Page 109 of The Outlaw Viking

“Nay, you will not. You need not beggar yourself by accepting charity from such tight-fisted clerics. I will buy all that you need.”

And, much to the delight of the Jorvik merchants, he did. In the end, he hired a wagon to cart all their goods back to the farmstead—fresh beef, ten live laying chickens, a milk cow, raw vegetables, crisp apples, mead, honey and flour.

“Selik, people are going to wonder where a monk got so much money,” she whispered worriedly as he once again pulled out his pouch of coins at a merchant’s stand.

He responded by telling her, loud enough for the merchant to overhear, “Brother Godwine, are you truly sorry that I stole the bishop’s hoard he was saving for a new jeweled chalice?” When she eyed him warily, he went on. “Even you must admit, the orphans cannot eat gold and garnets.”

The merchant muttered under his breath in agreement, “Bloody priests! Care more fer jewels than the poor.” To show his support, he threw in a couple of extra loaves of bread.

“See. I have some uses,” Selik boasted as they headed toward Ella’s shop.

Rain couldn’t help but smile then, and Selik smiled back at her in all his glorious beauty. Her heart filled with all the love she felt for him. She wanted to say so many things to him, but didn’t know how. So many feelings blossomed within her. She wanted to shout to the world her wondrous love for this man, and to hug it to herself in secret savoring. This was the love of a lifetime—a thousand lifetimes!

Was this why she had been sent back in time? She had thought she was sent to save Selik, but maybe this love was just a gift from God. If so, how was she to help Selik?

Love.

Rain cringed at the return of the voice in her head. Love? That’s all? How can love save Selik?

Love begets love, child. Love begets love.

Rain groaned aloud.

“You have that look on your face again, sweetling, and you are muttering. Talking to God, are you?”

Rain shot a look of disgust at Selik and his too perceptive observation. “Yeah, and he sent a message for you.”

“Oh, really!” Selik laughed. “Do not tell me that Ubbi and I are both blessed with these miraculous messages of yours.”

“Don’t be so sarcastic.”

They had almost reached Ella’s shop, and Selik was about to open the side door when he asked, “So, what was the message? Does he want me to do penance for plowing the virgin fields of one of his angels?”

Rain shook her head as if he was beyond hope.

“What God said, honey, was, ‘Tell that bad boy, Selik, to hold on to the seat of his pants because I’m sending the love boat his way.’”

Selik burst out laughing and put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her warmly against his side. Rain couldn’t resist wrapping her arms around his waist and joining in his laughter.

When they both turned forward, Ella and all the workers in her shop were staring at them with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

“The priests are huggin’ each other. Oh, holy Lord!” one freckle-faced young woman exclaimed, making the sign of the cross.

“Gawd! No doubt, the Almighty will send a pestilence down on this shop fer harborin’ such doin’s,” another woman exclaimed. “Frogs, no doubt. The Lord has a partiality to frogs fer punishment, I hear tell.”

“I will have no such perversions in me shop,” Ella declared vehemently, advancing on them with a broom in hand. It was only as she got closer that Rain saw the recognition in her eyes. She was putting on a show for her workers. “Come into me side room and tell me yer bizness. Then begone with ye—ye sodomites.”

When she closed the door behind them in her primitive “office”, she turned on them angrily. “Are ye daft? Do ye want to put me out of bizness? If the townsfolk hear I condone such depravities, they will shun me like maggots on a Yule pudding.”

Selik pushed the hood down off his head and sat on a high stool, grinning at Ella.

“Do not think ye can turn me with one of yer winsome smiles,” Ella grumbled. “I am well past the age fer carin’ whether a man be bow-legged or ungodly handsome.”

“Ungodly handsome, am I?” Selik asked, fluttering his long eyelashes at her.

“Nay, I was referrin’ to yer being’ bowlegged, you fool.”

“Ella, did you tell Ubbi that I would give him to you if you helped me?” Rain asked.