“I knew I would find excellent uses for this,”he continued. “Just as I knew chains would become you. Get used to the weight, wench, for they are never coming off.”
Color deserted her cheeks. That he had said it gently, softly, made it all the more horrible. And she had not been given all of her chains yet. There was one more, some six feet in length, with larger round links at each end, that he brought to the ring at her neck.
After a few moments of feeling his knuckles brushing against her skin, she heard him chuckle in defeat. “The smith is to be commended. You will have to do this for me, Ivarr, until my strength returns.”
He couldn’t open the clasping link, which meant she wouldn’t be able to either. But she would, somehow. Desperation added strength, and she was not the weakling they seemed to think she was.
Ivarr, of course, did as requested, and within seconds, the last chain was attached to her. “Where do you want the spike?” he asked Selig.
“The corner she favors will do for now.”
She hadn’t noticed the hooked spike tucked in Ivarr’s belt. As he dragged her back across the room by her neck chain, she saw the hammer tucked in his belt at his back. Two strikes embedded the spike in the wall. Two seconds more and she was chained to it.
He left the room immediately thereafter. Erika stood there in the corner, staring at the spike in the wall. It wasn’t so high thatshe couldn’t lie down, but she couldn’t move more than six feet away from it.
She heard Selig getting comfortable on his soft bed again. He likely watched her for a long while before he finally slept, the candles still burning, savoring her defeat. Erika didn’t sleep at all.
Chapter 21
BRENNA SLAMMED Afist into her pillow before she dropped down onto it. She was a cauldron of seething emotions, and had been ever since she realized her son was in pain. She loved all of her children too dearly not to empathize with them completely, and just now she raged over what Selig had gone through.
She looked toward her husband as he stood brooding at the window, which he had been doing for the past hour. He was as bad as she was where their children were concerned. He simply contained his emotions, whereas no one could doubt her mood was on the explosive side.
“She is not going to get what she deserves,” she commented, expressing what was on her mind. “He is too softhearted when women are involved.”
Garrick didn’t need to ask of whom she spoke. “But one has never hurt him before,” he reminded her before he drained the wine in his goblet and joined her in the bed. “Just what is it you feel she deserves?”
“I saw his back. It has been nigh a sennightsince he was lashed, yet the bruises are still there to attest to the severity of it. And when I think of the pain he was already in from his head injury—”
“You would take a whip to her? A man is strong enough to bear it, but a woman?”
“That is just it,” she insisted. “He wasnotstrong enough at the time.”
He pulled her close to rest against his chest, his hands on her back attempting to soothe her. “He is ours. You are upset because he was hurt at all. I do not like it either. But consider, love, what he was accused of—”
“Falsely—”
“But accused nonetheless, and the Danes have not been at peace long enough to treat spying indifferently. He could have been tortured for a confession and hanged. He could have been whipped instead of lashed, which he might not have survived. Instead of bearing bruises, his back could have been shredded. Be grateful itwasa woman deciding the matter and she did no more than have him lashed.”
“You can be grateful for that,” she said. “I can still resent her.”
Her tone was less severe, a mere grumble, telling him she had listened and even agreed, though she wouldn’t admit it. “It will be interesting to see how Selig perceives the matter once he is hale and hearty again.”
Brenna raised her head to look at him. “You think he will just shrug it off and let her go?”
“Not that, but I doubt he will require pain for pain, as he would were she a man.”
She shook her head at him. “I know what you are thinking, Garrick, and ’tis just like a man to think it, but you are wrong. He will not force her to his bed. He said as much. His women would tell youthatwould be a reward, and he does not intend to reward her.”
Garrick laughed. “I remember how you felt about that first time.”
She did as well, with less humor. “Do not remind me of my ignorance and Delia’s petty idea of revenge, to make me fear something so wonderful.”
He rolled over to grin down at her. “What I remember was that once was not enough for you.”
Her fingers came up to trace his beloved face. “Once is never enough for me with you, Viking. But then, I have taught you how to please your wife well.”
“Have you indeed?”
