Page 139 of The Outlaw Viking

“Ye sound like a bloody parrot.”

Selik growled menacingly at Ubbi, and he backed away. “Tell me afore I pull out your tongue.”

“She goes to Coppergate every day. Packs that bloody bag of hers, says good-bye to all of us, cries a bit—Lord, the woman can cry a goodly amount—and—”

“Argh! Spit it out afore I pull out your tongue and tie it in a knot.”

“Testy, are ye?” Ubbi said. “What I bin tryin’ to tell ye is that she lost the aura.”

“Aura! What aura?”

Ubbi threw his hands up in the air. “I jist knew ye would ask me that, master. Truly, I do not understand these things. The aura—’tis what God sends down to bring His angels back to heaven, I s’pose. I do not know, really.”

Selik began to understand. He had felt the strange pulling sensation that day on Coppergate, months ago, when Rain had tried to go back to the future. She claimed her time-travel had begun there. ’Twas the site where she believed she would have to go to return to her own time.

A chill spread over Selik’s flesh, and he braced his hands at his sides for strength. “When did she leave?”

“Afore midday. She is usually back by now,” Ubbi said, biting his bottom lip worriedly. “Mayhap it finally worked fer her today.”

Selik looked at the lowering sun in the sky. It was late afternoon. Had the “aura” finally worked for Rain on the very day he returned? Surely, God could not be so cruel. He looked upward then. Could You?

You wound Me with your lack of trust.

Selik turned on his heel then, without saying another word, and headed back toward Jorvik.

Chapter Twenty-two

He did not meet Rain coming back to the farmstead. Nor did he find her at the Coppergate site.

And, most frightening of all, the aura had disappeared. Selik tramped all through the abandoned building and its yard. Nothing.

Rain must have come, found the aura, and gone.

Tears filled his eyes, and he rocked from side to side. Was this to be his punishment for the past ten years of bloody fighting? How could he bear the pain of her loss for the second time? For a long time, he stood staring about him, unable to move. He felt as if a huge weight lay over him, crushing out all his life forces, his will to go on living.

Finally, with a groan of despair, he turned and headed back toward the farmstead. He walked woodenly through the city streets, unseeing, racked with the pain of his lost love.

Recriminations hammered away at him. He should have loved her more. He should have trusted her and cherished her love while he had it. He should never have rejected her at Winchester.

He was nearing the minster steps when he saw Bernie—Father Bernard—enter the huge oak doors. A sudden thought occurred to him. He had much wealth. Mayhap he would make a donation to the hospitium in Rain’s memory. That would please her. He could even ask the church to mark his donation in the church records in her name. Perchance Rain would read of it many years hence and know that he had come back to her. That he had, indeed, loved her.

“Father Bernard,” he called out as he rushed through the church aisles and caught up with him near the entry to the hospitium.

The priest turned abruptly, then gasped. “Father Ethelwolf! Where is your priestly garb?”

“I am not a priest, Father Bernard,” he confessed.

“Tsk! Just like Rain, you chose to play your foolery in God’s house. For shame!”

“So you know Rain—Brother Godwine—was a woman?” he asked with a slight smile.

Father Bernard’s upper lip curled with disgust. “Yea, and most angry Father Theodric was at her deception. At first, he would not allow her to work in the hospitium.”

“Rain was still working here?” he asked in surprise. “Until when?”

“’Til now,” he answered irritably, obviously confused by the question.

It took only a moment for the cleric’s words to sink in.