Page 24 of Viking in Love

“She was married to the earl of Havenshire. You know what an evil brute he was.” Caedmon drew his bottom lip in, thoughtfully. “Now he is dead…or missing.”

“A coincidence?” Geoff asked.

He shrugged.

“Watch your back, my friend,” Wulf added.

He nodded. “For now, I have more important issues to address. Like Heatherby. And the thieves who are stealing cattle from the nothern pasture. We will stop by there afore returning to Larkspur. Once we see what the situation is with the good widow.”

“You should have worn your black wool surcoat with the red samite lining,” Geoff told Wulf.

“Huh? Oh, nay! Do not even think it! I am just along for the ride,” Wulf protested.

“Why? You are perfect for Sybil.”

“I am no more perfect than you are, Geoff. Or you, Caedmon.”

“It would solve your problem,” Caedmon pointed out.

“How? By switching one shackle for another? If I wanted a bride, I would go home and yield to my father’s wishes.” Wulf was the second son of a powerful Wessex nobleman who had betrothed Wulf from birth to a Welsh princess, Gwyneth, who wanted naught to do with him. Not that he wanted her, either. None of them had ever seen Gwyneth, but considering the size of her impressive dowry, and his less-than-spectacular birthright, his maternal grandmother’s pitifully small estate in Norsemandy, they figured she must be horse faced and as round as a barrel.

“Well, we agreed afore leaving Larkspur that one of us would make a bid for the lady’s hand, after a period of subtle but not-too-long courtship,” Caedmon reminded them.

“Subtle?” Geoff snorted.

“He means that you should not stick your tongue down Sybil’s throat on first meeting,” Wulf elaborated.

“Even if she wants me to?”

“How would you know?”

“Women have signals.”

Caedmon speared Wulf and Geoff both with a rebuking scowl. “I meant that we come to express our sympathies. That is all at this point.”

“Oh, please! We must needs do more than that,” Geoff opined. “Once the king gets wind of this windfall, he will have one of his lackeys here posthaste. Or he will come himself to get a taste. Remember what he did with Ordulf’s wife.”

“Well, I ne’er agreed to offer my hand. I am going back,” Wulf declared.

“You are such a lackbrain, Wulf. Do not get your beard in a blaze. Caedmon and I will do all the wooing,” Geoff said. “We will see who comes out the winner.”

Caedmon sighed. Somehow, it did not seem like winning to him. More like a bid for torture.

For some odd reason, an image flashed in his head of a red-haired woman with lips he was determined to taste, afore sending her on her merry way. In fact, he could swear his lips tingled in anticipation. And a certain other body part tingled, too.

Meanwhile, Geoff and Wulf blathered on about different ways to woo a woman, some so crude they could never be mentioned in mixed company. He was heartsick at the prospect of chaining himself once again in wedlock, while they seemed to look forward to this visit. Time enough to think of Sybil or Heatherby when they got there.

“Dost think the king will call us to arms again this year?” he inquired, as a means of changing the subject.

The idiots ignored him and continued their debate, now over whether pinching a woman’s buttocks was unsubtle or not. And how they should be cautious around Sybil not to even mention the word buttock.

“We should resume training on a daily schedule so our men do not soften,” Caedmon interrupted.

Still, they ignored him. Now discussing why highborn women took so long to peak during bedsport and whether Sybil fell into that category and how Geoff once fell asleep in the midst of tupping a countess who took too long to reach her peak.

“Did a woman ever cause your cock to tingle? Just by looking at you?”

Two heads turned slowly to stare at him.