He collapsed, unconscious. Royce retrieved his sword and handed it to Selig.
“That was your wisest move,” he said. “For he was determined to let you kill him—and without telling you where Erika is. We will question him further when he comes around, yet do I doubt we will get any more out of him.”
“Any more?” Kristen questioned as she and Turgeis joined them.
“He said we will never find her, yet she is right beneath our nose. There is a clue in that, if we can but discern it.”
“Beneath our nose would be right here, or so near we should stumble over her,” Kristen replied. “Yet I have already had the servants search every container, crate, trunk, even the barrels, anything big enough to stuff a body into. She is not hid within these walls.”
“What does she say?” Turgeis asked Selig.
Selig repeated it, and the clue they now had—and made up his mind then and there that he was going to learn Saxon if it killed him. His sister was grinning at his exasperation, for only Royce was excluded from the conversation, now they had switched to Norwegian.
“If we eliminate Wyndhurst, then that leaves the immediate area beyond,” Kristen pointed out. “Where was their camp located?”
“Near a woods.”
“Then mayhap they found a cave or a tunnel.”
“Or a pit,” Turgeis added.
Selig frowned at that suggestion, reminding him, “Your pit was a four-walled shack.”
“First it was a hole in the ground. Is there anything like that in the area?” Turgeis asked.
“Not that I know of,” Selig replied.
“Could they have dug their own?” Kristen wondered aloud.
Both Selig and Turgeis stared at her incredulously for a moment; then both suddenly ran for their horses.
Chapter 47
THE PIT WASnot easily found. It took an hour of moving bodies aside to cover every inch of ground, then working their way outward. It was Turgeis who discovered it and threw off the grass covering, but it was Selig who was determined to lift Erika out. She was not conscious, could not help even if she were, but her condition absolutely terrified him. And he couldn’t reach her far enough to grasp more than her head, nor was there room in the pit for him to climb down. In the end, Turgeis had to lower him by his feet, then drag them both out at once, luckily an easy task for him.
She woke before she was laid on the ground, putting their worst fear to rest. Selig ran his dagger along the length of her side, cutting all the loops that bound her, but that was all he did before he yanked her up into his arms, crushing her with his emotion.
“Thank the gods you are all right!Areyou all right? If they hurt you, I will kill them again, every one of them. Ah, sweetling, I love you so much. I have never been so frightened in my life! And if youevergo off alone againlike you did, I swear I will put you back in chains.”
Behind them, Turgeis cleared his throat. “You might get a response from her if you finish untieing her and remove that gag.”
Selig laughed. His relief was making him almost giddy. And Erikawastrying to say something through her gag, seemed somewhat urgent about it.
He cut away the last two restraints. Her arms were stiff, but she still managed to raise them to pull the gag out, then immediately started yanking at her clothes.
“Help me,” she gasped out, “get them off!”
“What off?”
“My gowns! I am crawling with bugs!”
Her hysteria communicated itself to him, and with each helping, her clothes had never come off so fast. And although he could see no more than two insects on her, she was slapping and rubbing at herself everywhere. He helped her, though much more gently, smoothing her skin with his hands, soothing her panic with the calmness of his voice as he uttered nonsense to put her at ease.
“My hair,” she cried, and meticulously, he examined every inch of it for her, until he could tell her the bugs were all removed.
She collapsed against him then, hugging him, thanking him, crying, and suddenly he was too aware of her nakedness—and that they were not alone. He looked toward Turgeis, but the giant was paying them no notice, had turned his back and was sitting on the ground, calmlydoing to Erika’s clothes what Selig had done to her hair, examining every inch of them, inside and out, until every insect had been removed. The sight was so incongruous, of that fearsome Viking sitting there plucking bugs from a lady’s gowns, that Selig wanted to laugh. He didn’t. Turgeis had today earned his friendship for life.
Not until Erika was reclothed did her thoughts turn to her rescue and the conclusion she drew that would explain their finding her. “You withdrew the challenge for me?” she asked Selig in wonder.
