Santa Viking Read Online Free Page B

remarked.
    “Yea, Bolthor most definitely must be the one for you.” Eadyth patted Katherine on the hand.
    “That settles it. We must needs come up with a plan,” Alinor added.
    “I thought you already had a plan  . . . Bolthor’s Bride ,” Katherine said.
    “Yea, but now that we have settled on exactly who that bride will be, we must needs have a new plan to snare the man, without his realizing that he is being snared.”
    “I see,” Katherine said, though she truly did not. “Keep in mind, Bolthor says he will not wed again.”
    Alinor and Eadyth both laughed.
    “What?”
    “Surely you know that smart women know how to change a man’s mind,” Alinor explained.
    “They do?” Katherine felt out of her depth with these two wily women. “How?”
    “First off, you must avoid Bolthor, but not be out of sight. Let him see you with other men. Let him think you are interested, or even intimate, with other men.” This was Alinor’s advice. “Men always want what they cannot have.”
    “It sounds so  . . . devious.”
    “Hah! I pretended I was a witch one time,” Alinor said. “Now that is devious.”
    “That is nothing. I pretended to be dead.” Eadyth laughed in remembrance. “Believe you me, that brought Eirik to heel in an instant. Then, too, I pretended to be an aged crone before that.”
    Not to be outdone, Alinor said, “I tied Tykir to a chair, by his own hair. Naked.”
    “But do not think that women are the only ones to play this game. Eirik told me one time that the best way for a woman to make a man’s staff stand to attention was for her to stand on her head, naked.”
    Alinor hooted her opinion of that lackwit theory.
    Katherine clicked her mouth shut when she realized she was gaping.
    “You must learn to tease, subtly,” Alinor suggested. “By dress, for example.” She pinched in the waist of Katherine’s gunna, then showed her how to pleat the fabric just up to and under her breasts so that her waist, the flare of her hips, and her bosom were outlined.
    “I would appear wanton.” Katherine had never dressed in such a provocative manner. Why would she? She had been wed more times than she would have chosen, to men she would as soon repel as attract.
    “That is the point,” Eadyth said. “But not in a blatant manner. Tease, but do not flaunt.”
    Katherine let out an exhale of frustration, not sure if she could manage this game of seduction.
    “That is not all,” Alinor went on.
    Wonderful!
    “When you do come into his presence, by accident, brush against him, then blush and apologize profusely,” Alinor suggested.
    “She could even touch him in passing  . . . his thigh, a buttock, even his manpart,” Eadyth added.
    “Yea, that would be good.”
    “How subtle would that be?” Katherine observed.
    “Believe me, you could do it in such a way as to appear by chance,” Alinor said. “Stand over here, Eadyth, and pretend you are Bolthor. We will demonstrate.”
    Eadyth stood stiff as a board, frowning, while Alinor brushed past her, carrying a bundle of linens that she almost dropped, but in the process of balancing herself, let her fingertips brush across the groin area. Immediately, she said, “My apologies, Bolthor,” and batted her eyelashes innocently.
    Several other scenarios were played out. Alinor being pushed against Bolthor in a crowd and “accidentally” grabbing his buttock. “Bolthor” reaching for a sweetmeat on her tray, which she jerked at the last second, causing his hand to caress her breast.
    “Of course, if all else fails, bed the man, good and well,” Eadyth advised.
    “There is one bedsport trick I have learned,” Alinor said, “which is guaranteed to make a man’s eyes roll back in his head.”
    Eadyth and Katherine were all ears, not to mention a few of the passing maids.
    In the end, they were all laughing like lackwits.
    Bolthor did not stand a chance.
    Katherine hoped.
    Viking men aren’t as dumb as you might think