Page 127 of The Reluctant Viking

What now? Ruby wondered as her nerves unraveled one strand at a time. Perhaps a shower would help. After that, she would try to resolve the mess she’d made of her life, try to understand what was happening to her.

Standing in the bathroom, about to remove her clothes, Ruby happened to glance in the full-length mirror on the door and saw something sticking out of her jeans pocket. She gasped on recognizing it, then sank to the floor. All the tension she’d been holding inside exploded with loud, shuddering sobs that racked her body.

Ruby cried for Thork and his death. She cried for the short time they’d had together and the love they’d shared too briefly. She cried for the two “sons” she’d left behind and mourned the primitive life-style and brave, fierce people she had come to love and would miss dearly. And she wept for the mess she’d made of her life with Jack.

And all the time she clutched in her hand one of the priceless dragon brooches Thork had given her. She really had traveled back in time—whether in a dream or actuality, she didn’t know. It didn’t matter. All Ruby knew was that somehow she’d visited there. The experience had been real, not imagined. What she had to figure out now was why.

When the tears dried up and Ruby could cry no more, she stepped into the shower and let the hot spray soothe her. Afterward, like a puppet being led by someone else’s strings, Ruby rummaged through her closet until she found just the item she wanted—a black teddy Jack had given her years ago before she formed her own company. She always wore it on special occasions. After she dressed, she went down to the kitchen and made another cup of coffee.

It was only seven p.m. She felt caught in a time warp.

Ruby opened the freezer door and searched for the box of phyllo dough in the back, hoping it wasn’t freezer-burned after all this time. She took the paper-thin dough out, along with the other ingredients, and began to make a tray of baklava.

“You’re going over the edge, girl,” Ruby told herself later with a shrill laugh as she removed the tray from the oven. “Do you really think you can lure a husband back with a plate of pastry?”

Ruby stopped suddenly in the midst of cutting the diamond shapes. Was that what she wanted? To get Jack back?

Yes!

Ruby wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes on a warm rush of relief. Finally she was beginning to see a light in this jumble of questions. For some reason, God only knew what, she’d been handed this time-travel experience to learn something. Ruby had sensed in her “dream” that she’d been given an opportunity to understand her problems with Jack by being with Thork, his Viking-age equivalent.

Could it be that God, or whoever, had played this massive joke on her and was really offering her a second chance with her husband—if only she could learn a lesson from the past?

Ruby smiled widely and steeled herself for the ordeal ahead. Now that she knew her mission, Ruby hurriedly wrapped the plate of baklava in plastic, grabbed her purse and locked the house. Within minutes, she was on the highway that led to the lake house. During the one-hour trip, she pondered her strange time adventure and tried to fathom the lessons to be learned.

When the bright lights of a small shopping mall caught her attention, Ruby pulled over, having a sudden flash of inspiration. She made her few purchases and walked out of the department store with a mischievous grin on her face.

If her scheme didn’t work, at least she’d give Jack a good laugh. Ruby grimaced at the thought.

A cloud of darkness blanketed the sky when Ruby pulled up to the modern A-frame she and Jack had purchased ten years ago on the lake. Jack had parked his BMW at the side.

She shivered when she got out of the car with her shopping bag and baklava. She hadn’t realized how chilly it was when she’d left the house without a coat. Or maybe it was nerves.

Ruby knocked lightly on the door, then walked in without waiting for Jack to answer. If he was entertaining “company,” then so be it.

Jack lay on the sofa before the fireplace with a glass of Scotch in one hand, still wearing his suit pants and white shirt. He’d removed the jacket and opened the first two buttons of the shirt, but other than that, he looked much the same as he had earlier that day. The television screen was dark, but soft music played on the stereo.

Jack stood when he heard the door shut and confronted her with a questioning tilt of his head. Sparks of a strong, indecipherable emotion flashed briefly in his pale blue eyes, a sharp contrast against the remnants of his summer tan. A tense muscle jerked in his cheek.

After all the turmoil she’d been through that day, Ruby yearned to throw herself into the comfort of Jack’s arms, but she knew they had too many issues to resolve first. Instead, she feasted her eyes on him, as if seeing him for the first time. She took in his wide shoulders which strained the fabric of his cotton shirt, tapering down to an athletically slim waist and hips, and a flat, well-conditioned stomach. He put both hands in the pockets of his pants with deliberate casualness, thus pulling the fabric taut across his strong thighs and hard buttocks.

Ruby’s throat tightened and she forced her eyes back up to his face. He needed a haircut, she noticed irrelevantly. His dark blond hair hung to the edge of his collar. She tried to picture it even longer, braided on one side, and his ear lobe sporting a thunderbolt earring. She couldn’t help but smile at the image. Jack frowned, probably thinking she was amused at his expense.

Good Lord! Jack looked just like Thork when he glared like that. A little older, a few gray hairs, a little less muscle, but what a remarkable resemblance!

“What the hell are you doing here, Ruby?”

He gazed at her with burning concentration, but there was no warm welcome in his voice. Ruby’s heart sank. This was going to be much harder than she’d thought.

“Where is she?” she asked weakly, grasping at the first words that entered her head.

“Who?”

“Dolly Parton. I thought you would’ve found her by now.” Ruby’s voice wobbled with nervousness.

Jack stared at her quizzically, shifting impatiently from foot to foot. Suddenly he remembered and a grin curved his lips slightly, but did not reach his eyes. He shook his head incredulously.

“I wasn’t up to Dolly Parton tonight. Jack Daniels suits my mood better.”