“Mayhap the one arguing with Turgeis. Who else would dare?”
Royce chuckled. Kristen was glad he could find something amusing in this, because she could not.
Chapter 27
THREE RODE FORWARDtoward the closed gate. Turgeis Ten Feet was one. The sight of his oversized ax, strung across his back, gave Kristen chills. They would have no need of a battering ram. She imagined that ax alone could shatter their wooden gate if the giant was wielding it.
She decided Ragnar was the one in the middle, though the helmet he wore kept her from seeing his features. Large he was and finely honed by war, but she was pleased to note that her brother was much larger. Selig could take him with ease—if he were fully recovered. Unfortunately, he might be behaving normally again, but that did not mean he was ready for mortal combat.
The horses stopped. Two of the men removed their helmets, tucking them beneath thick arms. Turgeis had not worn one, nor chain mail, like his companions.
“I am Ragnar Haraldsson.”
Kristen had picked him accurately. A handsome man with gold hair tinged with red, and azure eves—just like his sister.
“We know who you are,” she called down to him. “I am Kristen of Wyndhurst.”
“Aye, we know who you are as well, lady.”
There was anger in his tone now, just for her, and it sounded new. She wondered if she had Turgeis to thank for that and decided she did. It was likely he had recounted what had happened outside Gronwood’s gates word for word, deed for deed, whereas before Ragnar arrived, he probably had only a sketchy telling from those left behind.
“Does my sister still live?”
The question might have surprised her moments ago, but didn’t now. And mayhap Turgeis had done them a favor by convincing his lord that she was as bloodthirsty as any man. It certainly couldn’t hurt for him to think so if it came down to bluffing.
“Your sister enjoys good health—for the time being.”
Thank God Royce could not understand her, for he would be yanking her up by the neck and shaking her for what was, in fact, a subtle threat. Ragnar, on the other hand, appeared to have expected no less.
He merely said, “I would see her.”
“If you are willing to come alone, you may enter our gates. Otherwise, you must take my word for it that she has come to no harm here.”
He was not pleased at all with that answer. “Where is your husband, that I might speak with him?”
“My Lord Royce stands beside me. Speak tohim if you know Saxon. If not, you must speak through me.”
He liked that answer even less. “You know why I am come, lady. You had no right to take my sister.”
Her voice rose to more equal his. “Rights? You want to discuss rights? Firstly, my brother was on a mission for King Alfred to your king. He was sorely injured on the way and came to your Gronwood for aid. There he was accused of spying. The truth he offered was disbelieved. And he was lashed. With a raging fever and already in severe pain, he was lashed. He has the right to demand retribution for that, and your sister will answer to him for it.”
“I have it from her man, Turgeis, that the lashing was ordered in anger because this Selig insulted her. I also have it from him that she was about to cancel the order when my son broke his arm and drew her attention to him instead. She made a mistake, but your brother made it first by trying to treat her as a common wench instead of thejarl’s daughter she is. I will not have her suffer for a mistake.”
Kristen had heard from Royce about the “anger” that was supposedly responsible for the lashing. But she was to believe that lashing would not have occurred if Erika had not had her attention drawn elsewhere? When it took only a few words, given to any passing servant, to end or delay an order? She didn’t think so.
And Ragnar’s story did not account for thelady’s laughter, which Selig clearly recalled. The amusement she had found in his suffering. She had to have been there to see it, which meant Ragnar was either misinformed by Turgeis or lying himself to save his sister. Kristen could not fault him for that, since she would have done the same thing. That it wouldn’t work was because she was aware of more facts than he.
For his effort, she gave him a tight little smile that he could interpret as he would. “When my brother is satisfied that your sister has paid all she owes him, then will she be sent home.”
“If all he wants is money—”
“He will not accept money.”
There was a long silence while he considered the implication of that. “He has raped her?”
“If she is no longer a maiden, ’tis her own doing and no fault of ours.”
“You are saying she is not?”
