Page 72 of The Caged Viking

“Does that mean you want to stay here…that you love me?”

“I said like, not love.”

“Ah,” he drawled out, “’twould seem I have more work to do.” Then he added, “I can’t wait.”

Chapter 16

Doctor Seuss never had this in mind…

As Hauk approached the dais, leading Kirstin by the hand, he saw that Zoya did indeed sit in the center of the high table, as he’d feared, and was giving orders and smiling down on her “subjects.” He thought he’d made it clear when he talked to Zoya earlier that she would be leaving Haukshire soon, and had hinted that mayhap she should stay out of sight until then. He should have known better; apparently she hadn’t gotten the hint.

To his disgust, the others at the table, Egil, Thorkel, and Bjorn, were grinning at him, like skyrr-eating piglets, just waiting to see what he would do next.

He wished he knew.

Suddenly, he had an idea and stopped in his tracks. He ordered two nearby housecarls to pull one of the empty trestle tables and a bench up front in the space before the dais. He then directed Signe, who was about to pass by on the way to her seat at the far end of the hall, to go into the treasure room and gather a few objects.

Signe smiled as she became aware of what Hauk was up to.

Soon there was a new table arranged cross-wise to all the lines of trestle tables, and on it had been placed a tablecloth (a luxury even many noble estates did not have), several gold goblets, and even some sterling forks and knives. A new “high table.”

He did not need to look up to know that Zoya would be outraged at being outsmarted.

“Well done!” Kirstin congratulated him, as they sat down facing all his laughing and cheering people, helped along by the large amount of ale they’d already consumed.

“Does that mean you like me even more?” he asked, putting a hand over his heart.

“Maybe a little,” she conceded.

That was good enough for him. Battles were often won by small well-fought skirmishes over time.

“This reminds me of Sneeches,” she said while several housecarls were carrying platters of food and pitchers of ale to their table.

“Sneeches?”

“They’re bird-like creatures in a famous children’s story of modern times. In this book, the star-bellied Sneeches are lording it over the inferior plain-bellied Sneeches. So, some inventive fellow creates a way to put stars on bellies, and soon everyone is equal, which infuriates the original starred birds, and they look for a way to remove their stars so that then the superior Sneeches will be those without stars.”

He frowned with confusion. “What has that to do with us?”

“Well, Zoya was lording it over us by seating herself at the high table, but then you created a new ‘high table’. I guarantee that Zoya will be envious and want to sit here now. Oh, I know it’s a stretch, not a really good comparison.” She waved a hand dismissively.

“Nay, you are correct. Value is in the eye or head of the beholder, and can change at the flick of a wrist. I know a man who collected feathers, all kinds, hundreds of them and he valued them more than other treasures, which caused his comrades to mock him at every chance. Then, one day he decided to sell the collection to some Saxon earl, who paid him fifty mancuses of gold. Guess what his comrades started collecting after that?”

“Feathers,” she guessed. “Actually, the book is considered a lesson in equality, how everyone is the same.”

“That, too, I understand. In fact, I think my setting a table here on the same level with my people sets a good example of how I view them.”

“Exactly,” she said.

He was fairly certain she was liking him even more now.

Thorkel soon joined them and reached for a goblet of ale, downing it in one long swallow.

“What is amiss now?” Hauk asked.

“Zoya…she keeps putting her hand on my thigh, far up. Very far up.”

Hauk grinned. “And that bothers you…why? Seems to me you have always been up for new quarry.”