Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 02] (26 page)

“Please, please,” Uhtred begged, pulling on Rain’s sleeve. “My wife is dying, and you stand here prattling about worthless street children.”

Rain turned on the distressed man then with anger. “And what makes you think your unborn child is worth more than those two precious children?”

Uhtred blanched, realizing that his hasty words might have jeopardized any chances that the healer would help him. “’Tis sorry I am. But I am so worried about my Hilde…”

Rain nodded her head in acceptance of his apology, and she and Selik followed quickly after him. Rain was surprised a short time later when they were about to enter a crude hut. She turned at the last moment and saw that Adam and Adela had followed them. They stood leaning against a nearby tree, watching as Rain bent her head to fit under the low doorway. She waved.

She could have sworn Adam gave her the finger.

Several hours later, when Rain and Selik emerged from the stifling atmosphere of the little cottage, the children were gone. And Selik’s face was drained bloodless of all color.

“What’s wrong?” Rain asked, putting a hand on his arm in concern.

“Truly, woman, you amaze me. You just stuck your hand inside a woman’s womb, turned a babe, and brought it to life—and you ask me what’s wrong?” He shook his head with disbelief. “Do you oft perform such miracles?”

Rain smiled at his backhanded compliment. “A lot of times. Not miracles—births. Obstetrics isn’t my specialty, but I’ve delivered at least fifty babies.” She looked at Selik fondly. “It is a wonderful experience, isn’t it?”

“Wonderful! There is naught wonderful about all that screaming and blood.”

Rain clucked disapprovingly, but she could tell that Selik wasn’t being truthful. Witnessing the birth
of the tiny baby boy had moved him deeply. She wondered if he’d been with Astrid when she birthed their child and if this event had reminded him once again of all he’d lost.

And, for the first time in her thirty years, Rain yearned for a baby of her own. What would it feel like to have a life growing inside her, to watch the contractions of her muscles pushing an unborn child forward to life, to touch her own baby for the first time, fresh from the womb?

And what if—oh, God, what if the baby was a living, breathing manifestation of love? How would the child look if it was formed from the blood and genes of both her and Selik? What a wonder that would be!

The yearning grew so strong that Rain had to look away lest Selik read her exposed emotions.
This is dangerous territory you’re entering, lady, wishing for something that cannot ever be
.

Ask, and you shall receive
.

Rain’s eyes shot upward.
Now you say that. How about when I wanted to go back to the future? And are you really saying that if I want Selik, I can have him? And his baby?
Rain closed her eyes momentarily to savor that enticing image.

The answer is in yourself. Search your heart
.

“Give me a break,” Rain muttered.

“What kind of break?” Selik asked, then added, “Do babies always put such a dreamy expression on your face?”

“Yes.”
Especially when I’m thinking of having one with you
. Then she decided to change the subject to a safer topic. “Do you think Uhtred will clean that hut as I advised?”

“Advised? You understate yourself, wench,” Selik said with a dry laugh. “You give orders like a seasoned warrior. He would not dare to disobey.”

“Well, I was really angry. After going to all that
trouble to save his baby’s life, it could die in a few weeks living in that filth. How can people live like that?”

Selik was about to speak when he stopped abruptly, pushing Rain behind him. They were about a half-block from Gyda’s house, but she could see the Saxon soldiers surrounding it.

“I will kill the bastards if they harm Gyda or Tyra,” he said in an icy tone of voice.

“Pssst!”

They turned to see a hissing Ubbi hidden between two houses, motioning for them to come closer. When they backtracked without attracting the attention of the soldiers, Selik shoved her and Ubbi farther back between the houses so they were totally out of sight.

“The soldiers search for you on King Athelstan’s orders,” Ubbi said in a rush. “Sore angry he is over the number of Saxon warriors lost at Brunanburh to your blade, especially his cousin Elwinus. Dozens of them roam the city and harbor area. The king offers a hundred gold mancuses for you alive. Only twenty-five if dead.”

Selik’s jaw tightened. “Have they harmed Gyda or Tyra?”

“Nay. They ransack the house and outbuildings in their usual fashion, but do not touch the women. Tostir, one of Gyda’s servants, suffers a broken nose ’cause he did not respond quickly enough to one soldier’s orders, and the commander threatens to slit Gyda’s tongue if she does not stop haranguing him. But I think they be safe.”

“And my men and horses?”

“All out of sight. Gorm got a warning jist in time.”

“Take Rain to Ella’s shop. She should be safe there. Then meet me back here. Do not—
do not
—go to Gyda’s house. They will surely watch it closely from now on.”

“No, I don’t want to leave you,” Rain protested.

Selik’s face was steely with determination. “Do not think to gainsay me on this. Your safety and that of Gyda’s family could be jeopardized by a foolish move on your part. You will obey me or suffer the consequences.”

“But what about
your
safety?”

Eyes flashing angrily, Selik snapped, “My life is my concern, and only mine. Best you understand that now.” He turned to Ubbi. “Take her to Ella’s and make sure she stays.”

Selik disappeared before she had a chance to tell him to take care, to tell him that she loved him.

With dragging feet, Rain followed Ubbi through the city until they reached the street where the shops displayed lengths of fabric in a rainbow of colors and textures, everything from coarse wool to the finest silk. Some were even fashioned into ready-made garments—tunics and mantles and braies.

Finally, he stopped at one building that seemed more prosperous than the others. Although a young girl worked at the stall in front, Ubbi led Rain around the side to a back door. Knocking loudly, he waited until an elderly male servant answered, then demanded importantly, “We must needs speak with your mistress, Ella. Is she in?” The servant nodded and motioned them into a large hall where a number of workers were cutting and sewing various garments.

“Rhoda!” Rain exclaimed as she recognized the middle-aged woman who approached. “How did you get here?” Without waiting for a reaction, she grabbed her mother’s long-time cleaning lady and hugged her warmly. “You have no idea how good it is to see someone from home.”

“M’god, not the Rhoda nonsense agin! I thought I was done with that foolishness when Ruby disap
peared a decade or so past. Me name is Ella, not Rhoda.”

Rain continued to embrace Rhoda, despite her squirming protests.

“Gawd! A bloody priest is caressin’ me. I will have to go to confession now, prob’ly get twenty Paternosters fer penance. Be on me bloody knees fer a whole day,” Rhoda complained.

Laughing, Rain realized that she still wore the monk’s disguise and released the nervous woman from her bear hold. Throwing back the cowl, she exposed her long blond braid and feminine features.

Ella put a widespread palm to her chest. “Lord, me heart feels like ’tis jumpin’ up me throat. Who be you, girl? A barmy comrade of Ruby’s, no doubt. She was the only lackwit to ever call me Rhoda.”

“Her daughter. Ruby is my mother, and Thork was my father,” Rain explained, crossing her fingers behind her back.

“Nay, it could not be so,” the woman said, looking to Ubbi who threw out his hands in a “don’t ask me” attitude.

“She sez God sent her to save Selik.”

The Rhoda person’s jaw dropped. “A guardian angel?” she asked Ubbi in a marveling voice.

Good Lord! Rhoda and Ubbi were two of a kind. Rain could imagine Ubbi devouring Rhoda’s
National Enquirers
in the future and sharing her insatiable appetite for gossip.

“Yea, and I even found a feather in her bed furs one day,” Ubbi disclosed with self-importance.

“Would you two stop talking about me as if I’m not here? I am
not
an angel. I am a human being, just like you two baboons.”

“Babe-oons?” they asked simultaneously, and Rain snorted with disgust, refusing to expound.

Ubbi explained the dangerous situation at Gyda’s house. Ella agreed readily to have Rain stay with her until the danger passed.

“Please, please come back as soon as possible and tell me what’s happening,” Rain urged Ubbi as he departed. “I’m so worried about Selik. His hatred of the Saxons may cause him to be careless.”

“Do not fear, m’lady. This paltry troop of Saxon whelps pose no real danger to the master. Now, Steven of Gravely, that is another barrel of mead. He follows the devil’s own rules of deceit. In the end, Gravely and his loathsome trickery will, no doubt, cause my lord’s downfall.”

Shivering with apprehension, Rain recalled Gyda’s words of warning as Ubbi scurried off. Gyda had said that Selik intended to go into the heart of Saxon territory to Gravely’s estate, hoping to finally kill his hated enemy. Now that she heard firsthand from Ubbi how imminent Selik’s danger was from Steven, Rain began to seriously consider Gyda’s outrageous plan to kidnap Selik until the despicable lord once again went into hiding.

“Rhoda—I mean, Ella, I want to tell you about this plan Gyda has for saving Selik—”

“Plan? Nay, nay, nay!” Ella exclaimed, putting her hands over her ears. “Jist like yer mother, ye are, tryin’ to enlist me in her ‘master plan’ to snare yer father.”

“She did?” Rain asked with a smile. Really, she was beginning to see her mother as even more outrageous than she’d ever dreamed.

But Ella ignored her question, rambling on, “Do not be tellin’ me of yer barmy plots. Next ye will be tryin’ to involve me, I jist know it.”

“Well, actually, I do need your advice.”

Ella groaned with a resigned sigh and sank down onto a bench against the wall as Rain launched into Gyda’s preposterous plan. When she finished, Ella exclaimed, “Blessed Lord, the whole lot of ye have lost yer wits. Unless I disremember, Selik weighs
as much as a small horse. How were ye plannin’ on overcomin’ such a big lout?”

“Herbs.”

“And how would ye restrain him?”

“Tied to a bed.”

Ella shot her a look of disbelief. “Fer how long?”

Rain flushed and shifted uncomfortably under Ella’s too perceptive questioning. “I’m not sure. About two weeks or so, I suppose.” Her last words came out in a bare whisper, but Gyda heard her.

“Barmy! I told ye afore, the whole bunch of ye ought to be locked up in a house of halfwits.”

“I know it sounds crazy, but what else can we do? I’ve tried talking to him, but it does no good. He’s so stubborn and determined to go after Steven. Even Ubbi believes that if he goes onto the Gravely estate now, he’ll be captured and probably—and probably killed.” Rain’s voice broke, and her eyes filled with tears as she plopped down next to Ella on the bench.

“Love the lackwit, do ye?”

Rain nodded her head with a sob, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

“Well, let me think on it a bit. Where were ye plannin’ on keepin’ the lad, even if ye were able to kidnap him—not that I think ’tis possible?”

Rain slanted her eyes sheepishly toward Ella, who seemed almost like family to her, even though they had just met. “Is there any chance we could hide him here? The soldiers will be watching Gyda’s house.”

Ella jumped to her feet indignantly. “I jist knew it. I jist knew it. Ye are pullin’ me right into the bloody middle of yer barmy schemes. Fer ten years I have worked me arse off tryin’ to establish a biz’ness, and all fer naught if ye have yer way. Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! I knew things was goin’ too well.”

When Ella’s tirade wound down a bit, Rain asked, “Can you help me?”

Ella rolled her eyes in her head. “Nay, keepin’ Selik here would ne’er pass. I have too many workers comin’ ’n goin’, always stickin’ their noses in me affairs.”

Rain’s shoulders slumped with disappointment.

“How ’bout Selik’s homestead outside the city? Much of it was fire-burned by Gravely and his fiendish band, but the foundation and frame fer the barn are still there, as I recollect. ’Twould take only a few hours of labor to put on a new thatch roof.”

Rain’s spirits suddenly brightened with hope.

“Sum benches and pallets and all the necessaries could be purchased in the city. Mayhap it could work. But people livin’ on Selik’s land of a sudden when it wuz abandoned fer nigh ten years would draw attention, fer certain. Can ye think of any reason fer yer livin’ there?”

A clear, unrelated image flashed into Rain’s mind of the two children she’d encountered that day, Adam and Adela, and the vast number of homeless children on the streets.

“An orphanage,” Rain answered without hesitation. “I’m going to open an orphanage.” Rain grabbed Ella then and hugged her warmly. “Oh, Ella, thank you, thank you. I swear I will repay you for your help some day.”

Ella lowered her eyes in an uncharacteristically shy manner and offered hesitantly, “Well, mayhap there is somethin’ ye could do fer me.”

“Anything. Just name it.”

“Could ye perchance put in a good word fer me with Ubbi?”

Rain’s mouth dropped open in utter amazement. Then she started to laugh so hard she couldn’t stop, finally choking and having to drink a cup of water that a disgusted Ella brought to her.

“’Tis not
that
humorous.”

“Oh, Ella,” Rain finally gasped out, “it’s not you
I’m laughing at. It’s this whole bizarre comic turn my life has taken. If you had told me a few weeks ago that I would ever play cupid to anyone, let alone to two mismatched Dark Age characters, I would have said, ‘No way!’.”

“Mismatched!” Ella said, honing in on that one word. “Hah! No more mismatched than you and Selik.”

“You’re right about that, Ella. You’re right about that.”

Rain tried unsuccessfully to show an interest in the prosperous mercer’s shop Ella proudly displayed for her—the best baudekin silks from Bagdad, Greek Samite, linens of the finest quality known as sindon, similar to a delicate lawn, and of course the famous Yorkshire wool. Even the exquisite embroidery and trims of marten or fox failed to hold Rain’s distracted attention.

Finally, Ella gave up trying to entertain or impress her and led Rain up the stairs to her small bedchamber, which she would share with Rain.

Unable to sleep, Rain agonized over the fate of Selik and Gyda’s family until Ubbi came for her the following afternoon, assuring her that no one was seriously injured. Even so, her worry increased when she entered Gyda’s home and saw the wanton destruction caused by the Saxon soldiers in their pursuit of Selik.

Trestle tables had been overturned and gouged with axes. Barrels and pottery containers of food products—flour, milk, honey, eggs, mead—were strewn everywhere. Tapestries and woven drapes, which had lined the walls to keep out the autumn winds, lay in shredded strips.