Page 80 of The Reluctant Viking

It was the sorriest looking baseball she’d ever seen.

After breaking her fast in the empty hall and using the garderobe, she went to the pond with Ella and Vigi to bathe. Afterward, they walked to the village, where they first stopped at the woodworker’s home.

Ruby examined the smoothness of the baseball bat the craftsman had made for her from a piece of solid hickory. It looked perfect to her, but she really knew little about the correct dimensions of a baseball bat.

Next, she asked for the jump rope. The woodworker had carved wood handles and attached them to a length of rope. Ruby took all the items outside.

First she tried out the jump rope on the hard-packed dirt. It was perfect. She thought Vigi and Ella would die laughing.

Then she instructed Vigi to step about twenty feet away from her and throw the baseball at her. At first he refused. “Nay, I will not throw a hard object at a woman.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. I’m going to hit it with this bat.”

“Nay, you never are!” Ella exclaimed.

Ruby did, much to her delight.

They drew quite a crowd of scandalized villagers by then. Ruby decided it was time to move on to the cobbler. She gave the wooden high heels to the cobbler that the woodworker had just made for her, instructing him on how they would fit onto the leather soles of the high-heeled slippers.

“’Tis half-witted you are to want such,” he told her.

“Probably. I’ll be back tomorrow to pick them up.”

When they got back to the keep, Ruby sought out Eirik and Tykir to give them her gifts. She got a smile from both of them when she demonstrated the jump rope.

Tykir hugged her spontaneously in thanks. “Why do you give me a gift?”

“I wanted you to have something to remember me by if I have to leave Jorvik after the Althing.” She didn’t want to scare him by mentioning the fact that she might be dead. He probably knew that anyway.

Next she showed Eirik how to use the bat and baseball, drawing a picture of a baseball diamond in the dust with her finger. She threw a few practice throws at him, and he was surprisely good right from the start.

No hugs from Eirik, though he did thank her begrudgingly. She told herself not to be disappointed, that the delight on his face should be thanks enough. Before Ruby left them to go into the manor, Eirik called after her, “’Tis a fine gift.” Ruby turned and saw him blush at this retreat from his innate hostility.

Oh, hell! What do I have to lose? Ruby walked back and hugged the boy tightly. Despite the stiffness of his body, he did not turn away from her embrace, and Ruby felt she’d finally accomplished something in her travel through time.

Thork stomped back to the manor at midday, looking for a dozen young hesirs who were missing from the practice field, not to mention Eirik. He stopped abruptly when he reached the field just outside the bailey.

A diamond shape had been marked in the grass with what seemed to be barley flour, and small sacks were laid at each of the points. Selik was throwing a round leather object to Eirik, who attempted to hit it with a stick of wood. When the wood finally connected with the ball, Eirik shrieked with laughter and ran toward one of the sacks while the boys and young men in the field scrambled to catch the ball.

It was the first time in a long, long time Thork had heard the boy laugh. How could that be? He was only ten years old. He frowned thoughtfully. Why hadn’t he realized before what a solemn child Eirik was?

Thork’s attention was diverted to the bailey where Tykir was jumping up and down over a rope that he swung over his head, counting all the time. Each time he missed he started over again, laughing delightedly in a way Thork had never heard.

Thor’s blood! Not Tykir, too!

His eyes narrowed. It was Ruby’s doing, he was sure. She was turning his family and his life upside down. “Selik, get the hell back to the practice field and take the rest of these milksops with you,” Thork yelled.

Selik jumped guiltily.

Then Thork smiled and complimented Tykir, “Very good,” as he passed him before going to the well for a drink of water.

Thork stifled an impulse to seek Ruby out and demand to know what she was up to, but that was probably just what she wanted. In fact, she probably stood at one of the windows now watching him. He stuck out his tongue at the nearest window, just in case, then sheepishly ducked his head when he recognized his grandfather’s gray hair.

“Testing for rain?” Dar asked, sticking his head through the window.

Thork shook his head from side to side. The wily wench would make him as strange-headed as she was by the time he finally departed. And, Lord, he was beginning to realize just how much he was going to miss her. He could not imagine a time when he had not known her. He hated to think of how empty his life would be without her. When he finally arrived back at the practice field, he roared at his men, “You men have become bloody weaklings. Perchance I have not worked you hard enough. Today, I swear, we will work all the kinks out or die in the trying.” He ignored the grumbles of complaint and those men he heard griping, “’Tis all the fault of the wench from hell.”

Ruby wasn’t watching Thork. She was in her room, working frantically to complete his cloak. In two days, they would all leave for Jorvik and the Althing.