My Lord Viking Read Online Free Page B

her to scan the beach.   He must truly believe someone dangerous was close.   “Only a daari believes someone of this island.”
          “ Daari ?”   She noticed Jack’s frown of concentration.   She wished him better luck than she had had in figuring out what place had spawned the man’s accent.
          He smiled.   “A man without wits.”
          Deciding the best answer to that was none, she asked, “Do you need help to get back to your feet so we can take you where we can tend your wounds?”
          He pointed to his shoeless foot.   “I doubt I can walk.   That may be broken as well.”
          “Rough use,” Jack muttered.
          The blond man glanced at him.   “Yes.   Kortsson thought to leave me dead.”
          “Who is this Kortsson?” the lad asked.
          “My blood-enemy.”
          Linnea held out her hand, and Jack handed her the ball of rags he carried.   Peeling off the top one, she said, “While we are asking such questions of names, I would appreciate you answering the same one.”
          The blond man’s purple eyes crinkled with amusement she doubted she could feel if she were as battered.   “Your words confuse me, Linnea.”
          Jack cleared his throat, and Linnea saw a rare anger on his face.   Quietly he said, “ Lady Linnea would like the courtesy of your name.”
          “Lady Linnea is it?   A most unusual lady you are,” the blond man said.   His fingers once more reached for his knife, so she knew he had seen Jack’s fury.   “I am Nils Bjornsson.”
          “Are you Swedish?” she asked.
          He started to shake his head, then winced.   “ Norrfoolk .”
          “You’re from Norfolk ?”   This was the first worthwhile bit of information she had gotten from him.   The city was no more than a week’s journey north from Sutherland Park .
          “No.   I am—”
          Jack caught the man’s shoulders as he sagged back toward the ground, senseless.   “Lord-a-mercy on us!” he breathed.   “This cunning shaver has been smashed by someone who took a mighty disliking to him.   The arm looks broken, it does, as well as his foot.   By all that’s blue, he must have a reason to fear this Kortsson chap if he crawled all the way to this cliff with two broken limbs.”
          “Can you set it?” she asked.
          “’Course.”   He looked up at her, concern on his face.   “Best if you walk a little ways along the shore.   Setting bones is no spectacle for ladies.”
          “I can help if—”
          “Set Old Calvin’s leg for him last winter.   This chap cannot be half as cantankerous.”
          Linnea was not so sure of that, but she recognized the stubborn tone in Jack’s voice.   He had not changed one smidgen in the years she had known him.   He was as pliable as satin until he dug in his toes.   Then nothing could or would budge him.
          But she could be stubborn, too.   She bit her lip as she looked at Mr. Bjornsson’s face.   The only color there was the blood still dried on his cheek, but she had seen how swiftly he could use what strength he had left to get what he wanted.   “I should stay.   I found him.”  
          Jack nodded.   “Mayhap ‘tis a good idea for you to help.   Keep the sun out of his eyes.”
          Linnea saw Jack looking both ways along the beach, and she understood why he truly had acquiesced.   He did not want to send her into the path of this Kortsson...If the man even existed.   With a shiver, she wished she could dismiss Mr. Bjornsson’s warning as just an injury to his head, but someone had left him for dead here.   Would that someone follow him to Sutherland Park ?   That could endanger her whole family.
          She sat cross-legged on the sand and cupped Mr. Bjornsson’s head on her lap.   His golden hair sifted through her fingers, warm and