Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (48 page)

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The king’s quarters were situated in the headman’s dwelling, larger and more spacious but not as comfortable as the one Alodie and Aehlswith were sharing.

             
The meal was definitely not up to standard, the pork was overcooked and the duck undercooked.  Due to the season there were no fresh vegetables and no one had big appetites.  After pushing her food round for a couple of minutes Alodie looked up.  She could not help but notice how the last few days had taken their toll on Alfred, he looked grey and tired.  “Forgive me my lord but what is going to happen?” she asked quietly.

             
“Happen? Oh, I think we will win in the end my lady,
Devon
is behind us completely and the musters of
Somerset
, Wiltshire and West Hampshire are strong”

             
She smiled.  “I too have faith we will win, my lord.  Afterwards though, do you not think.......forgive me, may I express an opinion?”

             
Alfred smiled and took a drink of ale.  “I do not think I would be able to stop you - go ahead Lady Alodie, Aehlswith says you are the most learned woman in the kingdom”

             
“The queen is too kind - I had a far sighted father - he taught me things women had no business learning.  The fyrd, forgive me my lord, is fine against isolated Viking attacks but is inadequate against a menace of this magnitude.  You need a national army, a full time army, one that does not melt away when harvest time approaches or peopled with men who worry about being taken too far away from home”

             
Alfred listened, interested despite his original bemusement.  “How do you suggest I counter this my dear?” he asked.

             
Alodie coughed, her throat felt dry, she took a sip of mead.  “As there is every chance that even if and when you beat Guthrum, there will be another Viking attack in the future, you need an army in the field the whole time, one that can march from one side of the kingdom to the other and keep up the pressure on the foe - I would suggest a rota system whereby half the men of fighting age report to the fyrd when summoned by their lords and the other half stay at home.  The next year the fresh men come into the army and the first muster go home and tend the fields”

             
Alfred’s jaw dropped, it was so ridiculously simple and yet absolutely ingenious.  Aehlswith looked absolutely amazed.  Alodie held up her hand “Also, my lord, take a lesson from the Vikings.  The Danes dig in and build fortifications, they thrive by terrorising and living off the country, loot it bare and then move on.  Counteract this by building fortified areas surrounded by ditches and walls where the local countrymen can take their families, goods and, most importantly, stocks of food and livestock when news of the menace comes, so when the Vikings do arrive all they will find is a scoured countryside and a defiant garrison which will, hopefully, hold out until the main force advances to its rescue”.

             
“Very interesting, Alodie” said Alfred “this will bear some thought”.  Privately he was astounded. 
Brilliant
he thought
why have I not got men of this calibre in my witenagemot?  It will not do to let her see I am impressed though, women cannot be dictators of policy - where did she get her education?

             
Alodie glanced up, Alfred was looking at her with a thoughtful expression in his grey eyes.  He took a bite of duck and, grimacing, threw the remainder to the dogs.

             
Alodie suddenly felt an icy hand clutch at her heart.  She had a feeling that she had just interfered with history in a major way.  Had she just put the idea into King Alfred of
Wessex
’s head for the hundreds of towns or ‘boroughs’ of
England
to be founded?  She wondered for a second if that was why she had been brought back here, to tell the king what he needed to know.  Perhaps they were all in the hands of fate.

             
Suddenly, as if he had made up his mind about something, Alfred jumped to his feet.  “I should be grateful, my queen, Lady Alodie, if you would excuse me, I need to call together my witan, I have things to - er discuss with them”

             
Aehlswith rose and gently kissed her husband on the cheek.  “Would you like me to stay, Alfred or shall I go back with Alodie?”

             
The king shook his head “Nay, my love, we will be talking most of the night and you would not be able to sleep.  Stay with Alodie, I will see you in the morning”

             
“As you will, my lord” replied the queen and bobbed a curtsey, then, pulling their cloaks around their shoulders and hoods over their heads
,
they made for the door.  At the door, however, Alodie turned and caught Alfred looking at her with a strange expression on his face almost as if he was trying to read her mind.  Feeling slightly perturbed by this she bobbed a quick curtsey and followed her friend out into the night.

             
Outside the weather was bitterly cold, the snow had begun to fall quite heavily and the wind had turned it into a blizzard.  Alodie and Aehlswith had about five hundred yards to walk to their cottage down a track which led through a small copse and, as the men at arms had either left to raise the countryside or were guarding the perimeter, there was no one to escort them home.

             
Leaning into the howling wind the two women pulled their cloaks closer round their bodies. Alodie glanced up, the moon was like a silver penny and the clouds were scudding across it at an alarming rate.

             
Aehlswith shouted above the wind.  “I shan’t be sorry to get indoors”

             
“Neither will I” replied Alodie “we’ll pile some logs on the fire and mull some wine, I think there’s some left” Aehlswith nodded and opened her mouth to say something else but the wind whipped the words away before she could speak.

             
They were so intent on reaching their cottage and warmth, and the wind was so severe, that they did not see the two tall figures in Viking dress materialising from the trees by the river.  Before they knew what was happening they were both thrown to the ground and bundled into cloaks.  Aehlswith screamed but the sound was carried away on the wind.

             
As she was borne to the ground and the cloak enveloped her head in its musty folds Alodie felt a moment of pure panic.  She felt herself bundled over a hard shoulder, this knocked the wind out of her, and as she fought for breath anger overtook her and her pilot school training kicked in - she went limp.  Her captor, expecting his prize to kick, scream and punch, was slightly disconcerted and deciding to check that she was unharmed stopped, placed her on the ground and removed the cloak.  As he did so Alodie landed out at him with a right hook, followed by a knee to the groin, then, as the Viking fell to his knees with a muffled oath, she kicked him in the face and picking up a nearby windblown branch, rendered him unconscious by hitting him over the head.

             
Glancing up she saw the other Norseman disappearing with his struggling bundle into the trees which lined the river.  Alodie debated whether or not to go for help, the nearest cottage being about a hundred yards away, however decided against it, she reasoned that they probably had a boat down there and by the time help came it would be too late,  she would have to rescue Aehlswith herself.

             
Ignoring her groaning would be captor she flipped the top from her psi-gun, checking it was set to ‘stun’ and quickly followed the pirate carrying the queen.  Creeping stealthily through the trees she listened, hearing nothing but the eerie wailing of the wind in the bare branches and the rush of the river as it swept past the bank.  She peered out of the trees and up and down the river, there was no sign of a boat - where they hell had they gone?

             
Looping her arm round the nearest branch Alodie leaned out as far as she dared and glanced first to the right and then the left, a muffled sound a few yards upriver taking her attention.  There, right under the trees in the gloom was the boat, she could not possibly have seen it without leaning out, but how to get to it and rescue her friend?

             
Pushing herself back onto the bank she crept silently toward the place where the boat was moored, as she drew closer she heard a Danish voice, complaining gruffly.  “Where’s Leif?”

             
Alodie squinted through the trees, there seemed to be two men in the boat and with the one that tried to kidnap her that was three, he should be coming to his senses any minute now, she had better act quickly, then  “Going somewhere wench?” hissed a voice at her shoulder.  Before she knew what was happening, she felt herself enfolded by two muscular arms and, with her own arms pinned against her side, lifted off her feet and taken down to the boat.  She had miscalculated, there must have been four men altogether, this was not the man who had captured her originally. Aehlswith was already in the bottom of the boat, gagged, with her arms tied behind her back and her feet tied together.

             
Alodie struggled, but the strength of the man who had captured her was such that she might as well have fought against a grizzly bear.  As she began to scream she was dumped on the floor of the boat and a none too clean rag forced into her mouth, her feet were then quickly tied.  The rag filled her mouth, it tasted disgusting and she felt herself begin to gag.  In panic she belaboured her captor with her fists but her blows seemed to make no impression on him at all.  With a barking laugh he flipped her onto her front and, dragging her hands behind her back, tied them securely.

             
Suddenly the boat dipped and swayed “About time too Leif, wot in Loki’s name ‘appened?” asked one of the Vikings.

             
“The bitch escaped, she fights like a berserker......” came the reply.

             
Alodie was roughly turned onto her back and carried to where Aehlswith sat curled up in the prow, a look of pure terror in her eyes.  Alodie was desperate to comfort her but could think of no way to do so.  “What the............how did you manage to get her back?” asked Leif somewhat shamedly.

             
“She walked straight into my arms” replied the man who had captured her “and a lovely armful she was too - now if we are all ready, these two have caused enough trouble.  I want the little one first, I’ll save yon Valkyrie for when I need exercise!”

             
Wish a splash of oars the boat was swept into the middle of the river.  Alodie could not help but notice the effortless, almost graceful way the four men handled the craft, two to a side, they had obviously been rowing most of their lives.  The boat did not seem to be heading for the opposite bank, rather they were heading downstream with the swiftly flowing current.

             
She took the opportunity to surreptitiously examine her captors.  Two of them were typical Vikings, big blond young men in their early twenties, the one who had captured her was larger still, in his mid thirties and seemed to have red hair but in this light it was hard to tell, however, the fourth one, a dark haired man, the one she had felled, was the Leif who had ‘quietened’ her on the day the Vikings had arrived in Bredond.

             
She prayed none of them had been at the auction and would recognise her, with luck on her side she could get Aehlswith and herself away the second her hands  were untied and she could get to her psi gun.

             
Alodie felt eyes burning into her and looked up to meet the brooding brown gaze of Leif, she quickly looked away, heart pounding, whatever happened he must not recognise her and deliver her to his master, Herger.  “I’m not sure we should be doing this” said Leif, suddenly.

             
The red haired one hawked and spat into the fast flowing river.  “How unusual, Leif is having cold feet” he said sarcastically.

             
“You know how Herger feels about raiding women, Erik” continued Leif in his slow way.

             
No one answered him for a second then the red haired one - Erik, looked up from his rowing.

             
“Leif, a question, are you horny?”

             
“Y - yes”

             
“So am I, so are Cnut and Ragnor here, half of this army are ready to start on the sheep!  Herger cannot expect well over four hundred lusty men to go to bed with rosy palm and her five sisters every night - believe me he will not mind us raiding Athelney to take these trulls - he won’t find out anyway”

             
Leif scratched his chin and glanced again at Alodie and Aehlswith.  “J- just supposing Erik, just supposing they ain’t trulls but ladies of quality, their husbands will realise they are missing and come and look for them - if they find our men we will lose the element of surprise.  Alfred does not know we are so hot on his tail” continued Leif, lamely.

             
The boat grating on the shingle precluded any reply and two minutes later Alodie found herself once again thrown over a sturdy Viking shoulder in company with the queen who had ceased struggling and lay over Cnut’s shoulder like a rag doll, sobs now and again racking her body.