Page 144 of The Outlaw Viking

Rain folded her arms across her chest and glared up at the burly guard. “And who might that be?”

“Master Selik of Godwineshire.”

“Godwine…Godwineshire?” Rain stammered out.

“Yea, ’tis the new name for my master’s lands outside Jorvik—the Land of God’s Friend. If ye want to enter this property, ye will have to discuss it with him.”

“Oh, you can be sure I will.”

Rain rode Godsend the two miles beyond the city to Selik’s farmstead, rehearsing the entire time the tongue-lashing she would give the arrogant Viking. Plagued with painful memories, she refused to look as she passed the cow byre where Selik had told her he loved her for the first time. He had made sweet love to her on that very spot. It seemed so long ago.

As she got closer to his holdings, she noticed a lot of unusual activity. Some workers were plowing the long-dormant fields. Others were rebuilding the house and doing repairs on the barn.

Two more cows and several horses grazed in a temporarily fenced area. She even thought she heard the grunting of pigs and the quacking of ducks.

She dismounted from her horse and was immediately surrounded by children, even Adam who waved to her from the background. He was leaning lazily against the barn with a piece of straw in his mouth—probably “supervising” again.

“Where’s Selik?” she asked him.

He motioned toward the rectangular Viking-style house—a very large house—which was quickly taking shape, its sides already half erected.

She found Selik cutting timbers on the other side of the structure, wearing only low-slung braies and leather shoes.

Oh, Lord.

He stopped working when he saw her approaching and wiped the sweat from his brow with a forearm—a beautifully muscled forearm, it was, too.

Oh, Lord.

He smiled.

Oh, Lord.

She forced herself to look at some point over his shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Building you a house.”

“What?” She looked quickly back at the building with surprise. That wasn’t what she’d meant. “The Coppergate site. I’m talking about that.”

“Oh, I decided to buy the land. Methinks it will be a good property to hold for future gain,” he said with bald-faced innocence. “What think you?”

“I think you’re crazy. I think your brains have turned to mush. I think you have some nerve. I think—”

“So, what day do you want to get married?”

“Argh!” she screamed, pulling at her hair.

“Do you think Bernie would perform the ceremony for us?”

“You are brain-dead. Do you hear me?”

“Methinks your screeching can be heard all the way to Jorvik, sweetling.”

“And don’t call me that name anymore.”

He grinned. “Oh, did I tell you that King Athelstan asked me an odd question afore I left Winchester? He wanted to know how to find a G-spot. Seems someone was talking to Elgiva and—”

She walked away, face flushing hotly, and didn’t hear the rest of his sentence, but it sounded very explicit.