Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (29 page)

             
Rorik picked his teeth with the point of his knife then laughed derisively.  “Your Grace, that -
nithing
does not enter into it as far as I am concerned.  When I said she was already bespoken I meant that Lady Alodie is already the wife of Herger Sigvardson.  Now if you would excuse me I would like to seek my chamber early tonight.  I assume we ride at dawn?”  Open mouthed, Alfred could only nod, dumbly.

             
Further down the table the meal was continuing in cold silence, broken only now and again by Godgyth’s embarrassing attempts to make conversation.  At length even she decided to make the best of it and keep quiet.

             
When King Alfred had begun to berate Rorik about the Danegeld and Luke had leaped to his feet brandishing his knife Alodie had felt nothing but disgust for him.  It was all very well, she thought, making a show of strength in a hall full of friendly people, she wondered how brave Luke would have been if confronted by a room full of hostile Vikings.

             
When he eventually sat down he turned to her and, waving his
sceax,
said in Saxon “One of these days I’ll slice that Viking into tiny strips”

             
Edric laughed and Oswy patted him on the shoulder “Now
that
would be something to see” Alodie interjected in modern English “you in a hand to hand knife fight with Rorik?  You ought to pray Luke, that it never comes about.  Rorik is iron hard, he has been trained from babyhood to kill and mainly he likes to kill what he calls
‘nithings’
.  I’m not sure of the actual translation of the term into modern English, the nearest I can manage is
‘empty braggart’
- you know - the type of man who talks big but hits women.  My God Luke, in a knife fight he would de-gut you without breaking sweat!”

             
Luke took Alodie’s hand.  “Why don’t you be kind to me?  I only did what I did last night because I was driven to it”

             
“Exactly” replied Alodie “you knew it was wrong but you did it anyway, probably because Oswy and Aelfric told you to.
‘Go tup her lad, get her in calf, she’ll soon come to heel then!’
I can almost hear them saying it!  They can be forgiven though because they were born thinking women are inferior.  You did something alien to your nature” she turned, her blue eyes burning into his with a new understanding “or was it Luke?  Was it alien to your nature?  I’m beginning to think not, I think you enjoyed feeling superior to me”

             
Luke looked down at the table, lost for words, stunned that she could judge him so well, and at that moment, Rorik walked past.  Alodie glanced up then colouring, looked away.  She could feel his green eyes boring into her and, as if drawn, she met his gaze.

             
Alfred looked disapprovingly from the top of the table and the whole court waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.

             
The Viking bowed.  “Thank you, milady, for attempting to show me the countryside this afternoon.  I am only sorry that a pleasant ride was cut short by your mare bolting.  Mayhap some other time?”

             
She decided that to answer him as the courtesies demanded would cause unnecessary trouble so she smiled sweetly and said nothing.  As he turned away Luke called out to him.

             
“Rorik, may I make a suggestion?” The Norseman turned, almost lazily and, raising quizzical eyebrow, looked at Luke.  “The next time you go for a ride, in the forest or anywhere else, I would be obliged if you would take someone other than my betrothed”

             
The Viking smiled and gestured to Alodie “Forgive me Edmundson, I understood that the lady herself had broken off the betrothal due to the fact that she was a married woman and that you had been engaged - er elsewhere” a hush fell on the assembled company.  Alodie, in her detached way, noticed Gwen of Saltop preening.
Stupid bitch
she thought.  Gwen was the sort of woman who, had she lived in later centuries, would have loved to be the ‘other woman’ in a divorce case.

             
“Know this, Viking” snarled Luke “the lady Alodie marries me as soon as I can get her to a priest and you can give that information to that pagan bastard with half a face, Herger!”

             
Rorik shrugged and stifled a yawn with the back of his hand “As you will Edmundson, I am in no position to fight you now, if I had you would have been dead days ago, but shaven Christian priest or no, she is married already, to Herger Sigvardson, a sea king and high jarl of blood - but listen.........” and leaning forward he lapsed into Norse “I know you speak our tongue.  If you so much as lay a finger on her again, if you raise the tiniest bruise to mar her beautiful body, I will chop off your balls and feed them to the dogs!  I hope we understand each other -
nithing!”
with that he turned on his heel and walked up the stairs.

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

             
Alodie tossed and turned in bed that night.  She knew in her heart that nothing could come of her involvement with Rorik, she was foolish to even let it enter her head and why - oh why - had she given herself to him in the forest that afternoon?
             

             
She let her mind wander back to that wooded glade and Rorik taking her in his arms, Rorik running his fingers over her body, kissing her - feather light kisses which sent her almost mad with desire, then Rorik thrusting inside her - no! that way lay madness.

             
She was a stranded in Saxon Wessex, and as such logically she could not go through life without a husband.  Again, logically, the best person to marry would be Luke Owen, she would be provided for and physically he was by far the best looking man available.  One thing was for sure, she was going to have to finish her liaison with Rorik, that was a road leading nowhere.  She would tell him tomorrow, tell him she could not see him again.  With that thought in her mind she snuggled down under her covers and fell asleep.

             
She was awoken hours later by the moon shining on her face.  It was a  full moon and the light was quite bright.  The first thought that entered her head was that she was sure she had closed the shutters, then a deep voice next to her said “You did not put the bar across them Alodie, I warned you, Wessex is full of lusty Vikings!”

             
Opening her eyes Alodie propped herself up on one elbow, she purposely did not look at him.  “Rorik, I have something to say to you” she whispered “what - what happened in the forest this afternoon, it was a mistake, it should not have happened, it was wrong”.  She stared down at her hands as she spoke,  not daring to lift her eyes to look up at him.  She felt his weight as he sat on the bed and gasped as he took her hand in his and began to kiss her palm and her fingertips.  She closed her eyes as he took her chin softly in his hand and lifting her face kissed her eyes, lips and cheeks and then burying his face in her thick blonde hair he inhaled, deeply.

             
“You smell of honeysuckle my Valkyrie, never have I known a woman smell as beautiful as you” she began to push against him with the flat of her hands, feebly at first, then with increasing power but it was like trying to demolish a wall.

             
Chuckling, he began to unfasten the laces of her nightrail.  Even as she struggled she felt her body’s shameless response as his fingers rubbed and caressed her nipples until they became taut peaks of desire.  “Rorik” she whispered “no, please, we must not” opening her eyes she looked up at him in the moonlight, his long, curly, dark brown hair, loose now from its thong, framing his achingly handsome face, his gold earring making him look like a pirate or an engraving from One Thousand and One Nights.  “Rorik, no” she whispered again.

             
He stood up and as she watched, fascinated, he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his breathtaking body to her gaze, the moonlight dappling him in shades of silver and black, every muscle taut as a whipcord, the huge musculature of his chest, arms and shoulders giving way to a flat stomach, slim hips and powerful legs.  She had always detested bodybuilders back in her own time and yet with Rorik it was different, his muscles were pure strength, he was not ungainly, even for all his size, he had a panther like sinuousness.  There was no other word for it, the man was magnificent.

             
Shrugging off his braeis he climbed into the bed and, putting his arms around her, held her close, beginning to gently stroke her body.  Alodie lay back, letting the waves of ecstasy flow over her.  “I thought you wanted to give me time to heal” she murmured as he pulled her night rail over her head.

             
He nibbled her shoulder “Every part of you tastes delicious
elskin min
” he murmured “it is now three hours before dawn, I took your maidenhead yesterday afternoon, that is fourteen hours - you’ve healed!”

             
Alodie had to agree with him, she had probably healed long before that with the help of autodoc.  She wriggled as he began to first breathe in her ear then nibble it, whilst his hand, from caressing her stomach, had worked its way down until his questing fingers found the hard numb of her desire and began slowly and gently to bring her to a panting peak of passion.  His lips seemed to be everywhere at once, his tongue gently encircled her nipples then, lowering his head, it traced a path down across her stomach until it was caressing her very core.

             
Alodie was lost in passion, she arched her body to his then grasping his hair in her hands she lifted his head.  “Oh Rorik, I want - do
something
please!”  Rorik wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and smiled, wickedly, then kissed her deeply, his probing tongue raking the inside of her mouth, at the same time as he gently pushed his length into her and began to move slowly.  Alodie arched herself to him and crossed her legs around his back, he moaned and quickened his pace, then she began to feel a warm glow in the pit of her stomach which travelled up her body until the glow burst and she felt herself pulsing with pleasure, she squirmed and dug her nails into his back, almost screaming out loud in rapture.  An instant later he too groaned, quivered and was still.

             
They lay prone for what seemed an eternity then he withdrew and kissing her again rolled onto his back, gently reaching out and taking a lock of her hair which he began to rub along his lips.  “T’is a well known fact” he said at last “that maidens are notoriously hard work in bed sport until they have had their furrows ploughed at least ten times but that, Alodie, was the most pleasurable lovemaking I have ever known and this but your second time.  Where did you learn that trick of wrapping your legs round me”

             
“Learn?  I didn’t learn it, it just came naturally”

             
He laughed “T’is a whore’s trick, keep doing it!” Alodie tutted in mock annoyance then slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

             
The darkness of the night was beginning to give way to dawn and in the misty half light she saw her hand had come away bloody.  Concerned, she sat up, pulling him over onto his stomach.  “Rorik, your back, its bleeding” she cried, noticing eight parallel grooves scored in the skin, several of which were open “Oh, my God, did I do that?” she whispered, horrified, and jumping out of bed ran over to her basin and ewer, grabbed the clean piece of rag she used as a washing cloth, poured water on it and wringing it out walked back over to the bed and began to dab gingerly at his wounds.  When she was satisfied they were clean she reached onto the dresser and found the pot of ointment Hyld had slipped to her when she was about to be auctioned.  She smiled to herself, never in her wildest dreams had she envisaged using it to tend the wounds of the very race who had captured her.  Rorik lay so still as she rubbed it gently into his back that she thought he had gone to sleep.

             
When she had finished she put the pot on the floor next to the bed and shuffled down next to him, as she did so he made a growling noise and raising himself on one elbow threw his other arm around her, pinning her to the bed.

“Alodie my love” he said “these are scratches, I have had ten, nay twenty times worse and I relish them, they have been the means both of hearing concern in your voice for me and enabling me to watch you walking around the room as naked as the day you were born!” With that he kissed her nose and smiled at her.

             
Alodie sighed.  She had never in her life felt as contented, happy and secure as here in bed with this so called ‘savage’, a man who could crush the life out of her in a second.  She stroked his cheek with her index finger and as she did so he turned his head and kissed it.  “Alodie, my Valkyrie, I love you more than life, can I hope you love me even a little?”

             
She took a deep breath.  “Rorik, I do not know what love is, I have never experienced it, but if love is getting excited at the thought of someone, feeling your stomach flutter when that someone walks into the room, even though you know there can be no future in it and your life, your free life, belongs to someone else.  Feeling that your life and travels up to now, and believe me Rorik I have travelled further than you can possibly begin to imagine, were all leading to one path which ended with that someone then yes, Rorik, I love you and I know I always will”