Page 44 of My Fair Viking

I wonder where the rest of Alrek's brood is.

His answer came far too soon.

Tunni and Kristin came rushing toward him, pushing a wooden wheelbarrow. Inside the wheelbarrow was a screeching Besji.

"Can you help us?" Tunni was addressing him, unfortunately, not Tykir or Rashid.

"How?"

"Change Besji's nappy," Kristin pleaded. "She made a smelly."

"Can't you find some woman in the keep to help you?"

Kristin shook her head vehemently from side to side, even as her thumb was planted firmly in her tiny mouth. Speaking around the thumb, she told him, "Alrek sez to come to you if we be in trouble."

Tunni was nodding his head just as vehemently as Kristin had shaken hers. "And a stinksome nappy counts as big trouble, don'tcha think?"

"Absolutely," Tykir answered. "It is right up there with other big troubles… like being kidnapped by a woman."

"Trouble rides a fast camel," Rashid agreed, "but betimes it rides on the back of a small child."

"Where's Alrek?" Adam shouted as loud as his lungs would allow. His unexpected bellow caused several running Vikings to stumble and Tyra to drop her sword.

"Holy Thor!" Tykir exclaimed, staring at something behind Adam.

"For the love of Allah, the boy attracts disaster like rotten meat attracts maggots," Rashid remarked.

Adam peered around to see what his two companions were gaping at and saw a dazed Alrek lying on the ground. It appeared that he'd been knocked over by a fast-trotting Norseman. And Tyra! When she'd dropped her sword in surprise, her opponent had apparently sliced her forearm accidentally.

For the first time in Adam's life, the sight of blood almost caused him to lose consciousness… because it was Tyra's blood.

"Leave off, Saxon," Tyra complained for at least the twelfth time. "It is just a tiny gash, I tell you."

"Hah! Your tiny gash will take ten stitches, and I intend to sew such a fine line that you will scarce be able to see the scar in your fair skin. Dost think I would let Bjorn, your blacksmith-berserker, tend to you again? Not bloody likely!"

They were in the small solar that had been assigned for his medical work. Adam had been forced to drag Tyra there for treatment, against her will.

"You have no right!"

"I have every right. You are the woman who will be sharing my bed furs—"

"Mayhap," she corrected.

"Probably," he countered. "And I did not bargain for a scarred-up naked body in my bed."

"You are insufferable."

"Yea, I am. 'Tis one of my better qualities, don't you think?"

"Aaarrgh!"

"I assume that means yes."

"Stitch the bloody wound and get it over with. Alrek is probably out there shooting arrows again, or attempting to sharpen your sword. Better yet, I heard him asking the beekeeper if he could help collect honeycombs today. Do you know how to treat bee stings?"

Now, that was reason to make haste.

"I like your attire today," he commented as he washed the gash carefully with soap and water.