Viking's Love (57 page)

The Vikings snickered over the child’s words
and eyed Collin in amusement. He didn’t move from the spot for a
long while. A wave of guilt over those heartfelt words she cried to
him as he left made him saddened. He knew in her child’s heart she
meant them, and wished he returned her tender feelings. Perhaps in
five years when she was grown, they would do well together, but for
now she was like a baby sister to him.

Allisande watched Meghera trudge up the hill
with Thor on her heels. She was saddened by her pained expression
and the tears that stained her cheeks. She spoke sharply to Eldred,
who giggled over the child’s proclamations. Meghera returned to the
hall without a word to anyone.

Joran joined her for the midday meal. She
gazed at him in concern as Meghera hadn’t come down from her room
since Collin left. He ate as he listened to her concerns and made
no reply. In his opinion, Meghera was better off. He was glad to
see Collin leave.

He didn’t want to tell his wife what he
walked in on in the stable last night, for it wasn’t for her ears.
His lips tightened as he recalled Eldred, Mira, and Stasia all
servicing Collin eagerly in the hay. They had been oblivious of
him. They were enraptured with the Englishman, who they newly
nicknamed Collin the Longcock, to his disgust. Collin had been so
caught up in his own pleasures; he hadn’t thought to spend time
with his wife the night before he was to leave.

“
Do you have nothing to say at
all?”Allisande muttered in irritation as he seemed to ignore all
that she said. Her violet eyes flashed with anger. He denied
hearing her, but in truth, he refused to fight with his wife over
Collin the Longcock.

The months passed and with it, the onset of
winter. Allisande sighed as she walked through the woods with
Meghera and Thor ahead of her. She frowned when she saw the worry
in her husband’s eyes, for several of their livestock had been
butchered in the night. She knew he believed Wulfstan was
responsible, though they hadn’t seen or heard anything of his
whereabouts.

Garran had long since returned from York.
Collin returned to Lockwraithe on a merchant vessel. She was
relieved her brother arrived safely in England, but she was still
worried for his young wife who seemed depressed since her husband’s
departure.

Meghera didn’t want to talk about Collin.
Allisande left it alone as Joran asked her to. She smiled as she
recalled their time together since she healed from the miscarriage
and smiled like a cat in a cream crock.

It was as if nothing in the past year had
happened. She blushed when she recalled their passionate
encounters. Joran was determined to make her forget the past, and
she smiled dreamily when she thought of the way he went about
it.

She felt truly blessed with such a
considerate husband and came up short when she realized she lost
sight of Meghera and hurried her steps, calling out to her. She
began to panic when she called and did not get a response.

She looked behind her and did not see the
guard assigned to walk with them each day and felt a sense of dread
in her middle and ran hurriedly threw the deep snow, calling out to
Meghera as she went.

Her blood ran cold when she heard the
bloodcurdling screams from the edge of the icy fjord where she ran.
She found Meghera sobbing and covering her face. Thor was growling
and pacing upon the edge of the rocky ledge. She tried to calm
Meghera, but she could hardly speak she was so overwrought. She
just pointed to the bottom of the rock ledge. Allisande looked over
the side and gasped. It was Mira!

The serf had been cut up horribly, and lay on
the rock ledge in a pool of blood, her bloody empty eye sockets
staring heavenward. Allisande felt nauseated and backed away from
the edge with a scream lodged in her throat.

Joran was furious when Mira’s body was
discovered on the edge of the fjord. He was grimfaced when her body
was brought up by his men and he saw what had been done to her. She
had been raped and tortured, but far worse, her eyes had been
removed while it was happening to her.

He thought of her young daughter, his half
sister, Cassia, from Mira’s tryst with his father, and was saddened
for the motherless child. He ordered all the women into the hall
and claimed they were to not wander about alone until Wulfstan was
caught.

He knew in his gut it was his hated half
brother that did this, though he had no proof. A thorough search of
his lands provided little information except for the tracks they
had found that soon disappeared as it began to snow in earnest.

The hall was kept locked at all times,
especially at night. Joran doubled the guards in random locations
on his lands and they waited. Joran held his wife each night and
dreaded the thought of anything happening to her. His arms
tightened about her and his eyes darkened with fury when he thought
of the pleasure he would have in cutting Wulfstan limb from
limb.

A courier bird arrived the next morning with
a message from Ivar. The bird handler handed it to him. He frowned
when he read it, for the message was for his wife. He handed it to
her and she read it, and chuckled wickedly.

“
What does that mean? Why is Lady
Luxtley sending you her regards through my father?” Joran asked,
his eyes dancing with amusement.

Allisande laughed and after a moment she
sobered, and shared the tale of his father’s true love. Once she
finished, he was grinning ear to ear. Thinking of his father
storming the abbey near Lockwraithe in search of Leonie made him
smile for the rest of the day, but it was to be short-lived. Stasia
was missing.

Eldred wept when she said the girl hadn’t
been with her in the hall when they awoke that morning. Joran
ordered the women to remain inside. He took twenty men out to
search. They were gone for hours. The women were terrified to think
of Stasia’s fate as they waited.

Storm was fussing as he was cutting teeth.
Allisande rocked him soothingly as the day wore on. It was nearly
dark when they heard the riders approaching. Allisande handed Storm
to Meghera and ran out of the hall as the men came to a stop in the
snow-covered courtyard.

One glance at her husband’s furious
countenance told her Stasia had been found. She covered her mouth
as she saw the body across the back of Oram’s horse. She backed
away and ran back inside the hall, refusing to see the sight of the
mutilated corpse.

Her look of horror made the women inside
begin to cry and hold each other. Eldred was hysterical and wanted
to see to her friend. Allisande held her back, not wanting the girl
to see what had been done to her.

Joran paced before the hearth in their room
later as they made ready for bed, raging and cursing. He flung her
a look of worry as he spoke of their search. They found a cave
where it was obvious someone had been living for some time. They
found animal bones and signs of human inhabitation, an old fire
pit, and blankets.

By the look of the cave, it had been
abandoned. They found fresh tracks in the snow leading away from
the cave, but they too, disappeared with the snow coming down by
the hour.

“
He plays with us!” Joran raked a hand
through his golden locks as he met his wife’s fearful gaze. “He is
out there laughing at us! We no sooner find the cave, and he has
moved his location!” He gave a frustrated noise as he realized the
many caves in the rock edge of the fjord were countless. Wulfstan
had so many places to hide they could never find him. Joran ordered
all the serfs to sleep in the hall until Wulfstan was caught. He
doubled the guards and they had no choice but to wait. “You must
promise me you will never go out alone!” he demanded sharply and
from his look she knew better than to argue. “Allisande, I couldn’t
bear to lose you!” From the look on his face she ran to him and
hugged him, holding him tightly and promised, knowing she had no
intention of going out, for when Wulfstan wanted her, he would come
in and get her eventually.

Everyone was on edge in the days following
Stasia’s murder. Vikings were stationed everywhere. It was somewhat
of a comfort, but annoying when Allisande was constantly tripping
over them when she was going about her household duties. Joran
declared them necessary as the men were mostly gone during the day
to continue to search for Wulfstan’s hiding spot.

They were preparing for the evening meal that
night when Grogan never returned from his cottage. They wondered
aloud what was keeping him and his wife. Ewan had been ill. Janna
had taken him to their cottage to put him to bed and had taken a
guard with her.

Grogan left to find her, and he hadn’t yet
returned. Joran paled and rose and ran from the hall with several
Vikings on his heels. They ran out into the snowy evening to his
friend’s cottage.

Joran had a sense of foreboding as they
approached the cottage, and grew pale when they saw the blood in
the snow. They checked around the cottage and found all four of
Grogan’s sons sleeping peacefully inside. Janna and the guard named
Aldwin were nowhere in sight.

Joran looked as though he would be ill as
they followed the blood trail to the back of the longhouse to a
small outbuilding they used for farming tools. He couldn’t bring
himself to open the door to the shed.

Oram opened the door and another Viking held
up a torch. They quailed from the sight within. Janna had been
butchered much in the same manner as the others, and lay with her
dress up around her waist. Aldwin lay feet away with his throat cut
so deeply his head was nearly decapitated. Grogan lay dead there as
well, his chest covered in stab wounds. Joran was grieving and
furious as he spun about and looked out over the snowy terrain,
wondering if Wulfstan watched them.

He ordered a search of the immediate area and
they found tracks leading away from the shed, but they disappeared
with the inches of snow that was coming down by the hour. Joran sat
without speaking as he contemplated the murder of his beloved
friend and his wife. None could say anything to console him, and in
the end they let him be.

Eldred moved into the cottage to care for the
children. Two guards escorted her to and from the hall with swords
aloft in case Wulfstan had an accomplice. They were not sure he was
alone, given the death of Aldwin.

Janna would have fought like a wildcat to get
away from Wulfstan. He would not have been able to subdue Janna and
kill the guard at the same time. Joran watched as they built Aldwin
and Grogan’s funeral pyre high, lit it, and set it adrift.

The Vikings watched as it burned and sank
under the icy waters of the fjord. Grogan had been a friend to them
all. Aldwin had been a good man and an excellent, seasoned warrior.
Joran’s eyes narrowed as he suspected Wulfstan wasn’t alone.
Killing the women was just taunting them, drawing them away from
the house, and he knew why.

Wulfstan wanted them out looking for him so
he had access to Allisande. He was cutting them down one by one.
Joran was frustrated he could do nothing to protect his people.

The weeks passed and they experienced several
snowstorms, and reasoned the weather interfered with any further
attacks. The men were all mounted in front of the hall bundled in
furs.

Joran was out back with a standing
sleigh-type contraption. Thor was tied to it. He was bundled in
furs and the snow was coming down so heavily, she questioned her
husband’s sanity to go out in such weather.

They shoveled several feet of snow from the
door to the hall from the day before and it was still coming down.
Flakes covered her hair as she held the ermine cloak about her
shoulders and shouted at him over the shrieking winds.

“
Please, Joran, wait until morning! You
can see nothing in the darkness!”

“
Thor will be my eyes!” He gestured to
the huge arctic beast and shook his head. “They will not expect us
to search this night. I know Wulfstan. They will be free to move
about and hunt for food while we are trapped inside with the
weather.” Joran reached out and brought her lips to his and kissed
her quickly before he set the sleigh in motion by giving a sharp
command to the wolf. Allisande watched in wonder as the wolf pulled
him through the snow in the contraption and ran around the building
to see him join the others.

They divided their group and she saw them
separate in opposite directions. Her husband was headed toward the
fjord. She stood with several Vikings and watched him go out on the
ice with Thor pulling him.

Allisande returned to the hall and took care
of her son and watched as the people within went about their
duties. She didn’t know what to say to them anymore. Eldred walked
about as if in a daze. Elwynn wore a look of shaken terror
constantly.

Allisande insisted on taking in Cassia. She
was a couple months older than Storm, and she had enough milk for
them both. It gave her great purpose caring for Joran’s baby
sister, knowing Ivar would never acknowledge a girl child, much
less one that he had with a serf.

Joran seemed pleased she took in the babe.
She moved Cassia into another cradle brought up to their room.
Nursing two babies proved to be challenging. She found herself
trapped in her room more often than not, feeding either one or the
other.

She was putting the little girl down when she
heard a noise. Fear clenched her as she heard a creak in the
hallway on a floorboard outside her room. She stepped near the
door, and heard it again.

Someone was on the stairs, and definitely
trying to cover their presence. Her sword wasn’t far from her side.
She lay down on the floor, and looked under the edge of the door.
She saw nothing and sat back up, feeling foolish. She rose and
returned to her sewing.