Page 97 of The Outlaw Viking

The soldier backhanded her across the face so hard her lip split and her nose started to bleed. Stunned, Rain put a hand to her bruised mouth. No one had ever struck her in her entire life. But she tried to get her temper under control when she saw the children staring up at her with fear. And that silly Adam looked as if he might stab the soldier with his little knife. Luckily, Ubbi saw Adam at the same time and forced him to sit back down.

“Search!” the leader ordered the soldiers, and with wanton disregard for their meager property, they began overturning the chests and barrels in the barn. Flour spilled onto the dirt floor. A pile of clothing was ripped to shreds by one soldier’s sword. Two pair of the children’s leather shoes were thrown into the hearth fire. While some of the men went outside to search the woods, one young soldier climbed the ladder to the loft.

Rain forced her eyes downward, afraid to look at Ubbi in case her fear would show in her eyes. Please, God, I beg you. Please don’t let the soldiers harm Selik. Please.

She heard a clattering sound and looked up. The young soldier stepped down off the ladder, scratching his underarms indolently. “Naught up in the loft but a pile of moldy hay.”

“Could we use it for our horses?” the leader asked, and prickles of fear turned Rain’s skin icy.

“Nay. Smells like it has been here fer years. ’Twould no doubt give the horses stomach cramps.” The young soldier yawned widely with boredom, and Rain knew the lazy youth didn’t want to have to rake out the loft for his fellow soldiers.

The commander came up to Rain again and grabbed her by both forearms, lifting her to her tiptoes. She barely restrained herself from spitting in his face, but her contempt must have shown on her face because the burly man squeezed hard. Rain felt as if her arms might break, and she couldn’t stop tears from filling her eyes at the intense pain.

“Heed me well, wench. Me name is Oswald. I be stationed at the military quarters in Jorvik. If ye hear aught of The Outlaw, ye are to contact me at once. King Athelstan wants the bastard’s head on a plate, and I intend to deliver it.” With those words, he shoved her hard and she fell to the ground.

Rain stayed where she was. The children and Ubbi fro/e in place as well until the noise of the soldiers’ horses faded. Finally, Rain stood and looked around at the mess. But she understood how Gyda had felt at the destruction in her home. Everyone was safe, and that was the most important thing.

She looked down then at her bare arms in the short-sleeved tunic. Black-and-blue finger marks marred her white flesh from the elbows practically to the shoulders.

The utter silence began to shatter then as first one child, then another, began to whimper and cry. Rain heard another noise. Footsteps. She looked over to the ladder to see Selik emerging from the loft with the little girl cradled in one arm, wisps of straw covering them from head to toe.

“Adela!” Adam shouted with relief and went over to take his sister from Selik, hugging her warmly and speaking softly to her.

Selik’s alert eyes scanned the room. “All sale?” he asked Ubbi, who nodded.

He turned angry eyes to Rain then, and, for the first time, Rain realized the implication of Selik’s presence here in the lower level of the barn. In releasing him to defend himself against the Saxons, she’d also released him to wreak his vengeance against her for the kidnapping. She’d thought she would have more time to pacify him, to convince him of her love, to make him realize that what she’d done was for his own good.

“Rain,” Selik said in a silky voice oozing with menace. “Come here.” He crooked a finger, motioning her toward him, but Rain’s gaze riveted on the steely gray contempt in his eyes.

She backed away one step.

Selik stepped forward one step.

“Selik, please understand…” Rain felt behind her for the door to the barn and eased her way through the opening.

“Oh, I understand, wench,” he sneered, stalking her with a feral intensity.

She wondered at that moment if her greater danger lay with the Saxon soldiers or the enraged Selik. She decided not to take any chances. “Oh, hell!” Rain exclaimed, and turned to run for the woods and safety.

Chapter Fifteen

Rain ran as fast as she could toward the woods, but she was hampered by the rising wind, which stung the bruises on her face and arms. And her hip hurt where she had landed when the Saxon commander threw her to the floor.

“This is ridiculous,” Rain muttered, thinking that she’d come full circle with her time-travel trip. The first day she’d “arrived” in medieval Britain, she’d run from Selik—the brutal barbarian. Now she was fleeing from Selik—the man she loved.

She stopped suddenly and turned. Selik came to a skidding halt in front of her.

“Make up your mind, wench. Do you run from me, or to me?”

Rain didn’t hesitate. “To you.”

Suddenly overwhelmed by their near escape from the Saxon soldiers and the anxiety of holding Selik captive for the past week, she reached up and put her arms around his neck, hugging him warmly. “Oh, Selik, thank God you’re safe.” Standing on tip-toe, she kissed his neck and chin and firm lips.

Almost instantly, she realized that he stood with his hands at his sides, rigidly unresponsive.

“Do not think to sway me with your seductive tricks. I will never forgive you, Rain. Never.”

She pulled back slightly, with foreboding, to look at his face. Like shards of gray steel, Selik’s eyes stabbed her furiously, and his jaw jutted out with barely controlled rage.