Page 83 of My Fair Viking

"That is the most nonsensical proverb you have spouted thus far," Tyra told Rashid.

"It means that you have been tempting me as if I were a castle cat, when in fact I am a tiger," Adam explained to her. He added a tigerish growl and a wink to make his point.

The growl and the wink touched Tyra in the most sensual way… well, actually, in the most sensual place.

"You are clearly some sort of disgusting male creature," Tyra informed Adam, clicking her tongue with disgust.

"Faults are thick where love is thin," Rashid opined.

"Shut your teeth, Rashid," Adam said cheerily.

"I still want to know what finger-pleasuring is," Breanne said.

"Me, too. Me, too," chimed in Ingrith and Drifa.

"Enough!" the king roared.

When there was silence in the room, he addressed Adam. "Your request is granted. She who kidnapped you shall return you to your home."

Tyra put her face in her hands and moaned. As she heard everyone leaving the bedchamber and calling out their good wishes to her father, she wondered how her life had reached such a chaotic state, and how it could get any worse.

She soon found out.

When she opened her eyes, she realized that her father had fallen back asleep… a relaxed slumber, by the sound of his even breathing… and she saw that Adam remained in the bedchamber.

Meeting her eyes directly, he said simply, "Tonight."

Tyra required no further explanation. Adam had healed her father. Now she must fulfill the pact she'd made with him.

One night. His bed furs. Naked.

She answered him with the same simplicity, "Tonight."

But what she thought was, May the gods help me. Tonight.

"Come with me," Adam told Alrek.

"Me?" Alrek almost swallowed his teeth on hearing Adam address him directly. He'd been moping about the courtyard, shuffling his boots in the dirt. He'd heard about Adam's imminent departure for Britain, and it was finally sinking in that he and his siblings would not be going with him.

Now that he had finished treating patients for the day and had checked on Dagma and then the king, Adam had strapped on a belted sheath to hold his sword. Then he'd gone searching for Alrek.

Adam took Alrek by the upper arm and led him out of the main courtyard toward the blacksmith building. "I have something to show you."

Usually, that kind of statement would have brought forth elation in the youthling, so desperate was he for attention, but he just nodded forlornly now.

They stepped into the exceedingly hot building where Bjorn was working on a sword over a blazing fire. A young thrall kept the flames high by working a bellows from the side.

The sword Bjorn was working on was not a large one, but it was finely worked. Using the damascening method, he twisted together iron and steel rods of different textures and shades and then forged them into a single blade. Intermixed with the twisting and pounding was frequent heating and quenching to harden the metal. The result was a beautiful flame pattern ingrained in the surface of the blade.

When he was done, Bjorn handed the sword to Adam and muttered under his breath, "I still think ye are demented. He will kill himself… that he will."

Walking out of the smidiy, Adam handed the sword to Alrek and said, "This is for you."

"Me?" Alrek's eyes went huge with wonderment. Alrek took the short sword by the hilt and almost tripped forward, not being prepared for its weight.

Adam winced at Alrek's first near-accident with the weapon. He could just hear people telling him, "I told you so. I told you so."

"Why?"