Page 88 of The Blue Viking

Maire looked toward the exercise yards again. Sure enough, Rurik’s wicked eyes were directed toward her. And she could swear, though the distance was considerable, that he winked a sensual promise her way.

Maire felt her face heat up under Cailleach’s all-discerning scrutiny.

“So, that’s the way the wind be blowing,” Cailleach said with another cackle. “ ’Twould seem the mess is even worse than I thought. A Viking, though. I canna fash where yer good sense has gone.”

“What’s wrong with a Viking?”

“Not a thing. Not a thing… if all ye want from him is a strong fighting arm … or a virile bed partner. But methinks ye want much more.”

“And if I do?” She raised her chin defiantly.

“If ye do,” Cailleach repeated her words back at her, “then I foresee teardrops ahead. Dinna know that Norsemen are rovers? They mislike settling in one spot fer long.”

“Mayhap this one is different,” Maire argued, as much to counter Cailleach’s contentions as to assuage her own doubts.

“Mayhap. Mayhap,” Cailleach acquiesced. But then she asked the question that had been niggling at Maire’s conscience all afternoon, “What will the Viking do when he discovers he has a son?”

“So, yer the one?”

Rurik just about jumped out of his skin at the crotchety-voiced inquiry, which was accompanied by a high cackle.

Spinning about, he saw Maire’s old mentor witch, Cailleach, sitting on a pile of wooden shields, watching him. He was the last one on the exercise field, where he’d just donned his tunic and was buckling his belt. The old crone must have come up behind him. He shouldn’t have been startled by her presence. There were witches everywhere. In fact, many people were complaining about them … except Toste and Vagn, who claimed to have tupped a few of them already, though Rurik could hardly credit the truth of their boasts, especially when they claimed to have been ensorcelled into performing some perverted acts. Those two wouldn’t have had to be ensorcelled into doing anything of a sexual nature, perverted or not. On the other hand, they had been avoiding lies of late, like every other man within miles of Beinne Breagha, Viking or Scots, because of Maire’s outlandish tale connecting falsehoods and shrinking man parts. So, mayhap they were telling the truth.

“The one what?” Rurik finally managed to answer.

“The one Maire has gone weak-kneed over?”

Rurik’s lips turned up with pleasure. “Maire is weak-kneed over me?”

“Aye, and well ye know it, too. A rogue like you specializes in such nonsense. Truly, if women knew what men were thinking half the time, they would be slapping their faces right and left.” She chuckled… rather cackled… at her own joke, then continued, “Ye delight in turning a lass’s fancy just for the fun of it.”

“You don’t know me well enough to determine my motives.”

“Oh, I know ye, boy. I know ye better than you think.”

“Boy? I am no boy. What do you here anyway?” Rurik snapped at Cailleach. “Other than offer insults.”

The old biddy cackled a few more times before submitting, “I know ye like my Maire well enough to bed her, but I wonder…” She let her words trail off and narrowed her rheumy eyes at him, studying him as if he were a piece of meat for sale at market.

“Well, spit it out, witch, what is it that you wonder?”

“I wonder… do ye love her?”

That question stopped Rurik cold. “You overstep yourself. What business is it of yours how I feel about Maire?”

“ ’Tis very much me business. Maire has suffered these past years. I do not want her to suffer more.”

Rurik stiffened with affront. “I mean her no harm.”

Cailleach shook her head sadly at him. “That may not be your intent, but I suspect it is inevitable.”

Rurik was uncomfortable with this conversation and started to walk away.

“You did not answer my question, Viking. Do ye love her?”

Rurik turned slowly and eyed the pestsome witch. “Nay, I do not.” He raised a hand to halt her next words. “But I care about her. I do. Methinks I am incapable of love. That capacity, if I ever had it, was burned out of me as a child.”

Cailleach nodded knowingly. “In the Northlands … Kaupang. Aye, I ken how that might be.”