Viking Love Beyond Time (Time Travel Romance) (82 page)

Herger turned to her.  “I would have thought a woman who could travel seven thousand miles to an island, kill my most powerful enemy and travel seven thousand miles back within fourteen days would have come up with something a little more – er shall we say, imaginative than that – easy Fenrir!”

Alodie bit her lip.  “I did not travel fourteen thousand miles in fourteen days Herger.  I have been a prisoner for twelve of them.  I travelled fourteen thousand miles in just under two hours – fifty minutes there and fifty minutes back”

Herger drew in his breath with a sharp hiss.  “And Olaf, how long have you known him?”

Alodie glanced up, a seagull cried mournfully above them and the water splashed quietly under the raft.  Alodie swallowed, her mouth felt dry.  “Herger, I swear to you I only saw Olaf for the first time in the glade when he pinned you to the tree” she whispered.  “I had never heard of him before you told me about him”

He spat into the water.  “Liar!! He could talk to you in that secret tongue of yours!” the raft grated on the shingle, they had reached the other side.  Herger grabbed his horses reins and walked off the raft, wetting his boots as he did so, leaving Alodie to get off as she may.

She jumped into the water, welcoming its icy coldness, and ran to catch up with him, but her strength was ebbing.  She had lost over twenty pounds in weight and was faint from lack of food.  Not for the first time in her life she felt the blackness begin to creep up her body and her legs folded beneath her.

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

Soft and warm, everything was soft and warm.  Fluttering open her eyelids Alodie looked round.

She was in a blissfully hot bath, her long hair hanging over the back of the tub into what looked like another smaller container, whilst someone she could not see poured warm scented water onto her scalp. 

Glancing round she discovered that the bath in which she was lying seemed to be situated in a pleasant pine scented room with cross beams running the length of it.  A fire blazed in the stone hearth in the corner and the floor was covered with thick animal skins.  There was only one window, a small one which seemed to be covered with some sort of thick curtain.  Next to her bath was a bed piled high with
soft skins and wool
blankets.  Alodie tried to turn her head to see who was ministering to her, only to be greeted by a slap on the shoulder and a harsh female voice.  “Keep still will you!” it snapped. “You’ll have water all over my son’s prize bearskin rugs, I’ve almost finished.”

Alodie did as she was bid.  It was obviously not done to argue with one’s mother in law – at least that was who she assumed the unseen lady was.  She decided to check.  “Are you Thora?  Herger’s mother?”

She felt hot water being poured over her head once again.  “There, you’re done, here’s a cloth”  Alodie climbed shakily to her feet and wrapped the proffered cloth  round her head, then taking another one wrapped it round her body.  She turned.  A tall, compact looking woman in her fifties who had once obviously been a great beauty, faced her.  Green eyes swept her from top to toe and dark curly hair escaped from her headrail.  It was obvious now where Herger and Tom got their eyes and Nerissa and her father their hair.

“In answer to your question, girl, I
am
Thora, Herger’s mother and you are the lady Alodie who has bewitched him, so tell me, if you can, what ails his behaviour?”

Alodie felt hunger bubble up again and put her hand to her mouth.  Thora leaned forward, a concerned look in her eyes, and put her arms round Alodie’s shoulders.  “Forgive me my lady” she whispered. “I have not eaten for over a week, that is why I fainted”

“Hmmph” retorted Thora and reached for a plate and ewer.  “Here, chicken, bread and warm milk, get on the outside of that and then we’ll talk.  Not eaten for over a week, eh?  That explains why you’re such a thin palched little thing.  I was wondering what Herger saw in you when he carried you in here”

Alodie reached for the food and began to eat.  The chicken tasted like heaven and the bread was new baked and soft, the milk was like warm sweet velvet on her tongue.  After five minutes she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.  “Herger” she said “is he angry with me?”

Thora walked over to the hearth and threw another log onto the blaze, then turned to face Alodie.  “Why?  Has he reason to be?  Have you put horns on him?”

For a second Alodie had no idea what she meant.  Horns?  It was a fallacy that Vikings wore them, then she realised.  Horns.  The ancient sign of the cuckolded man.  She sighed and shook her head. 

“There are things about me that Herger does not know.  I was going to tell him when I fainted – oh I have done nothing wrong, it is just that................is he there,  outside the door?”

Thora looked at her suspiciously and walking over to the door, opened it.  Herger was indeed standing there.  “Has my wife woken Mother?” he asked quietly.

“Aye, but she’s eating.  She’s been bathed, and has, as you said, cleaned up to be a beauty.  Come back in half an hour, the lass is so clemmed I am surprised she still lives, she cannot do with your anger at the moment”.  With that Thora slammed the door in her son’s face and turned back to Alodie, who had finished drying herself and was donning a silk nightrail which had been laid on the bed.  “Well, I am waiting for an answer.  Have you lain with another man?  Is that why my son comes home carrying you in his arms, the woman he has moved mountains for, throws you on the bed and storms out saying not a word to me except ‘clean her up Mother’”

Alodie sighed and fastened her night-dress, then sat down on the bed and looked up at Thora.  “I was raped by Olaf and I killed him but that is not what has upset Herger.  I need to talk to him.  There are things he has to know.  Has my father arrived yet?”

Thora shook her head.  “Oh, we’re expecting more guests are we?  It was good of my boy to tell me”, making an exclamation of annoyance, she headed for the door then turned.  “Tell me something, wench, and the truth now, I can smell  a falsehood a mile away, do you love my son?”

Alodie felt tears rush into her eyes.  “More than life Thora” she whispered.

The older woman nodded.  “I’ll send Herger to you girl.  I only hope you can put him in a better mood.”  Her eyes once again appraised Alodie who had reached for a brush and was pulling it through her long, golden hair.

“Thora, before you go”  she asked.  “are Tom and Nerissa well?  I have been eaten with anxiety for them”

For the first time Thora’s face softened.  “Aye, they’re fast asleep.  Twin grandchildren and I never knew.  You could have knocked me  down with a feather when Herger arrived with them, clemmed they were, too.”  She straightened her shawl with a twitch.  “You can see them tomorrow.  Have you eaten enough?”

Alodie shook her head.  “Have you any cheese?”

The woman smiled again, giving her face a softer, kinder expression, “have I any cheese?  I only make the best cheese in the land.  I’ll send you some up.  Herger can bring it.  Get into bed now and pinch your cheeks.  You should be able to talk him round....” she sniffed again “.....whatever you’ve done”.

With that she gave her shawl a further twitch and opened the door.  Herger was sitting on the step outside eating a chicken leg.  “Right, you great buffoon” she snapped.  “Come in, she’s been through a lot, don’t upset her”

Alodie closed her eyes and prayed.  She heard the door close and opened them again.  Herger was leaning against the wall looking so unbelievably, devastatingly handsome that Alodie had almost to pinch herself to remind herself that he was real.  He also had bathed and his still damp, dark, curly hair hung loose almost to his shoulders.  He too had lost weight and it showed in his face, creating slight hollows under his high cheekbones.  He was dressed in tan leather braeis with dark brown knee boots and a tan leather jerkin.  He had donned a white shirt in deference to the colder weather and the black hair of his chest crowded out of the neck.

Alodie felt herself begin to redden as she looked at him.  He ran his tongue across his lips.  “Well, milady” his voice was almost a drawl. “you have been bathed and fed.  Do you feel up to speaking to me now?”

There was a knock on the door and tutting, Herger opened it.  Thora thrust a plate of bread and cheese into his hands and walked away.  Shutting the door again, Herger walked over to the bed and handed Alodie the plate.  Grinning, she placed a piece of cheese on some bread and ate it.  Herger poured himself a cup of milk and perched on the end of the bed.  “I am waiting Alodie, and do not think you will get away this time with giving your body to me.  You have used that tactic for the last time and whilst we are on the subject...” he took a deep draught of his milk and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand “that story of Alfred’s prize stallion carrying me up to Hergersby was a lie was it not?”  Alodie took another bite of bread and cheese and nodded.  “Well, start from the beginning, tell me the truth and we will see what is to be done”.

She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.   “What I am about to tell you Herger, you will not believe.  I sometimes have trouble believing it myself, but I swear on the lives of  our children that it is true” she took a deep breath.  “I am not a sorceress, I am a scientist, a magister.  Tell me, what is the date, as the Christians count it?”

Herger looked puzzled. “878,
September 18
th
878
.”

“I was born on
March 7
th
2407
in
a city quite near Hergersby, the daughter of Jake Austen, who you have seen, fleetingly, and Nerissa Varhend who was a colonial.  I believe the Norwegians have colonies – am I correct?”

Herger, mouth open in astonishment, could only nod.

“Well, my mother was a colonial of Venus – the planet”

Herger began to laugh.  “Thor’s eyes, Alodie” he gasped.  “I have heard some tales in my life but..............”

“Fourteen thousand miles in an hour” said Alodie, simply.  “I got you back from
Winchester
in thirty minutes, but I was only travelling at about a tenth of the speed my – er vehicle was capable of” Herger fell silent. “In the twenty fifth century we do not trade with other kingdoms but with other planets.  The stars you see in the sky are suns – some like ours, some smaller, some larger.  Round these suns revolve planets – inhabited planets, some like Earth, our planet, some different.  Well, I worked on a trading ship, a
knarr
if you like, bigger than any you could ever imagine.  The size of which was not fixed.  At its smallest, empty of cargo, it was perhaps half the size of this village and at its largest, fully loaded, the length of this fjord, a ship that sailed between suns, a ship whose ports were planets!”

Herger massaged his temples.  “Just suppose I believe this amazing tale Alodie – what did you do on this ship?  There is only one use for a woman aboard a ship as far as I am concerned – to whore for the crew.”

Alodie smiled, sweetly, she was going to enjoy this part.  “I commanded her Herger, I was her captain.  Luke Edmundson was in reality Luke Owen and was one of my officers”

Herger buried his face in his hands then looked up at her.  “A woman ship’s captain.  Thor’s hammer!  What were these people made of?  Clay?”

Alodie clenched her fists.  “Herger, I truly think that it is easier for you  to believe I came from the future than I was a ship’s captain but listen.  You navigate hundreds of miles.  I can navigate distances greater than your mind can begin to grasp!!”

Herger sighed then laughed and bit into an apple.  “So what are you doing here Captain Alodie?”

“We were returning from a planet called Nolwe when my ship was  - sucked into something you could never begin to imagine, something that will not be discovered for another twelve hundred years, something called a black hole. In this black hole time is altered, we arrived back home certainly but in the year
876.”
She glanced up, wetting her lips  “We were trapped, trapped over one and a half thousand years into our past”

Alodie took another drink. Herger was looking at her with a mixture of astonishment and awe.  Then she began to tell him, adding nothing and leaving nothing out, about what had happened since then.  She told him about the shuttle, about Captain Deoli, her flight from him at the wedding party, about her treatment and his rescue in Winchester, about her father coming back for her and being captured by Olaf, everything.  It took her an hour and when she had finished she felt hungry again.  She helped herself to more cheese.

Herger walked over to the window, the muscles on his arms playing under his smooth skin as he pushed against the wall.  From downstairs came the bark of a dog and the ribald cackle of a woman laughing at some jest.  He turned. “So all our life together has been deceit my Alodie?”

“For goodness sake Herger.  What could I do?  Tell you who I was, what I was, how could I?”

He returned to the bed and laid down next to her with his hands behind his head.  “Did Olaf have you?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, he raped me, on the island, it was terrible”

“...and this shuttle as you call it.  It is sunk in Segensfjord?”

She sighed.  “Yes”

“So I will never have proof of this amazing story”

Alodie held up her arm, her bracelet winked in the firelight.  “My bracelet, Herger, look”.