly and brushed back her
honey blonde hair and looked down into her face and met her dark
blue eyes directly. “You can have the pleasure of burning off his
man parts if he acts in such a way, is that not fair?”

She thought about his words and wiped away
her tears and wrinkled her nose. “I shall treat him as he has me!
He will know what it feels like!”

Joran returned up top and eyed Collin with a
frown. He was furious and soaking wet and dripping on the deck with
a dark scowl on his face. He saw Joran’s judgmental expression and
snapped.

“
I have had it!” Collin shouted
furiously as he stomped to get a drying cloth. “You all indulge
her! She needs a hand taken to her backside once and for
all!”

“
You will not touch her!” Joran stood
in front of the door to the hold. “When you bid me take her in to
keep her safe, you made me her guardian! Whether she is your wife
or not, I don’t care! When you start treating her like a wife, you
get the right to act the husband, Collin! Now leave the child be,
and go to bed!”

“
You are on her side in this? She could
have killed me and you do nothing?”Collin snarled in disgust and
wiped his wet hair out of his gaze and glared at him. “I should
have known when you discovered her powers you would feel that way.
Perhaps if I had more use to you, like spewing fire and brimstone
from my fingers, you would see my side.”

“
You are acting more the child than she
is!” Joran snapped and walked towards him threateningly. “Maybe if
you quit feeling sorry for yourself and started thinking about her
feelings for once, you would see how selfish you are
being.”

Joran passed him and left him standing alone
on the deck. Even the Vikings thought better of razing him further.
Collin dried himself off and pulled some furs from the stack left
to him by Allisande and made his bed upon the deck, staring up at
the starless sky and thought about what he said for a long
time.

The passionate tryst with the lovely Aileen
wasn’t worth it. Five years was too long for any man to be expected
to have to wait, he thought in disgust and rolled over. Meghera was
a child! She didn’t understand that men had needs, he thought
callously. The threat against his manhood weighed heavily upon him
as he contemplated their future bleakly.

The winds were strong as they crossed the sea
into Norway. The last leg of the journey was perilous and there was
little opportunity for anyone to dwell on the scene in York. The
Vikings surprisingly hadn’t teased Collin about getting caught
dallying with Aileen at Ivar’s house.

Meghera stayed away from her husband. Collin
paid her little heed as well for all men were needed aboard to keep
the ship afloat as the twenty foot waves drove them to the deck at
times and sea water splashed over the sides and drenched everyone
aboard.

Allisande held her son and was still stunned
he was so calm. She worried the rocking motion and violent pitching
of the ship would have him wailing, but he smiled and slept
contentedly, much to everyone’s surprise.

Joran joined his wife and smiled and stared
in wonder at their son. Storm was an apt name for he seemed the
most content when the weather was at its worst.

“
It would seem we chose his name rather
well,” Joran remarked smugly as he dried himself off and secured
the canvas around the enclosure where rain was coming in. Allisande
smiled and rose to help him remove his sodden garments and seek out
dry ones.

He lay with her upon the mat as the ship
rocked violently and frowned at times, but he knew his men had
things well in hand. He hadn’t seen his wife all day while they
battled the storm and wanted to steal a few moments alone with
her.

Her eyes met his and he saw the invitation in
her gaze and put his son into his basket alongside them and kissed
her hungrily, his hands sliding through her hair as he cupped her
head and drank the sweetness of her kiss.

She pulled at his clothing and he hers. Soon
they were naked and coupling passionately as the ship was tossed to
and fro. Joran gazed down into his wife’s desire-darkened gaze as
he gripped the furs alongside her head and groaned with delight as
he rode her hard and furiously into the mat.

She gasped and sobbed as he pinned her
beneath him, and felt the shudders of her climax so violently the
clenching of her body made him explode inside her. He let out a
hoarse cry and buried his face into her neck, overwhelmed and
breathing raggedly.

He loathed to leave her and join his men and
dare not linger any longer. She reached up and brushed his golden
locks aside and kissed him lingeringly and smiled contentedly. He
grinned and promised to return as soon as the storm passed. She
watched him leave and sighed. Everything had been almost perfect
since they wed. She frowned and refused to face the newest
dilemma.

Allisande had drunk all Gerda’s potion, and
had still not had her monthly time since leaving Ulsted. She bit
back a horrified sob as she thought of carrying the monster’s child
within her. She dared not tell Joran and closed her eyes and
refused to think of it, but she could no longer deny the
possibility she carried Robert’s child.

The storm passed and the water was like glass
as the long ship hovered over the smooth waters and crossed into
Norway. They arrived in Oslo the following day and would stay at
Ivar’s home there for a time.

Joran did not tell her why they lingered
there, but she sensed it had much to do with Wulfstan. She shivered
knowing the threat he represented was far from over. When he
returned to York, he would discover Joran was alive, Ulsted dead,
and would no doubt come after them both.

Her fear for her husband intensified when he
solicited several of Ivar’s men to return to his home to safeguard
it in the event of trouble. He was planning on Wulfstan attacking
him. In light of his actions, he would be repudiated by his father.
When the other Viking factions discovered Wulfstan’s betrayal, he
would be an outcast. He had nothing to lose now.

Allisande made a face when they entered the
room at Ivar’s home, and shrank from the sour odor and declared it
unfit. She went below and found Ivar’s serfs and demanded they
clean out the rooms for them, and got insolence and blatant
disrespect.

Joran chuckled as his wife flew about the
residence and cited the filth and demanded it be cleaned at once.
One serf had the audacity to refuse her and taunt her. Before they
realized her intent, she had the woman pinned to the wall with her
knife to her throat.

“
Now look what you made me do?”
Allisande wailed hysterically and chuckled wildly into the woman’s
terrified face and pressed the knife to her neck threateningly. “I
want this house cleaned until it shines, do you hear me? All this
dirt makes me crazed, and there is no telling what I will do!” She
released the woman before making another wild cackle, and the serfs
flew to do her bidding.

Joran and his men watched this with a fair
amount of amusement, but her actions and the thought she was crazed
produced a fair result by the end of the day. Ivar’s hall had never
been so clean. Even new rushes were strewn upon the floor and the
cobwebs on the ceiling dusted.

The bedding had all been washed. The furs
were another matter for they were infested with vermin. The bedding
from the ship was brought in, and by the evening meal, the house
glowed with its former glory.

Meghera walked all the rats out of the house,
and they followed her out the door obediently and ran off into the
street beyond. Collin watched this newest power of Meghera’s with a
renewed feeling of self-loathing as he repaired broken chairs and
tables in the hall.

The serfs were terrified of Allisande and
ducked her around every corner. She routed them and demanded the
kitchens scoured, the hearth scraped of debris, and when they
finally sat for the evening meal, all were exhausted and famished.
Almost everyone was in bed following the meal.

Joran was still laughing over his wife’s
mock-crazed behavior the next morning when the serfs saw her and
scurried away. He looked at her with a smile and thought he had to
be the luckiest man alive.

He gazed at Meghera as she balanced the
largest rat he had ever seen upon her knees and shuddered. She
declared him her pet and insisted on naming him Alfred after the
king. He watched the rat sit on its back legs and beg like a dog as
she gave him bits of food, stroking his grey fur lovingly.

Allisande watched the rat with narrowed eyes.
He noted her expression and knew Alfred’s days were numbered.
Collin didn’t come home the night before, and he was relieved his
wanderings did not upset Meghera. She steered clear of Collin, and
he her.

The house was so clean he hardly recognized
it, though he knew it would return to its former state of filth
after they left. Without a woman to run Ivar’s home, the serfs had
fallen into laziness.

He bade Meghera find a place to put her pet
or he feared for the rat’s life, and Allisande glared at him. He
was going out into the city this day, and they were not allowed to
go with him.

He knew his wife was suspicious of where he
went. He had several sources in Oslo that would be able to keep an
eye on Wulfstan if he returned to the city. He intended upon
consulting a mystic about Meghera’s strange abilities.

He had no intention of telling the mystic
that he knew of one such as her, for he worried she would be taken
from them. Where he went was no place for his wife, and seeing the
stubborn set of her chin, he doubted she would forgive this slight.
He stood up and made to leave, and was stung by her frosty
attitude.

Allisande sat at the table moodily and wanted
to weep and knew the cause. She was with child. There was no doubt
now. She faced the prospect of having Robert’s child with a look of
fear and dread.

She had already decided to wait for several
weeks to tell Joran. She conceded he may suspect it wasn’t his
child, but he would never comment upon it. She gazed out the window
and closed her eyes and wondered what she had done to offend God to
such a degree to inflict this newest punishment upon her.

She bit her lip and trembled when she saw the
flashes and images of how this child was made and cringed with
horror. Robert still haunted her. It took effort to put him from
her mind. He reached for her from his place in Hell and taunted
her.

The pregnancy brought back with it the
nightmares as well, and at times she saw herself back in his
hideous secret room, and relived the horror of it until she woke up
screaming in a cold sweat.

Joran held her until she calmed, grimly faced
with Robert’s ghost torturing his wife in her nightmares and could
do nothing. She swallowed hard to think of those dark days, but
each night he came back to her, leering at her with his sadistic
handsome face, and performing his disgusting acts upon her
body.

Joran made no comment when she declined
having relations that morning citing a malady. She saw his look of
bewildered hurt, and her resentment grew. She would have dearly
liked to talk to Leonie at that moment, and having no close female
friend, she was dealing with this newest problem from a wrong
approach.

Allisande saw Alfred dancing upon the table,
and her eyes narrowed. She looked around for Meghera, and saw the
girl wasn’t in the hall. She coaxed the vermin to her as she saw
the girl do.

She raised the tankard to bash him dead, but
when he looked up at her and she saw the trust in his beady, black
little eyes, she couldn’t do it. She handed him a bit of cheese and
watched as he nibbled on it daintily and when done, was up on his
hind paws and danced for more.

She chuckled and by the time Alfred was full
and lay contentedly upon the table, and dozed, she was stroking his
soft grey fur and muttering over making a pet of a rat. The king’s
namesake sighed, and slept curled around her hand.

****

Collin left the brothel with Terek that
morning, and vowed the whores in Norway skilled beyond compare to
the one’s in England. He was moody and despondent on the trek back
to Ivar’s residence, knowing Meghera and her threat to burn his man
parts was a reality he could very well face one day.

Part of him regretted his actions seeking
other women, feeling like a cad each day, but the other was lusting
for something and looking, and the last part won out. When he
entered the house, he saw the serfs tidying up. Allisande was
sitting at the table with a fierce scowl upon her face.