Neither woman was expecting the baggage wain that plodded slowly through the gate,dividing Erika’s four men, who had been standing before it. Kristen was forced to move back as well when the long wagon passed near her, leaving her horse and sword on the other side of it. She didn’t even notice that. She was frowning, her suspicions aroused at the sight of the driver, the giant Viking, but no sight of her brother.
Behind her, Erika was also frowning, and demanded of her man, “What means this, Turgeis?”
Kristen didn’t wait for his reply. The end of the baggage wain had reached her and she leapt up onto it, pushing back the rough hide that covered the top half of the bed, her heart in her throat, fearing she was going to find her brother’s lifeless body. What she saw was nearly as bad.
She barely recognized Selig, he had lost so much weight. The hand she picked up gave back no reassuring squeeze. He had the beginnings of a beard, which he never sported. His hair was matted to his skull; his skin was loose, pale; his eyes were sunken. They were open, and she read the relief in them, but also the pain—and the anger.
He spoke, but it was such a whisper, she had to bend down for him to repeat it. “Take her—for me.”
“The Danish lady?”
There was the barest nod. “I owe her for this.”
Kristen didn’t need to hear any more. She could see for herself that they had starved him,broken him. And she hadn’t felt such mindless rage since she had thought him dead, killed before her eyes. That rage didn’t take into account her precarious position, so close to the walls of Gronwood, or the other alarming consequences that could result from what he asked her to do. None of that mattered next to the wordsI owe her for this.
She lifted her head, swinging around to see that the giant Viking had tied off the reins and was about to jump down to join his lady. Kristen jumped first, her movement so swift and unexpected that no one had time to react, least of all Erika, who found that long-bladed Viking dagger pressed to the tender cords of her throat, and a steely arm around her waist that she didn’t dare attempt to remove.
Chapter 11
KRISTEN HELD THEDanish woman pressed tight to the front of her, but that left her back exposed to Gronwood’s right wall and however many men manned it. Yet it was those just in front of her whom she was most concerned with at the moment, in particular the giant Turgeis, who topped her by more than a foot and was too close for her peace of mind.
“Get back,” she told him, nodding in the direction of the gate.
He didn’t move. “I cannot let you harm her, lady.” His voice was calmness itself, though a deep rumble.
Kristen’s was filled with fury. “I will kill her if you force my hand!”
Erika tensed as the blade pressed closer and she felt the blood trickle to the base of her neck, but it was the rage she sensed in Kristen that put the alarm in her voice. “Do as she says, Turgeis!” Erika beseeched him.
He did, but not quickly enough to suit Kristen. It terrified her that Selig was completely exposed to those arrows on the walls,and the giant was closer to him than she was, could turn the tables on her in the blink of an eye by threatening his life.
“Away from the wagon!” she shouted at him.
“What goes here, Kristen?”
It was Thorolf who asked, with Ivarr beside him. They had come up to the front of the baggage wain, but she didn’t glance their way. “Selig is nigh dead from what they have done to him,” she told them.
They both moved their horses to the end of the wagon to see for themselves. Thorolf sucked in his breath. Ivarr started swearing.
Turgeis cut in to that, answering Kristen’s charge. “Nay, lady, he was injured before he came here.”
“He says she owes him for his condition,” Kristen snapped, “And ’tis my brother I will believe, not you.”
Turgeis did not give up so easily. “But he has not been in his right mind, has been consumed with fever. The injury was to his head. My lady did not know.”
Kristen heard Erika’s gasp, if no one else did, and hissed in her ear, “He lies well to protect you, or do you also claim innocence? That my brother came to you with an injury, likely seeking help, and you imprisoned him instead?”
Put that way, Erika was damned no matter which she claimed. The circumstances and Wulnoth’s disclaimer of the man’s previous injury wouldn’t dismiss her responsibility, orlessen her guilt in the sister’s mind. And no answer was all the answer Kristen needed.
The hiss came again in Erika’s ear. “Tell them not to ride after you, or your fate will be settled by me, rather than by my brother once he is recovered, and I tell you truly, lady. If he dies, you die.”
Erika closed her eyes briefly. She did not doubt those words, but she couldn’t believe the man would die either; shehadto believe this would be straightened out and she would be released. But something was not right. She wanted to ask Turgeis how badly the man had been whipped, but she did not dare, for he must have been whipped severely for his condition to be so dire the sister thought he might yet die.
WasTurgeis lying for her? He must be, for she couldn’t believe that head injury, real or not, had felled the man, since he had appeared no more than exhausted when she had questioned him just four nights ago. She wished Turgeis hadn’t kept it from her. It would have been better to know, despite how terrible she would have felt over it. She could have at least attended the man’s hurt herself, to make amends. But Turgeis had tried to spare her, and now, with a dagger at her throat, she would have to cooperate for the time being.
Loudly, so there would be no mistake, Erika told her men, “I will go with them for the nonce. Await my brother’s return and tell him what has occurred.” But to Kristen, softly, shefelt it fair to warn, “This could lead to war.”
“If that is so, you will not live to see it. But you flatter yourself, Dane. When your king hears of the outrage you have committed, he will be eager to make amends, and you will be the least of his concessions.”
