Page 40 of The Outlaw Viking

“Selik, I would like to make bargain with you.”

“Pray tell. I cannot wait to hear what you have to offer.”

“If you will promise never to—to—well, do that awful thing again, I promise I will never try to escape.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “So, you were planning to escape?”

“No, that’s not what I said,” she snapped impatiently, “but I could if I wanted to. After all,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes, “I have God on my side.”

“I thought you denied being a angel.”

She averted her eyes guiltily. “Yes, well, you never know, do you?”

She was lying through her teeth. And so poorly that she could not look him in the eye or hide the flush of embarrassment from her fair cheeks.

“Ubbi found your feather in the bed furs,” he pointed out with dry humor.

“My feather?”

“He thinks ’tis from your wings. You know, the wings you can spread or hide under your skin at will.”

He grinned at the surprise on her intrigued face.

Then they both burst out laughing.

“Well, do you agree to my proposal?” she asked finally.

Actually, Selik hated the behaettie and always had. But even worse, he loathed his berserk rage yestermorn when he had seen the half-decayed, eyeless bodies of his good friends lying on the battlefield like refuse. “Mayhap. Exactly what do you promise?”

“I will never try to escape.”

“And if you disagree with something I do in the future?” he asked skeptically.

She raised her brow ruefully. “I will whack you on the head or give you a piece of my mind, but I won’t leave.”

“This is important to you, is it not?”

“Yes. Oh, yes,” she said, closing her eyes briefly before speaking. “When I was a young girl, my brother Eddie was a soldier. He was killed in a fight which even the government later admitted was pointless.”

“And that is when you became a paci…pacifist?”

She nodded. “Later I became a doctor and started working in an inner-city hospital. The murders and mutilations these young gang members inflict on each other is a powerful argument against violence.”

“But some fighting cannot be avoided,” he argued.

“You may be right about that. I don’t know. But back to the scalping thing—if you will do this for me, at least I’ll feel I’ve made one small step toward helping you. It’s important to me, Selik.”

“Then I agree. As long as you are with me, I will take no more behaettie.”

Rain pressed her lips together thoughtfully. “About the captives—”

“Do not press your luck.”

The outrageous wench just shrugged, as if he should not blame her for trying. “Well, we have a bargain then.” She smiled widely, and Selik’s heart lurched oddly in his chest, then seemed to expand with lightness. He did not like the feeling.

She stood and held out her hand to him sideways, palm open. He stared at it, confused. Did she want him to hold it?

She seemed to understand his bafflement and explained, “In my ti…my country, we shake hands when we finalize an agreement. Like this.” She placed his right palm against hers and closed both their fingers lightly in the clasp, then showed him how to shake briskly up and down. But all Selik could concentrate on was the intense shock of pleasure generated by her skin against his. He never wanted to let go.