Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 01] Read Online Free Page B

it meets next month.” Then he turned abruptly and confided to a well-dressed man standing beside him, “Selik, we malinger overlong whilst I carry important messages for Sigtrygg from King Athelstan in Wessex—more important than a mere thrall.”
    Jack turned to Ruby once again and grabbed her arm, pulling her through the people who stepped back to make a path for them. “I will take this spy to my bedchamber later for a private examination,” he disclosed suggestively with a wink to those companions closest to him. “Mayhap the women of Ivar’s land have metal parts also.”
    The men laughed at his words, and someone suggested lewdly that he make his examination then and there. Jack stopped, his arm still resting possessively on her shoulder, and he actually seemed to consider the prospect of a public stripping.
    Humiliated, Ruby tried to kick Thork’s bare legs. She no longer thought of him as Jack. Jack would never be so cruel.
    Thork laughed as Ruby hammered his immovable chest with clenched fists, then picked up her struggling, screaming body and deftly slung it over his shoulder, giving the crowd more fodder for laughter. He ordered one man togo ahead to the castle to inform King Sigtrygg of their arrival and another to ride to his grandfather’s home in Northumbria and tell him he would be there late the next day. He told yet another man to supervise the unloading of his ships and to report to him that night.
    When he settled her in place like a sack of flour, Ruby bit his shoulder to get his attention. With a gleeful chuckle, Thork whacked her with an open palm across her bottom which arched provocatively across his shoulder, and then he kept the widespread fingers there familiarly, rubbing her with an intimate circular motion. Ruby could feel her face flush, and not just because she hung upside down.
    The jerk got another roar of approval when he commented in an aside to his friends, “Mayhap the women of Ivar’s land do have metal female parts, after all. Her arse feels as bony as a winter-starved rabbit.”
    He would pay for this, Ruby vowed as he carried her away. Somehow, some way, she would find a way to get back at this crude excuse for a man.

Chapter Two
    “Ivar is vicious, but not lackwitted. He would never send a simpleminded wench to spy,” Thork stated emphatically, peering over his shoulder at Ruby whose blood-suffused head bounced against his back with each wide stride he took. “Who in the name of Odin are you?”
    “Simpleminded!” Ruby protested, but the word came out garbled and unintelligible, considering her position.
    A sharp object pressed against her waist, and she shifted slightly, as best she could, to relieve the pressure. Twisting her head sideways and looking up awkwardly, she saw an intricately carved brooch which held together the edges of a short shoulder mantle. The design profiled a writhing animal with limbs contorted out of recognition. Surely it wasn’t a coyote. That would be too much of a coincidence. No, it was probably a wolf. And it appeared to be solid gold! Unable to see it closer, Ruby dropped her head down, laying her cheek against the small of Thork’s back. Her skin prickled with delight at even thatcasual touch. The familiar musk of his skin comforted her jarred senses.
    Olaf and two other men walked beside Thork, sharing opinions about the unlikelihood of Ruby being a spy. All agreed that Sigtrygg must be the final arbiter of her fate but wondered how he would react to even the possibility of the hated Ivar infiltrating Jorvik. In soft, guarded voices, they also updated Thork on recent events in Jorvik.
    “Sigtrygg expected you a sennight past. We have all suffered his wrath,” complained a young man with flowing, silver blond hair whom Thork had called Selik earlier. Even from her position, Ruby could see that the exceedingly handsome, almost beautiful, male drew the admiring attention of many of the passing women.
    Thork swore aloud, using a