Page 124 of The Outlaw Viking

“Do you love Athelstan?” she asked suddenly, unable to control her curiosity.

Elgiva leveled an assessing look at Rain, seeming to weigh her words carefully. Finally, she raised her chin haughtily and admitted in a soft voice, “Yea, I do.”

“And is it true that he took a vow of celibacy to protect the royal bloodlines for his young nephews?”

Tears pooled in Elgiva’s hazel eyes, and she nodded.

“Does he love you?”

“Yea, he does. We have known each other since he fostered at the court of his aunt, Queen Aethelflaed, in Mercia. But there is no hope for us,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Rain put a hand gently over Elgiva’s. “I understand perfectly what it’s like to love a man and know there is no future.”

They both sat silently for several moments. Rain laughed lightly then. “Too bad I couldn’t have brought some birth control pills for you from the fut—from my country.”

Elgiva’s posture went suddenly alert. “Birth control pills?”

Rain explained and told her about all the methods available for women. Elgiva was very interested.

“And you say that patch under your skin protects you from conceiving a child?”

“Yes. Implants are still somewhat experimental, but supposedly they last for about five years.”

Elgiva’s lush lips formed a perfect O of amazement. “Could I have one?” she whispered hopefully.

Rain smiled. “No, unfortunately I wouldn’t have any idea where to get another.”

“I will have yours then,” she said imperiously.

“No, that wouldn’t be safe.”

Elgiva’s shoulders slumped. “The future holds naught for me then. I may as well return to my home in Mercia. ’Tis torture to be near Athelstan and not be with him.”

“It’s funny, but when I was talking to Selik and Eirik the other day, I laughingly mentioned giving the king a vasectomy.”

“A vas…vasectomy?”

Although her face paled when Rain explained the intricacies of the operation, Elgiva asked, “And the man can still…you know…perform?”

Rain nodded.

“And the pleasure is the same?” she asked incredulously.

Rain nodded again.

“Could you do it for Athelstan?”

“Oh, no! I was just teasing. It would be impossible without anesthetics and painkillers.” Rain suddenly thought of Tykir and the operation she’d performed on him with acupuncture.

“It can be done! I see it on your face. I had heard you were a healer, but this—oh, ’twould make you world-renowned.”

“Oh, no, no,” Rain quickly interjected. What she didn’t want was fame, or to change the course of history. “I couldn’t do it.”

“Have you ever performed a vas—vasectomy?”

“Well, yes, but…” Rain found it impossible to explain modern medical facilities to this Dark Age lady, and Eirik had warned her about discussing the future or time-travel in a land suspicious of sorcery. “Besides, do you honestly think the king—any man here, for that matter—would let me tamper with his manhood? Men are really touchy about such things, even in my country.”

“Athelstan would if I asked him to,” Elgiva asserted, her slight laugh betraying her uncertainty.