My Lord Viking Read Online Free

before taking him into the house.
          As Jack walked with her back to the beach, he whistled a merry tune and his boots stamped against the road, sending the pebbles skittering ahead of them.   Linnea was glad Scamp had found something to amuse himself.   She did not need him getting in the way.   With luck, Cook would give him some scraps by the kitchen door or a bone which would keep his attention until they could get the man off the beach.  
          “So you found something right interesting,” Jack said as they stepped out onto the sand.
          “Yes.”
          “Always interesting to see what washes up after a storm.”   He began to whistle again.
          Linnea doubted she could have displayed his lack of curiosity.   As she climbed over the rocks separating the coves, her shoes slipped on the moss-covered boulders.  
          “Careful there, Lady Linnea,” Jack said, putting his hand under her elbow.   “You could break your neck doing this.”
          “I was barefoot before.”
          “Right wise of you.”   He glanced at her feet, and his forehead furrowed.  
          Again Linnea was grateful for his lack of curiosity, for he did not ask why she was out without stockings as well as without a bonnet.   As before, she shielded her eyes with her hand and looked along the beach.  
          The man was gone!
          Linnea jumped down off the rocks and ran to where the man had been lying.   When she saw indentations in the sand to mark where she had knelt beside him, she was relieved. At least, she knew she had not imagined the whole of it.   How could she imagine a man like him ?   And where was he now?
          “Where to now, Lady Linnea?” asked Jack.
          Linnea motioned for him to follow as she saw more impressions in the sand.   Deep holes where a hand or a foot would have pushed against the beach.   Shallow ones, too.
          “Someone dragged something away from here.”   Jack’s smile disappeared as he scanned the cliffs above them.   “Someone might have come and taken what you found, my lady.   Let me check to make sure no one is up there.”   He turned and loped back toward the stones.
          A faint motion had caught her eye.   Raising her voice, she shouted, “Not that way, Jack!   This way!   There he is!”
          “He?” called Jack back to her.
          Linnea ignored the disbelief in the stableman’s voice.   She rushed forward to where, in the shadow of the cliffs, the man had wedged himself into a cleft.   He would not have been seen once the tide rose to wash away the marks in the sand.   The man waved his unbroken arm and shouted something she could not understand.  
          “Are you mad?” she asked as she ran up to him.   “You could have hurt yourself worse by—”
          He grabbed her arm and jerked her down to the sand.   As she shrieked, he clamped his gritty arm over her mouth.   Jack cried out a warning and came running as the man growled in her ear, “ Uraad .   Quiet!”
          Jack skidded to a stop, spraying them with more sand.   Linnea realized why he stared in horror at them when the glitter of the sun off something metallic seared her eyes.   The man was holding another knife in the hand directly in front of her.  
          “Whoa, friend,” Jack said, raising his empty hands.   “There is no need to be waving that blade around.   Lady Linnea and I are here to help you.”
          “ Uraad! ”   The man muttered something else, then said, “Danger!   There is danger here.   For you.   For the woman.   Hide!”
          Jack flattened himself against the stone an arm’s length from them.   The glance he gave Linnea warned that he was certain this man was out of his mind.  
          Slowly Linnea reached up and put her hands on the man’s arm.   She gave a slight tug,   and he lowered his arm from