And then the truth occurred to him with no little amazement and relief. “You actually lied to him?”
The wariness left abruptly, replaced with something akin to annoyance. “You doubted I would? We had a bargain. You kept your part, so I could do no less.”
Mention of the “bargain” brought some annoyance of his own. But before he could react to it, another joined them.
Erika saw him first and beamed with pleasure. “Turgeis! Ragnar did not mention you were—”
She ended on a gasp as Turgeis reached for Selig to turn him around. Ragnar’s punch hadn’t moved Selig. Turgeis’s punch knocked him flat on his back and unconscious.
“Nay!” Erika cried and fell to her knees beside Selig. “You cannot hurt him, Turgeis!”
His voice was a growl. “Why can I not?”
“He has suffered enough at our hands.”
“And you have not suffered at his?”
“Not at all.”
He lifted her to her feet. “Do not lie to me as you did to your brother.”
She flushed. “In this I am not. Truly, Turgeis. All he did to me was try to embarrass me, and make threats that never came to pass.”
“He still means to have his revenge.”
“Mayhap,” she allowed, “But you cannot interfere. Heismy husband.”
“Husbands can be gotten rid of.”
“Do not even think it!”
Selig moaned then. Erika bent to him again. It took a moment for his eyes to focus on her.
“I believe you know my friend Turgeis,” she said hesitantly.
Selig looked beyond her to the giant standing at her back. “Did you also hit me for the worry I caused you, or are we not finished?”
“My lady says we are finished—for now.”
Selig’s eyes dropped back to Erika. “You were wise to call him off. My family would not take it kindly were I to leave here all mangled, and neither would I.”
Erika grinned and glanced over her shoulder. “You see, Turgeis? Naught but threats.”
Turgeis and Selig both grunted in reply.
Chapter 34
RAGNAR ASKED TOsee Selig’s home and was taken there that afternoon, after the king’s departure. Erika was in a fine state of nerves the while they were gone, because she had not been invited to accompany them, and they left before she got up the nerve to invite herself. And they went alone, which made her anxiety that much worse.
She remained in the hall, since no one told her she couldn’t. But the only ones who spoke to her at all were Selig’s parents, and that just briefly. From the rest of the hall, at least from the women, she received nothing but hostile looks. She had dared to marrytheirSelig. They weren’t going to forgive her for it.
She could have cared less right then. All she could think about was her brother and husband killing each other, and no one around to try to stop them.
Anything could have happened, but amazingly, nothing did. Ragnar and Selig returned before dark, both without wounds, and Ragnar certainly in better humor than when he had left.
He had only good things to say about Selig’s home—from a man’s point of view. “He has a few veryaccommodatingslaves whom a wife might want to get rid of, but other than that, I think you will do well there.”
The emphasis he put on that word told her that Ragnar, at least, had been “accommodated,” which would account for his relaxed mood. Her brother always was unusually mellow after fornicating. She looked for the same signs in her husband, but he was no different than when she had seen him before in the midst of many, quick to smile at all the women and quick to laugh, even at himself.
