Meghan surprised them both by asking then, “Why did you order her chained to the wall, Royce?”
He was just annoyed enough with Alden to answer with a sneer, “Because she wants to kill our cousin here, and he has not the strength to protect himself from her, so I must do it for him.”
Meghan turned around in his lap to give Alden a wide-eyed look. “Why does she want to kill you?”
“Why, indeed?” he bemoaned mockingly. “I am such a nice fellow.”
“Then you must be mistaken,” Meghan said.
“Nay, little one, ’tis in fact true,” Alden admitted. “I am supposed to have killed someone she calls Selig, and she says she wants revenge for his death.”
“Youkilled Selig?” Meghan gasped. “Oh, Alden, why did you have to be the one? She must hate you terribly.”
Royce leaned across the table and grasped his sister’s chin to make her look at him. “Do you know who Selig was, Meghan?” he asked softly.
“Yea, she told me who he was. But she got so upset when she mentioned him. ’Twas after I told her Jurro was destroyed by the Danes. She said Selig and half the others died for naught. She frightened me then, for she pounded the table with her fists, then toppled it over. I have not talked to her since, but I suppose now she was only violent because of her grief. She was so friendly to me before that.”
“Aye, she can be a very friendly wench when it suits her,” Royce murmured to himself, but he was not forgetting what interested him most. “Who was Selig, Meghan?”
“Did Alden not ask her?”
“Meghan!”
She paled at his raised voice and answered quickly, “Her brother, Royce. She said he was her friend, and brother.”
Even in his sudden confusion at her revelation, Royce noted her anxiety and cursed himself for causing it with his impatience. “Meghan, sweet, I am not angry with you.”
“Not even for speaking to her?”
“Nay, not even for that,” he assured her. “Now, why not go and see what treasures Darrelle has found? She has brought in some of the cargo that was taken from the Viking ship. She said something about finding fur trimmings for new gowns for you and her.”
Meghan went off happily to the other side of the hall, where the women were gathered. Royce sat back, staring at Alden, seeing that his cousin was as surprised as he was.
“A brother!” Royce said incredulously. “How could she have a brother among those men? ’Twould mean he knew why she was there and countenanced it.”
“Mayhap we were wrong in assuming she is a whore?” Alden suggested.
“Nay,” Royce replied testily. “She has admitted what she is.”
Alden shrugged. “Then they must have a different outlook on such things. What do you really know of their kind? Mayhap they find naught wrong with a woman who gives herself to many. Who is to say all their women are not whores?”
Royce frowned, for he was remembering Kristen telling him she knew no other whores. But he did not mention this to Alden, for he saw that Darrelle was about to interrupt them.
“Royce, look at this,” Darrelle cried excitedly, showing him the gown she had found. “Have you ever seen such fine velvet? It must surely come from the Far East.”
He merely glanced disinterestedly at the dark-green material she held, until she shook it out and held it up in front of her, so that it lay over her own clothes. The gown was sleeveless, and very rich indeed, with precious pearls forming a thick rope along the deep V of the neckline. Another rope of pearls was tied about the narrow waist, apparently to be used for a girdle. A solid-gold clasp was used for fastening the belt.
“There is another gown of the same design,” Darrelle went on to say. “And shoes to match, with armbands of pure gold and a necklace of amber stones. They were all bundled together. Will you give them to Corliss, Royce? She will surely love such rich gifts. If not, I can make use of them myself. But whichever, the gowns will have to be altered. Sleeves have to be added, but the same material can be used, for much of it has to be cut off the bottom. The gowns are much too long, as you can see. I swear the women of Norway must all be giants. To wear such long gowns they would have to be.”
Royce was staring at the extra material—a good half foot of it, at least—that lay on the floor at Darrelle’s feet. “Have them taken to my chamber, Cousin.”
“You do not want me to alter them?” she asked in disappointment.
“Nay, not just yet.”
The moment Darrelle walked away, Royce’s eyes flew to the cooking area at the far end of the hall, and lit on Kristen. She stood with her head bent over the task she was about, yet she still stood at least half a foot or more above the other women around her. Her long, graceful body was covered in the same clothes she had been given, clothes too tight and confining for her, and much too short.
“What are you thinking, Cousin?” Alden asked suspiciously, seeing where his attention had gone.
