Page 65 of Viking Unchained

“Irksome witch!”

“Now wait a minute.” Ian glowered at him. “There’s no need to pick on my wife.”

Thorfinn exhaled with a whoosh and leaned back, hands folded behind his head. “Just go and finish what you started. Later, by your will, I would appreciate a ride back to Torolf’s. I got my driving license today, but—”

“Thorfinn on the road? Spare us, oh, Lord!” Madrene interjected.

He glared at her and continued, “But I have not yet purchased a jape.”

“A jape?” Ian asked.

“He means a Jeep,” Madrene translated for him.

“That is what I said. I wish to buy a jape like Torolf’s, but only if I pass my SEAL test, and only if I stay in this country.” He realized his slip instantly. He had been warned not to discuss the time travel with just anyone.

Ian shook his head and looked to his wife. “Another one?”

She nodded.

It was Ian then who said, “Spare us, oh, Lord!”

“First of all, neither Torolf nor Hilda are at home,” Madrene told him. “Torolf is still on a mission, and Hilda decided to delay her return from her women’s shelter in the north. No doubt to avoid your delightful company.”

Thorfinn shrugged, deciding his best path was to ignore Madrene’s vocal jabs. “I can stay there myself. I would not be good company anyway—”

“Like you ever are!” Madrene remarked.

“Can you not control your wife, Ian? Truly, a biddable wife is a blessing.”

“Like your wife was biddable? Is that why she left you?”

“Madrene!” Ian rebuked her.

He could tell Madrene regretted her words, but stubborn wench that she was, she just lifted her chin. Her eyes softened, though, and she said, “Did you and Lydia have a fight?”

“Not precisely. Apparently, someone”—he gave her a pointed look—“told her that I had been a warrior and would be joining the military here. She refuses to be with another military man, after losing her husband.”

“Oh, Thorfinn, I am sorry.” She sat down next to him and put a comforting hand on his knee.

The idea of Madrene soothing him was so appalling that he moved to the other side of the sofa, putting distance betwixt them.

“Do you love her?”

“Whaaat?”

“Well, you would not be upset if you were not smitten.”

“We had sex without stop like lustsome rabbits, that is all,” he told her, though he did not believe that any more than she did. I am bloody hell smitten, all right. Besotted. Besmitten. Bewitched. I must be barmy.

Ian grinned. “Like rabbits, huh?”

Madrene smacked his arm. “I hesitate to suggest this . . . I must be losing my mind, but why not come to Blue Dragon with me?” Madrene offered. “I’m going tomorrow, and Ian will be coming on the weekend.

They’re having a harvest festival. It would take your mind off your broken heart.”

Thorfinn considered her offer, which was generous considering their grating reaction to each other, not that he was suffering a broken heart, even if he did feel a constriction in his chest at the prospect of not seeing Lydia again. Good gods, Big-Mouth Madrene will be telling everyone of my broken heart, as if I were a youthling in the first blush of sex. “It is kind of you, Madrene, but I really must needs practice those halfbrained exercises in order to take my PST test next week.” See, I can be polite, even with a shrew.

“If you want, you could take the test on Friday and go up with me on Saturday,” Ian suggested. “They’re giving make-up tests for those recruits who couldn’t make it last week.”