Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (63 page)

             
“I remember nothing of it Alodie”

             
“Well, actually we were going to take you to the little cottage in the woods to recover but then thought it best to get you up here as soon as possible.  I headed for Jorvik and asked directions once I got there”

             
“You went to Jorvik?”

             
Careful girl this can be checked
she thought. “Er, well no, it was a village near there, don’t ask me the name, I have no idea, but they gave me directions.  About twenty miles from here though the wagon wheel broke and I had to get you the rest of the way over the horse, to cap it all when we finally got to within a couple of miles of Hergersby the horse stumbled, you fell to the ground and it took fright and bolted.  Do you remember coming round on the top of that hill over there and walking the rest of the way with me supporting you?”

             
Herger’s brow wrinkled.  “I have vague recollections of walking into the village with you but I knew nothing really until I awoke a few hours ago, clean, better, and in my own bed” He felt behind his back.  “It is miraculous.  I felt the spear pierce my body, I felt my life’s blood gushing out, I gripped my sword and prepared to enter Valhalla but all that happened was that I kept waking up in a noisome cell and blacking out again - and now the wound is healed.  Of the journey you describe, I remember nothing”

             
“Did you dream Herger?” asked Alodie running her hand absently through the thick hairs on his massive chest.

             
“Now that you mention it I did, yes.  I had the most peculiar dream, you were giving me water to drink, then we - you and I were flying at an immense speed in a strange room with a huge window. I remember the fields flashing past beneath me, it was very strange - tell me Alodie, what date is this?”

             
“June 14th I think”

             
He shook his head.  “It does not tally, it was May 20th, by your reckoning, when I attacked Wedmore.  How long were you imprisoned?”

             
“I really have no idea”

             
He scratched his nose, “Well, let us say a week, then you were recovering for a week, that brings us up to June 3rd.  The journey you describe, by wagon, would take at least a month”

             
Alodie smiled.  “I forgot to mention that the horse I wheedled out of my  friend was one of Alfred’s best chargers”

             
“Even so, Alodie, you did not know where to go and you went to Jorvik first, that is a detour.  I just cannot understand how you did it in the time, nor how I am so well”

             
Alodie took his hand.  “Ah my lord, as for that..............” Alodie lifted his arm, then her own “t’is these bracelets.  My grandmother had the sight and she made these, they are good health bracelets bound about with all sorts of charms, you may feel a slight pricking sensation now and then but do not on any account tamper with it or try to remove it.”

             
Herger examined the bracelet.  “Strange metal, it seems to stretch somehow, to fit any wrist”

             
“My grandmother had the gift of healing magic - I am convinced it was this bracelet which saved your life.  Guard it well, I want Tom to have it after you  - and don’t, for the love of God, play with any of the stones, it brings terrible luck”

             
Herger looked puzzled.  “They are magical bracelets then?”

             
“Yes, but its good magic, they only work if they are given in love - oh, I forgot to mention, the one you have can only be worn by a man, just like mine can only be worn by a woman”

             
Herger smiled then climbed off the bed and opened one of the coffers, drawing out a deal box.  “That reminds me - bracelets given in love.  The day we met that child in
Winchester
, do you remember I went into a goldsmith’s shop?  As well as the bracelet I left you and which I am glad to say you are still wearing, I had these made.  Viking women wear them, they were for your bench gift”

             
Alodie opened the box and gasped.  Two latticed gold arm rings, inset with precious stones, twinkled at her from a bed of blue silk, they were the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her life.  “Oh Herger, they are wonderful” she whispered.

             
“I had them sent up here.  The idea was that when I came for you in Blot Monath they would be waiting for you”

             
He picked one up and pushed it onto her left arm, it looked breathtakingly lovely.  “What is a bench gift?” she asked, entranced, turning her arm this way and that.

             
“A bench gift, or bride veil fee is a gift given by a husband to his wife the morning after the marriage.  It marks the difference between a concubine and a wife.  If your father were alive I would have paid him
mundr
, or bride price, for you.  It was my intention to pay Oswy
mundr
when I took you away but, due to my accident, it was not to be.  I had almost forgotten them until now”

             
Alodie smiled again as Herger pushed the other one onto her right arm.  “You make me feel like a bought woman” she said.

             
Herger groaned and put his hand to his head.  “Oh no, please not again.  You
are
a bought woman Alodie.  Face it girl, women are not like men, they do not have the choices you speak of.  Stop fighting the natural order of things, if  the gods had meant women to make the decisions why did they make them so much weaker than men?”

             
“And if God had meant women to be subservient vassals why did he give them brains to outthink a man every step of the way?” she snapped “I tell you this, my lord, my daughter’s sex is not going to stop her from doing what she wants to do in life”

             
Herger barked with laughter “.....and what will she want to do?  When she gets to be fifteen or sixteen she will come to me and say ‘Papa, find me a husband’.  I will hum and haw a bit then look round, perhaps take her to court in Jorvik.  She will be incredibly beautiful and men will be falling over themselves to marry her.  I will choose one I think will be kind to her and with the wherewithal to support her - with her looks she will have her pick, then she will marry and have children.  What else can she do?”

             
Very little in ninth century
Northumbria
Alodie thought.  “and Tom, what of him?”

             
Herger yawned and stretched.  “Now, there is something I have been thinking deeply on for weeks.  I have already made arrangements.  Tom, when he gets to be thirteen or fourteen, will be sent over the sea to
Norway
, there he will  learn to handle a ship.  When he turns sixteen he will become a
dreng
, a warrior in training, and will go on his first Viking raid.  When he is eighteen I will give him his first ship and one day he will inherit all I have”

             
“Really” said Alodie, icily calm “and until he is thirteen?”

             
“He will stay with us, of course, training in the warlike arts.  I will begin him on weapons training when he is about five or six”

             
Alodie turned to him, her eyes spitting blue flame.  “So you are telling me that you intend to turn my son into a bloodthirsty murdering pirate?”  There was silence for a second or two then Herger burst into laughter.

             
Alodie climbed quietly off the bed and walked over to the window, it faced south and she gasped at the sight of the beautiful river valley edged by low hills which undulated into a sun kissed purple moorland as far as the eye could see.  What could she do?  How could she allow her son grow up to be a murderer, looter and rapist?

             
She felt him walk up behind her, his hands first resting gently on her shoulders then slipping down her arms.  Her head was pushed onto one side as he gently nuzzled her neck.  She went rigid and tried to push him away, it would have been easier to move a granite wall.

             
After a second or two he looked up and turned her round to face him.  “Alodie” he said quietly.  She kept her eyes on the floor. “Rich men’s sons do not need to go a’viking.  I did it because I was a younger son and all I had were a few ships and a tiny steading, a tenth the size of this place, in a poor part of northern
Norway
, my brother inherited the land and gold.  I needed to go a’viking to make my fortune, that I have done.  I own more ships than any man alive, more gold and jewels than either Amund or Guthrum and almost as much land as my elder brother who has the fourth largest steading in
Norway
.  Look out of the window, Alodie” he said, making a sweeping motion with his arm “as far as you can see and further, six villages, fourteen farms, that’s mine, ours, and until my brother marries and has children I am heir to him also.  Can you give me any reason whatsoever why any son of mine should want to become a pirate? He is already a prince!”

             
Alodie looked up at him.  “Wh - why say it then?”

             
He laughed again.  “You look so impossibly beautiful when you are angry, your cheeks flush and your eyes sparkle and anyway minx.....” he pinched her cheek.  “......I think you knew I was joking”

             
With a shriek Alodie leaped for the bed and, grabbing a pillow, swung it at him.  It hit him in the stomach and with a gurgle of laughter he doubled up.

             
Alodie picked up the other pillow and stood on the bed, trying to control an overwhelming desire to laugh.  He looked up, his eyes travelling slowly down the length of her.  “I think, my love” he said quietly, “seeing you standing naked in the morning sun was worth a blow to the midriff with a pillow”

             
Alodie grinned and jumping, sat down, cross legged, on the bed.  “Herger Sigvardson” she said “are you really strong?”

             
Herger took a drink then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand “Extremely, why do you ask?”

             
“Well, I wondered, you had a blow to the head which almost killed you, you recover from that only to have your lung punctured, I’m just worried that, in your weakened state, that blow with the pillow....” with a growl Herger ran at her, she scooted up the bed but he grabbed her ankles and pulled her back down until she was sitting on the edge of the bed, then, with a sly smile, he began to pull her legs apart.   Alodie was quite strong and had worked out a great deal but it was as though her legs were being opened by a huge vice.

             
“I’ll show you how strong I really am later on today my dear but for now, this should suffice”

             
Alodie glanced down, the fact that he had been delighted to see her naked in the morning sunlight was borne out by the sight of his rigid staff pushing at the entrance now so invitingly offered.  With a moan of pleasure Herger pulled her toward him and impaled her, at the same time slipping his hands under her bottom and lifting her bodily off the bed.  With a shriek, Alodie wrapped her legs round his waist and her arms round his shoulders.  “I believe you Herger!” she gasped.  “You are strong, very strong, now put me down!”

             
“Not possible my lady” he murmured, nibbling her ear, and moving vigorously inside her.

             
“Herger Sigvardson, what will the servants think?”

             
He laughed “who cares, they will be too busy anyway, they’re preparing a feast for tonight”

             
Alodie gasped and dug her nails into Herger’s shoulders as she felt her body throb with an orgasm which left her momentarily dazed.  Lifting her head  she glanced down at her husband’s face.  He pulled her toward him as he buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply.  She felt his body convulse too and marvelled anew at the sheer strength of the man. 

             
With a groan he tensed, then relaxed, as with a sigh Alodie slithered to the floor and lay, in a graceful heap, almost as one dead.  The feel of silk whispering against her naked skin sent a further set of erotic sensations flowing over her.

             
“Much as I hate covering up that body my love, we had better get dressed.  First thing this morning I sent messengers galloping north, south, east and west inviting my karls to my wedding feast, not to mention to Jorvik to bring back a priest”

             
Alodie opened one eye.  “Wedding feast?  Priest?  What do you mean Herger?”

             
“Well, my friend Wulfric, bishop of
Winchester
, informed me that you would never feel properly married until a shaven head blessed our union.  I did half promise him the ceremony but as that is now impossible I have sent for Halfdan’s pet priest, Martin of Jorvik, a prating, whoring rogue if ever there was one but a Christian priest for all that.  Halfdan is the most committed pagan who ever breathed but he believes in keeping his options open so Martin is allowed to keep his congregation.  We are to be married tonight!”