Page 50 of My Fair Viking

6) Kiss Her Boneless

7) Get Her Alone

8) Gifts

9) Tell Her Sex Tales

10) Be Chivalrous

11) Viking S-Spot

"Can I write a saga about this?" Bolthor wanted to know.

"Nay!" everyone exclaimed as one.

"Alinor would kill me," Tykir said with a shiver, then smiled brightly. "Tyra doesn't stand a chance."

Adam suspected that it was himself who didn't stand a chance.

Chapter Nine

Tyra's sisters were acting mighty suspicious.

They had prepared a bath for her… in her own bedchamber, no less. The four of them had lugged the big brass tub all the way up the stairs, and then made three return trips each, carrying water.

"It's the least we can do for you when you worked so hard in the exercise fields today," Ingrith said.

And Drifa kept sprinkling those blasted rose petals in the water, "just to make you a tiny bit fragrant." Tyra didn't have the heart to tell her that she had no desire to smell like a rose. There is naught wrong with the scent of plain, clean skin, if you ask me, which nobody is doing.

Vana was soaping up Tyra's hair right now… always a tedious task because the tresses were so long. "I've been thinking about cutting it all off," Tyra mused aloud.

"Nay!" all four of her sisters cried, and Lady Alinor as well, who had just walked into the bedchamber carrying a message for Ingrith that she was needed in the kitchens. Apparently, there was some problem with a curdled custard. Plus, Alrek had announced his intention to go gather eggs from the chicken coop. Ingrith rushed off, making her apologies—as if Tyra needed her to continue her bath.

"So, what do you think of my nephew Adam?" Alinor asked of a sudden. It was hard to picture Alinor as Adam's aunt, when she was only a few years older than he.

Her three remaining sisters cast chastising scowls at the lady, as if she'd asked an inappropriate question. Well, it was inappropriate, but then, Alinor was an outspoken woman. And, really, Tyra didn't mind the question.

"He's a toad."

Alinor clapped her hands together as if Tyra had given the correct answer. "That's exactly what I used to call Tykir, afore he became my husband. Well, actually, I still call him a toad on occasion. Toadliness is a male trait, you know. Right up there with excessive lustiness."

Everyone smiled.

"I heard that you kidnapped Adam," Alinor continued.

"Yea, I did, but 'twas necessary because—"

Alinor waved a hand to indicate the cause mattered not. "Didst know that Tykir kidnapped me at one time?"

"He did?" all of them said.

Alinor nodded. "Yea, he did, the sweet toad." She jiggled her eyebrows at them for emphasis.

They all smiled some more.

What an unusual lady she was. Tyra would like to get to know her better, but of course that would be impossible when she was in faraway Byzantium, serving with the Varangian Guard.

"I'd best be off, too, to help Ingrith," Vana said.