Page 53 of The Outlaw Viking

“Oh, Ubbi, I’ve seen hundreds of naked men, and your body is no different, believe me.”

“Hundreds of naked men!” Ubbi and Tykir both exclaimed.

“Mistress, for shame! Ye should not missay the truth. A woman of virtue such as yerself has ne’er bedded with hundreds of men.”

Tykir just grinned as he released the flour weight from his ankle. The idea of such a promiscuous sister amused the fool.

“Don’t be silly, Ubbi. I meant that, as a doctor, I have examined many, many men in my hospital.”

“Hmmm. There is a hospitium in Jorvik. Is your ‘hospital’ the same?” Ubbi asked cautiously.

“There’s a medical facility in Jorvik?” Rain asked excitedly.

“Yea, at St. Peter’s minster. The culdees—priests—care fer the sick an’ dying in their own hospitium.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful When can we go to see it? Is it nearby?”

“’Tis a day’s ride from here, but you cannot leave until Selik returns,” Tykir explained, his long blond hair falling forward as he leaned on his wooden staff, trying to pull himself up off the bed. “Selik gave orders, and he would have my head, as well as yours, if I disobey.”

“No, don’t get up,” she told Tykir, pressing him back down. She began to massage his thigh through his leggings. At first, her intimate touch embarrassed him. Then he cursed her as she drew out each painful tendon. “Oh, sweet Mother of Thor! Do you save my life just to throw me back in the grave?”

“Don’t be such a baby.”

Later, he sighed with pleasure at her expert manipulation, his dark lashes closing briefly over big brown eyes so like her brother Dave’s. “Truly, you have magical fingers, my sister.”

Suddenly, Rain noticed Ubbi inching his way toward the open doorway. “Don’t you dare leave. I’m done with Tykir’s workout for today, and now it’s your turn.”

Ubbi rolled his eyes pleadingly toward Tykir, but her brother just laughed. “Let the witch work her wiles on you, Ubbi. Who knows? Mayhap her hands will perform wonders on your flesh as well.”

Tykir hobbled out of the room on his makeshift crutch, chuckling with amusement over Ubbi’s apparent discomfort at being left alone with Rain.

Rain had to cajole, threaten, and bribe Ubbi into removing his garments, but even then he would only strip down to his loincloth. She barely stifled a gasp of horror at the misshapen condition of his body.

“Ubbi, how long have you suffered from arthritis?” At his look of confusion, she reworded her question. “How old were you when you first felt a stiffening in your joints? Is it more painful sometimes than others?”

While she asked her questions, Rain checked out every inch of his body with probing fingers, from his bunched shoulders to his knobby feet, except, of course, for his genital area. She knew Ubbi would never allow her to examine him there.

Finally, she forced Ubbi to lie facedown on the bed, despite his protests and obvious humiliation. With alternately firm and gentle pressing and flexing of her fingers, she soon loosened his painfully gnarled muscles.

“Oh, mistress, I have not felt so good since I was a boy,” Ubbi said on a sigh, his voice overflowing with adoration.

Rain smiled, happy to help the sweet man. “Starting tomorrow, I’ll do the massages twice a day. It would be great if we could find some oil. Also, I’ll give you some exercises to do on your own. And we might even be able to gather some herbs to alleviate the pain. Oh, and I just thought of something else—hot mud packs all over your body.”

Ubbi groaned, but his rheumy eyes bespoke his heartfelt thanks. “Do you truly think you can make me better?”

“No, I can’t cure you, Ubbi,” Rain said, patting him gently on the shoulder. “There’s no way to correct an arthritic condition, but there are things that can help make a person more mobile and pain-free.”

“’Tis a miracle,” Ubbi declared, and Rain knew her status as an angel in Ubbi’s eyes had just gone up another notch. He practically skipped out of the room.

Suddenly, Rain realized that she’d forgotten the reason for coming up to Tykir’s bedchamber in the first place—to get answers to her questions about Selik. Searching for Tykir once again, she found him in the great hall, directing some of the captives in cleaning out the soiled rushes and scrubbing down the tables.

“Tykir, I meant to ask you something earlier. Where has Selik gone?”

“He did not tell you?”

“No. Is it a secret?”

“Nay,” he replied carefully under her intent scrutiny. “He travels back north to the Alban lands of King Constantine.”