Viking's Love (62 page)

“
Come meet my blade, Joran!” he jeered
as he eyed his nemesis approaching warily. “This will not go well
for you! When I avail myself of your woman, I will allow you to
watch while I kill her and your son!” He jumped upon the dock
suddenly, and stuck his sword threw Terek’s back, and smiled as the
younger man toppled off the dock backward. His eyes were filled
with shock and pained surprise and he struggled to remain
afloat.

Joran glared as he approached, unable to help
Terek, but relieved when he saw Oram dive into the fjord to save
his son. Ivar’s men had dwindled Wulfstan’s numbers, and they were
now evenly matched. Wulfstan leapt off the long ship, and they were
ten feet apart, hatred seething between them as they sized each
other up.

“
You will die this day for what you did
to my wife, Wulfstan!” Joran snarled as his eyes narrowed and
darkened with fury.

“
Ah, so the rumors are true,” Wulfstan
said coldly as his pale eyes flicked over his opponent with disdain
in his eyes. “You married the little bitch. It is with much
pleasure I will kill your wife as well.”

“
You will not touch her, for she and
the other women are safe and out of your reach,” he said with a
malevolent glare at his foe. “I will not allow you to take her from
me again, Wulfstan. You should not have come here.”

Wulfstan looked livid to discover Allisande
wasn’t there, and he paused for only a moment before he began to
stalk Joran down the docks to where they entered the grassy knoll
beyond. Wulfstan glared at him and swung his sword menacingly.

“
I can take Herricksson’s after I see
you dead, Joran. Your wife and I can finish what Ivar interrupted
long ago.” Wulfstan lunged at him. Joran was quicker and
sidestepped the jab and swung wide meeting Wulfstan’s sword with a
loud clash as they began hacking at each other, ignoring the battle
going on around them as they focused upon one another.

Wulfstan was breathing raggedly as he wearied
under Joran’s assault and grew frustrated by his inability to wound
the man. Joran was bigger and stronger, and pushed him ever
backward until he was trapped against the rocky ledge. Joran smiled
mirthlessly as Wulfstan ran from him, and mocked him as he pursued
him.

“
You run like a girl, Wulfstan!” Joran
shouted and chased him up the hill.

Rowan and his men felled nearly a dozen of
the Viking mercenaries and their numbers were dwindling as rapidly
as Ivar’s men joined the fray and cut their numbers to the quick.
He looked for Joran and saw him pursuing Wulfstan up the hill with
a grin.

He and his men watched the pair once again
face each other and lock swords as they circled each other, both
men tiring under the force of each other’s attack. Joran had a wide
gash upon his bicep. Wulfstan had many wounds that bled profusely
as they parried and lunged at one another.

Wulfstan knew he was losing when he fell
under a brutal side swing and tumbled into the dirt as Joran’s
feet. He rolled away in the nick of time to avoid the blade as it
hacked the dirt where he had sat as he rolled away and jumped to
his feet.

Joran stalked him and his eyes were nearly
black as they met Wulfstan’s look of loathing. He doggedly pursued
him and when the sword fell from Wulfstan’s hands, and he met the
rock ledge of the fjord, he did not hesitate.

He threw himself into the fjord below, his
war cry renting the air with the fury of Joran’s as he watched
Wulfstan grin before he hit the fast flowing water below. Joran
picked up his fallen sword and threw it across the water after him
in disgust. Rowan grinned as he came forward and eyed the swimming
Wulfstan in some humor.

“
He gets away. Do we give chase?” Rowan
asked in an amused voice. “My ship is ready.”

“
No, I know where he goes.” Joran
turned away leaving Rowan to stare at his retreating back. “He goes
to the only home he knows. He was fostered in Oslo. He has holed up
there for months at Ivar’s residence. Some of those men here I have
seen in my father’s hall. Many of them are hired
swords.”

“
Do we go tonight?”

“
We leave at dawn, but you must go to
Hedeby.”

They arrived back at the longhouse in time to
see Sarne return with the wagons bearing his wife and the other
women and children. Ambryn immediately went to her room and stayed
there. Allisande and Meghera and the other women saw to the needs
of the wounded within the hall. Allisande looked fascinated as she
watched Meghera cauterize Rowan’s shoulder with her eyes while Oram
and Ulrich held him down. She chuckled as she heard his cries.

She kept an eye out for Joran, who she
learned had been merely wounded from the skirmish with Wulfstan.
Joran entered some time later. Terek lay dying by the hearth, with
Meghera sitting at his side, looking as pale as death.

Wulfstan’s sword pierced his heart, Elwynn
said sorrowfully, and nothing could be done for him. Oram was
grim-faced as he sat at his son’s side. Oram rose to speak with
Joran, and none saw Meghera place her hand over Terek’s chest.

Allisande clucked over her husband’s wounds,
and he sat under her tender administrations. Rowan withdrew to find
Ambryn. He found her sitting stonily before the fire in their room.
She did not look up when he entered. He grimaced from the look on
her face. She would not take his leaving easily.

“
Let us enjoy this night, Ambryn. It
will be our last for many until I return,” Rowan said quietly and
saw her crying. It pained him to see her sorrow, but he had to
leave and they both knew it.

“
You will come back to me, Rowan! You
must promise, for we both know you have never broken one to
me!”Ambryn cried as she came into his arms, burying her grief into
his strong chest.

He stroked her hair and said nothing. He
didn’t want to think about anything beyond this moment. It was all
he would have once he sailed away. “I promise to return to you,
Ambryn,” Rowan said softly and she smiled through her mist of
tears, knowing how she longed to keep him with her. Rowan knew he
left a part of his heart behind when he left.

****

Joran and his men left for Oslo the next day
and searched all the way along the fjord for signs of Wulfstan, but
he was gone. They arrived at Ivar’s and were met with an ominous
silence within the hall.

They soon discovered why when they found the
rotting bodies of the serfs stacked upon one another in the back
shed. Greta was missing. They questioned all those in and around
the area, and none saw any but the lone Viking come and go from the
residence for weeks. Wulfstan had killed everyone, save Greta.

Joran left Oram and Sarne with Ivar’s men to
find Greta before he returned home to see to his people’s imminent
safety. Wulfstan was missing and possibly hiding out near or around
his holdings.

Without a ship, he was on foot and trying to
get as far away as possible. The nearby mountains and caves were
innumerable. Joran knew it wasn’t over. Wulfstan retreated to fight
another day.

****

Allisande felt a hand upon her shoulder and
sighed and turned with a sleepy smile, and a shriek tore from her
lips before Wulfstan’s hand clamped over her mouth. He flipped her
onto her back. He chuckled as he held her pinned and helpless under
him.

“
Your husband is a fool,” Wulfstan said
in a savage whisper as he freed his manhood, and yanked her legs
apart. She sobbed and flailed helplessly against him. He stared
into her horrified eyes as he thrust deeply inside her, his hand
grinding over her mouth. He groaned and drove deep, making her sob
in pain as he hit her, and bit whatever flesh met his mouth, and
yanked at her hair and ground her roughly into the bed.

Allisande fought wildly, but to no avail as
Wulfstan pumped in and out of her, grunting and shaking as he held
his hand over her mouth while he raped her. She turned her head
aside. He took his time. She squeezed her eyes shut to block out
what was happening to her. He finished above her, sighing in
enjoyment as he held her down, grinning into her face.

“
No wonder Ulsted was so determined to
get you back, Allisande,” he breathed as he pressed her down into
the furs, grinding into her with a grunt of delight. “We have much
to catch up on, you and I.” It went on long into the night.
Wulfstan left her beaten and bleeding. He laughed as he rose to
dress.

“
Tell him I will await him in the
mountains,” Wulfstan said as he dressed and gazed at her with
satisfaction. “Killing you now would only spoil the game. I have
more satisfaction killing him first.”

Allisande rose after Wulfstan left her, and
got unsteadily to her feet. She bit back a sob as she wiped at the
blood upon her face, and checked to see her children were alright
and surveyed the damage to her in the looking glass.

One eye was swollen shut already, and her lip
was split. His bite marks upon her neck and breasts had drawn
blood. She bit back a sob. There was no way to hide what had been
done to her.

She swung her hand hard, and broke the
mirrored glass and sobbed aloud as pain exploded in her wrist. She
stared at her bleeding wrist, and before she thought twice of it,
she went down to the landing in front of the stairs and threw
herself down, grimacing as she rolled down the stairs, the sound
bringing many feet running at the noise she created.

There were many concerned sighs as she was
discovered having fallen down the stairs. She allowed Elwynn to see
to her wounds. The woman eyed her in fear when she saw the bite
marks.

“
You delay telling Joran one day longer
than it takes to find and kill the man, you wait too long,” Elwynn
said sadly and held her as she cried. The one good thing known this
night was that Terek was on the mend, much to everyone’s amazement
and hope.

Allisande was determined none would know of
what Wulfstan did to her, and refused to acknowledge it at all. She
endured worse at Robert’s hands, and found it easier to put it
aside now as she fretted her husband’s return.

“
He did it to create Joran’s rage,
hoping to cloud his judgment. He cannot know what has happened
until Wulfstan is caught. I will not tell him before. It is what he
wants, knowing Joran as he does.”

She begged Elwynn to remain silent. Elwynn
said nothing as she saw to her Chieftain’s wife. Allisande was
clucked over by all the following day and her many welts and
bruises disguised the true nature of her attack from all but
Elwynn, as they awaited their Chieftain’s return.

Joran’s ship arrived back. Allisande was
feeding her son and daughter when he came into their room, a look
of concern as he saw her bruised, cut face with a sigh.

“
You worry me enough without a threat
hanging about,” he sighed as he touched her injured cheek with an
unhappy sigh. “I followed all the way back to Ivar’s. The serf’s
are all dead there. Wulfstan has been there since before winter, I
suspect. I turned around and came back straight away.” He glared
into the fire. “He is out there now, mustering his forces to fight
another day. We must be on our guard.”

Allisande put her daughter down and turned to
face him, careful to draw her shawl tightly about her neck to
disguise the bite marks there. “He is within the hills,” she said
and sighed tiredly. “He awaits you there. He knows you will come to
find him.”

“
I will be out looking at dawn.” Joran
turned to her and brought her to his side, mindful of her bruised
body. “In the meantime, my wife needs looking after.” He nuzzled
her neck, feeling her stiffen, and he frowned and lifted his head.
“Did I hurt you?”

“
I am sore, husband. Pay no heed. It
was my own foolishness.”

Joran doused the candles and drew his wife
into his arms gently. She snuggled against his chest, trembling in
fear he would discover she lied to him. She closed her eyes and
whispered a silent prayer he did not look too closely upon her
until he left on the morrow.

When she opened her eyes, he was getting
dressed quietly. She drew the furs up around her neck as she sat
up. He gazed at her and smiled. She rose and hurried to help him
don the chain mail over his clothing.

“
You look like I took a hand to you at
last, Woman,” Joran whispered and she smiled as tears crept into
the corners of her eyes.

“
You should even try,
Viking!”

“
I will be back by nightfall, and we
will see to your discipline.” Joran held her to him briefly before
he reluctantly moved away.

“
Find him, Husband,” Allisande said in
a low dangerous tone he recognized, and from the gleam in her hard
glance, he knew she relished the thought of Wulfstan dying by his
hand this day.

“
I will, Wife, this I promise to you.”
Joran left their room for below where his men awaited him
anxiously. Oram was pacing and looked as though he had been up for
hours sitting with his son. “Wulfstan is in the mountains. He lays
in wait. You do not have to come. He wants only me. I will see it
done, alone this time.”

Rowan looked like he wanted to argue but he
met his stony look in silence. “He will not fight fair! If you do
not take me, than take Oram or Sarne with you. You cannot meet him
alone!”

“
I can and I will,” Joran said and
gazed at him with a look of annoyance. “I am three summer’s older
than you, Rowan, and have been in Ivar’s army for six of them. I do
not need you to coddle my backside.”