MacAuliffe Vikings Trilogy 3 - Lord of the wolves Read Online Free Page A

and children, cows, ducks, and pigs, all scurried to safety against the far walls, mothers grabbing their infants, farmers clinging to their precious livestock. A donkey brayed, chickens screeched and squawked flying everywhere. Ragwald, clad in his old comfortable gray cape, looking like a giant, ragtag bird himself, hurried toward Melisande and the troops who were now dismounting from their horses, preparing to man the walls.
    “He’s there! He"s the one ramming the gate! Doing battle with the Danes.
    You—you locked him out!” he cried.

    He watched the swift light of realization that came to her eyes, then the sinking horror within them.
    She hadn"t meant to lock him out.
    He would never believe it.
    “The gate!” she cried, but it was too late. The heavy wooden ram broke through the weakened area of stone.
    The Vikings knew their business. Aye, Lord Conar knew his business.
    She saw Philippe, still mounted, riding hard to meet the new horde that burst in upon them.
    “Call Philippe back!” Ragwald commanded quickly.
    “He won"t come!”
    “Tell him you need him—he will come. Don"t let a fighting man meet your Irish Viking first. The Viking will know I’ve not come to do battle. Call Philippe, quickly!”
    “Philippe!” Melisande shouted his name. He turned, hurrying back to her.
    She quickly saw the wisdom of Ragwald"s words, for the old man himself went hurrying over to the broken wall, his arms flapping wildly.
    It looked as if one of the Vikings meant to slice him through as he crawled atop the rubble. Melisande choked back a scream as she saw Ragwald halt.
    He had come through the rubble himself. Mounted upon his great ebony stallion, wearing that helmet that hid all thought and made his eyes all the more piercing.
    “They"ve beaten them! Geoffrey flees even now!” Philippe cried out suddenly. He started to laugh, the sound deeply relieved. “There—we"ve some of his men trapped within the fortress. I need to bring you quickly away, Countess. And finish this thing. Though, Lord God! Now we are under new attack since—”
    “No, Philippe, no!” Melisande said softly, touching his arm. “Ragwald has reached the Wolf.”
    “Then we are spared the evil of the Danes!”
    Melisande was silent, convinced at that moment that there was no evil greater than the Viking who rode with such confidence and arrogance into her fortress. The man with the searing blue eyes and rock hard shoulders. The one who had come to lay claim to everything, who did as he chose, brooking no opposition.
    A moment"s guilt tugged at her heart. She owed him! Yes, she had owed him, for a battle fought long ago. Yet he had been paid, and paid well. It was only the foolish bargain Ragwald had made with him so long ago that brought her to this moment now.
    A bargain that might well have saved the day, she reminded herself.

    None of that mattered. The guilt could not outweigh the fear that seemed to have risen to a storm within her. She couldn"t still the trembling within her. She had never been able to do that when he was near. Never been able to fight the tremendous heat, nor the cold, his nearness evoked. The feeling of shivers racing up and down her spine.
    What difference did it make? she wondered. One bastard or another! But she didn"t really believe that. Geoffrey was as cruel and ruthless and cunning as his father had been.
    As for him …
    Him!
    He merely wanted to slit her throat!
    Oh, she could never abide his arrogance. Then there was the matter of the very elegant blond woman who traveled with him wherever he went. There was also the humiliating matter of all that he had commanded of Melisande …
    The simple fact that he demanded, took what he would, gave orders.
    Among other things, she reminded herself, was the way he must feel now.
    Now, when she had so defied him. Now, when he so nearly had his hands upon her again.
    Warmth assailed her. She closed her eyes, promising herself that she would not think about him, that