Page 39 of Viking in Love

The idea that Vana would be willing to place herself in any man’s close proximity so soon after her despised husband’s vile conduct tugged at Breanne’s heart. How could she in good conscience allow Vana to make that sacrifice?

“Oh, bloody hell! I will do it.”

“Breanne! You should not curse,” Drifa chastised her.

“Cursing is allowed when there is good cause,” Breanne contended.

“According to whom?” Ingrith wanted to know.

“According to me. Oh, I cannot believe I am going to do this. The oaf will laugh at me, I know he will. With my womanly skills, I am incapable of enticing a goat, let alone a man.”

“I could not help but overhear,” Amicia said, coming back into the kitchen. “I kin give ya advice on lurin’ a man ta yer bed furs, sure as Satan made sin.”

Breanne and her sisters stared at Amicia, jaws agape. The cook had thirty years under her belt, and it was a wide, wide belt. Whereas most women’s gowns could be cut from seven ells of cloth, Amicia’s would surely require ten. She was as tall as a man—even taller than Breanne—her hefty shoulders and muscled upper arms a good framework for massive breasts jutting out in a way that caused men’s eyes to bulge. And strong! Breanne had seen her wield a cleaver over a skinned red deer with the efficiency of a warrior. Her brown hair was a nest of uncombed tresses. And her front teeth protruded out over her lower lip, not unlike a horse.

A giggling Piers toddled in then with Mina in hot pursuit. He crawled up onto her lap before Mina could catch him. Breanne was wearing a tunic and braies today, figuring she might get some work done in the lout’s absence.

“I tried to keep him in the hall,” Mina told her, tears rimming her eyes. Really, since when did an eight-year-old girl have child-care duties? Where was Mary? Oh, she recalled now. Mary had gone out to help her mother with the milking.

Breanne handed each of them a hunk of honeycomb to suck on. Piers would no doubt get it all over her tunic. Oh, well. The tunic was old and designed for rough work. Mina scurried off, figuring she had a reprieve now that Piers was in Breanne’s care.

“You were saying?” She looked to Amicia.

Amicia was helping Ingrith clean up. She even handed Breanne a wet cloth to wipe the face and hands of Piers, whose eyelids were drooping as he rested his cheek again her breast. “I heard ye say somethin’ about seducin’ a man.” She flashed a lusty, knowing wink at all of them. “I know everythin’ there is about that, believe you me.”

What?

Amicia certainly had their attention…all of them, including the two maids of uncertain age, who looked as if they might know a thing or two themselves. And not because they were big-bosomed like almost all the females at Larkspur.

“I do not intend to, uh, fornicate with him. Just get his, um, interest for a while so my sisters and I can stay for a few sennights.” Breanne felt her face flame as she mentally chastised herself for her stumbling words.

Amicia nodded. “The best way is ta be naked in front of ’im. That is all it takes fer the sap ta rise in most men. All that skin is like one of those afro-daisy-yaks they sell in the Eastern lands.”

Breanne stared at her in horror. “I will not stand nude in front of that man.” She shivered with distaste. Besides, she suspected he had viewed all she had to offer already and had not been tempted to jump on her with unbridled enthusiasm. She recalled his snide remark about a freckle on her buttock. Which was not there, as far as she could tell from her view over the shoulder into a brass mirror. She would have asked one of her sisters to check, but then she would have had to explain why.

Amicia shrugged. “Well, the next best thing is a goodly set of bosoms.” She gave Breanne’s small ones a look of disdain. “You could try a bit of padding up there. Mayhap two molded aspics, which would give ’em a bit of jiggle. Or if you push them together and upwards with bindings, they might appear bigger.”

Jiggle? What next?

“You are not wasting perfectly good aspics for such a dunderhead purpose,” Ingrith asserted, hands on hips.

Thank you, Ingrith.

“Suddenly appearing with big breasts would make him suspicious,” Vana said.

Thank you, Vana!

“Besides, big nipples are just as tempting, I understand. And Breanne has big nipples.” This from Drifa, the traitor.

She glared at Drifa, who grinned back at her.

“And you have a large mouth. Men melt over women with biggish lips,” Amicia told her.

“Why, for Frigg’s sake?”

Almost immediately Breanne wished she hadn’t asked, because Amicia told her, in explicit detail.

“I think I am going to lose the contents of my stomach,” Breanne declared.