“I would think having her ride a horse singly, without one of us holding her, would be treating her more finely.”
Ingunn chewed her lower lip, searching wildly for something to say that would change his mind. She saw that Zarabeth was markedly silent. She watched as Zarabeth accepted Orm’s hand, watched the muscles in his arm bunch as he lifted her up in front of him. He then held her against his chest, his arms around her, holding the horse’s reins in front of her. Ingunn felt great fury, a greater sickness in her belly. She wished she had a dagger; she would surely stick it in the woman’s ribs.
“Ingunn!”
She swallowed her anger and eased her mare beside his stallion. “Aye?”
“Tell me more about this slave with her strange hair and strange name. You called her a slut and a whore and said she had bewitched your brother. Why is this?”
“My brother wished to wed with her, but she betrayed him. She sent him away and wedded with an old man who was richer than Magnus. Then she poisoned him slowly. She is not to be trusted. She is a witch, with many tricks.”
“I trust no one, man or woman, so I am safe. As for her tricks, well, do you believe me a fool, Ingunn?”
She looked at him stupidly for a moment, then saw that his eyes had darkened, the blue irises blazing nearly black. Quickly, for she was suddenly afraid of him, she shook her head.
“Say it,” he said.
“Nay, you are not a fool, Orm.”
“Good. You please me when you are obedient, Ingunn.” His eyes lightened, and the wildness was gone from them as suddenly as it had come. Ingunn remembered the brief speech she’d had with him before he’d gone to take Zarabeth. She had said, her voice trembling, “Perhaps I am a fool.” The instant the words were out of her mouth, she had hated herself for speaking them.
“What mean you?”
“I came to you because I believed you loved me. I left my parents’ farmstead to come to you.”
“And now you change your woman’s mind? Youarefoolish, Ingunn. You will be my wife, doubt it not.”
Now she said, “What will you do with her?”
“I have yet to decide.”
Ingunn had nothing more to say. In her mind’s eye, she had seen Zarabeth, that wild red hair loose and full down her back, and felt the familiar rancor boil in her belly. She would still have her revenge. Orm was a man, and she mustn’t forget a man’s weaknesses. Magnus had succumbed to this woman and turned on her, his own sister, very quickly.
Orm was speaking again, but it wasn’t to her. It was to Zarabeth. “Does your jaw still pain you?”
“Nay.”
“Excellent. You seem a strong woman, and that pleases me. Now, tell me, what do you think Magnus will do when he returns to Malek and finds you gone?”
“He will come after me and he will kill you.”
It was Ingunn who laughed at that. “Ha! All will tell him that you fled from him, or that you jumped into the viksfjord like that little idiot sister of yours.”
Zarabeth twisted about to look at Ingunn, her face twisted with pain and rage. “I told you never to speak of Lotti like that.”
“And what will you do about it, you slut?”
Zarabeth tried to fling herself off the horse at Ingunn. Orm was taken by surprise and nearly missed grabbing her in time. She was flushed and breathing hard with fury, he realized, not with fear. “Hold still, else I will strike you again!”
“My little sister is—”
“Was, Zarabeth,was! She’s dead!”
“As dead as Egill! Do you mock him, Ingunn?”
Ingunn hissed breath out. “Say you nothing about Egill. He was a fine boy, he was Magnus’ heir, not a pathetic little slave with no blood ties to him, to any of us—”
Again Zarabeth tried to pull free of Orm and fling herself upon Ingunn. Orm held her. He watched, his expression mocking, as Ingunn pulled her mare some distance away.
