Viking's Desire: Sexy-Romance Novel: A Viking Love Story (8 page)

C
hapter 18

The previous evening, before the uproar with Lillian, Eriik had received word from Renouf that the people would support Lillian as his wife.  She had won them over with her bright smile, her grasp of their language and her sweet disposition.  With that, his path was steady, an after dinner stroll, the three very important words, and a proposal with his grandmother’s ring.  He was so excited, he could hardly wait.  He informed the chamber maids of some special instructions he wanted to be carried out in his suite tonight while dinner was being served.  They giggled until a steely gaze put them running about their business once more.

A breathless Oliver came running through the door with exciting news,
at least for him
, Eriik thought.  A band of traveling missionaries had arrived in town to spread the word of their god, and trade silk and spices.  Would it be with Eriik’s favor to invite them to dine at Thorennson Manor tonight?

“I suppose so but I will not be able to honor them with my presence
into the late evening as I have a very pressing engagement.”  As he said the word engagement a grin of all grins spread across his exultant face.

Oliver could tell the Master had something
to tell and if he could extract it from him, he was surely going to try.

After quite awhile of cajoling, Eriik finally couldn’t help but share the news with Oliver
, who was more than happy for them both. He had always been treated well in Eriik’s household, certainly not like a slave.  It had happened slowly at first, as he taught Eriik English and all things about England.  “Off to the market for the coming dinner then,” He was very anxious to meet these priests and speak of religion and other subjects he could not speak of here.

Lillian heard of the missionaries and was eager to speak with them as well.  She hoped they were from somewhere near
English soil and could tell her news of her family and friends.  She had built a life here but still missed her father and would love news of him.  She whiled away the morning arranging for their visit, making sure the great room looked its best and helping Geirhild with her preparations. 

Later on in the morning,
Eriik showed up with several priests and introduced them to everyone, waiting until the last for Lillian. 

“And Lady Lillian, these are the priests from the west, close to your home if I’m not mistaken, my dear.
  They will dine with us tonight as our honored guests.”

“Wonderful news,
my lord.”  She was very excited but kept her eagerness in check.  She noticed one particular priest who kept looking at her with what looked like disdain.  She must be imagining it.  They had never even met each other before.  She could have sworn she heard him quietly call the people here heathens but couldn’t have sworn to it.  What a way to win the hearts of the local people.  She thought he was looking at her in a hateful manner.
Perhaps he is judging me as Eriik’s paramour
. 
Judge not lest ye be judged
.  Well perhaps she should be judged.  But he wasn’t going to be the man to do it!  He still made her very uneasy.
Well he can go to bloody hell. Oops, that wasn’t very lady like, s
he thought, and she giggled.

She didn’t have the time or patience to let
this priest, who she was probably imagining everything about him anyway, ruin her day.  She would be able to talk to the others at dinner about England and home, and she felt better.  Everything seemed well in hand, so she retired to her chamber to rest, realizing just how much she was looking forward to this evening. 

Eriik was also looking forward to this evening, but for very different reasons!

While the main staff was working through the day preparing for dinner along with many guests, a few of the priests started feeling a bit at home and quietly asked questions about the Thorennson bastion and the beautiful countryside surrounding it.  Amazing how much can be learned when the right questions are asked by innocent men of the cloth.  Just the appropriate amount of questions with lots of interesting information of travels, foreign lands, beautiful silks and spices to trade and the stories to follow.  Perhaps some ale, then there is so much to tell and so much to hear.  And no one really noticed when one of the priests sidled away from the group with a sardonic grin on his face and a plan in his pocket.
Now to the lady.

Chapter 1
9

A maid knocked softly on Lillian’s door.  “Yes, come in.”

“Lady Lillian, there is a priest
who says he has word of your father in desperate times and must talk with you.”

Lillian sat up
almost tumbling the chair over, “Yes, yes, bring him to me, please, at once!”

“M
iss he will not see you in the manor.  He feels unsafe here with the Master.  He will only see you outside.  He told me he has found the tunnel under the manor and will meet you there.  He has your father’s ring, an emerald signet ring, and a letter meant only for you.”

Lillian started prattling in English and the maid couldn’t understand a word she was saying so she just stood there dumbf
ounded.  “Oh I’m sorry, tell this man I’ll meet him in the tunnel in one half hour.  He better be there with the ring and the letter!

“Lady he insists you come alone or he’ll disappear and you won’t see him again.”

“Sidrid, did he speak to you himself in your language?”

“No, he had a translator.”

“Thank you dear.  If you would, help me dress and then run on and do whatever you need to.  I hate to way lay you but it looks as if I need to get dressed now. And please don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”

“Yes my lady
.”

She put on the dress she was planning to wear to dinner since she would have no time to change with this clandestine meeting taking place before dinner. 
She hoped making her way through the labyrinth of the dank and musty tunnel wouldn’t completely ruin the new frock she had picked out.  Why was this priest making it so difficult, why couldn’t he have just brought the ring and Father’s letter to her at dinner?  He seems to insist on making this covert.  “Perhaps other priests feel the same way about Eriik,” she thought. 
Still no reason to take me on a wild
goose chase
.   The farther she went, the angrier she became.  She should have told Eriik and had him come with her and straighten this whole thing out.  Knowing about this would have made him furious!  Just about the time she decided to turn back, she heard a voice shouting her name. 

“Lady Lillian, it’s me Ulric.  I
’m here, just a little farther.”

“Oh thank goodness, I was just about to turn around.”

“That would not have been a good idea.” He retorted, his eyes seemed to gaze furiously at her. 

She really wished now that Eriik was behind her.

“Okay, you’ve gotten my full attention, so please let me see my father’s letter. 

“Of course princess.”

He pulled it out of his robes, crumpled and soiled and handed it to Lillian, holding the torch so she could read it.”

Sweet Pea,

I’m writing you in hopes this finds you well.  I am bereft to tell you your mother has succumbed to the sickness that took many of our fine people and I am now alone.  I miss you so very much.  Lord Montfort has put a rescue mission in place and I am in his debt.  I hope to see you soon.

Your loving father.

She looked at Ulric with amazement, “You’re here to take me home?”

“Yes.  We should leave immediately.”

Her mind was racing.  She could go home if she wanted to…but she didn’t.  She could not, would not leave Eriik.  How obvious it was all of a sudden here in this dark, musty tunnel.  She was already home. 

She looked steadily at Ulric and said in no uncertain terms, “I’m sorry you made such a long a
nd treacherous trip to take me home, however I am already home.  I will be going nowhere with you except to the great room for dinner.”  She smiled a gracious smile.  I can assure you, however, that nothing will happen to you at the manor.”

“I’m fairly sure they would not approve
of what I’m about to do.”

“And what is that?”  She was still smiling.

He brought his hand back and with all the force he could muster, slapped Lillian full in the face until her head snapped back and hit the rock of the wall hard. 

She couldn’t believe what had just happened.  Was this a
bad dream or had a man of the cloth just slapped her violently?

She was
gasping and there was blood in her mouth.  All she could say was, “Why?”

“Well
lady,”
he spat, “Mostly because I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time.  This just seemed like the right moment.

“But
why would you do that?  You came to rescue me.  We just met, you couldn’t possibly hate me enough to do such a thing.”

“Oh nay princess, I have known you many years.  You see, your highness, while you were
parading around your grand castle like a bloody deity in the finest silks and velvets, feasting every eve, the peasants, like myself, were in the fields, laboring, barely keeping our bellies full.  I decided long ago that an honest day’s work gets a man sodding nowhere.  That’s especially true when regal scum like you and your father hold court. Now get going.”  He grabbed her roughly and started leading her out of the tunnel. 

Lillian was still in shock.  As she got her bearings, she
broke loose and started to run back up the tunnel, but before she got too far, two other men who seemed to be lying in wait for her, grabbed her and brought her back. 

“Lillian, now that we’ve gotten the most important introductions out of the way, I’ll tell you my name is
indeed Ulric, but I’m obviously not a priest, monk, man of the cloth or anything else even slightly akin to honest.  My friends here aren’t either.  Ivar here has been traveling with priests for awhile but instead of spreading the lord’s word, he’s been spreading each of the countries’ wealth straight into his pocket.  They all laughed.  It’s been dreadful playing the good priests all the way here with those virtuous idiots.  The other two shook their heads.  We clear about this now?”

“N
o, I don’t understand.”

“What about my father
’s ring?”

“
Yes indeed, here is his ring.  He took his hand out of the robe and her father’s signet ring was on the vile man’s hand.  She wanted to spit on him but decided that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. 

“Oh, you’re detestable.
This makes no sense.  You come all this way to rescue me and now you’re kidnapping me?”

“I’m warning you, shut up
or I’ll hit you again!”

They walk
ed on and on through the tunnel in silence and the more they walked the more Lillian expected Eriik to show up like he did when she was lost in the forest, but it was not to be.  He probably didn’t even know she was missing.  That thought brought about serious dread.

Right before they exited the
tunnel into the woods, Ulric gave Lillian a severe warning.  “This is how it’s going to work.  We have a demanding trip ahead of us and you’re not going to make it any easier.  So, you better pull your own weight and not give us any trouble or you don’t even want to know what I will do to you.  The only reason you’re not dead right now is because of the lord.”

“The
lord?  My father?”

“
No, Lord Montford.”

Lillian froze.  She couldn’t speak or move.  She was frozen in time.  “Wait a minute. 
Lord Montfort isn’t trying to save me, he’s kidnapping me?”

“
You’re a bright girl.  For some reason Lord Montfort wants you alive and well.  He’s the one who financed this little missionary trip in the first place.  You think he gives a damn about bringing God to these heathens?  I’ll tell you I sure as hell don’t.  The god we pray to is money and our god has been very generous or we wouldn’t have come to this desolate land.  Now we can leave religion to the priests and get you back to Lord Montfort so we can collect the remainder of our gold.”

“
And how do you propose we get back to England?”  Lillian looked defiant.

“
We will return as we came, thru Denmark, the Frankish Empire, Kent, Essex, Marcia, and finally to England.  It’s a hard journey, but money makes everything possible, so shut up and behave yourself or you’ll be sorry.”

“Oh really.”

“Don’t tempt me to slap you again because it would be my pleasure so long as I don’t ruin that pretty face of yours.  That’s really all the lord cares about, and believe me when I tell you a bruise or two will heal by the time we arrive.”

“Let me warn you, when Eriik finds out what you’ve done, whatever
becomes of me, the three of you will be wishing you had never come close to these lands.  You would not believe what these men can do to other men, especially if you’re their enemy.  And trust me, you will become their enemy!”

The looks on their faces became a little less arrogant.

Surely Eriik would notice she was missing and come looking for her.  She would only have to wait a matter of minutes and he would ride up on Kriger and sweep her up in his arms outside the tunnel.  Why had she been so stupid?  She wanted nothing more right at this moment than to be in his strong arms.  How much time she had wasted trying to deny her feelings for him.

Just as they exited the
tunnel, Ulric tossed a piece of linen at her and demanded that she write a good bye note to Eriik.

“And make it good, or
the last thing we’ll do is lop off your lovers head and return it to Lord Montfort.  He would enjoy that.”

“What am I
supposed to say?”

“You’ll think of something convincing.”

She started to write in English when Ulric grabbed it away from her and raised his hand, “I should slap you til your neck snaps.  Don’t try me girl.  I am not that stupid.  Write in his language, and don’t think none of us can read it, so don’t try anything else or I will carry out my threat and it will be for all of our amusement.” 

She
wrote with the Norse words and symbols and even though Lillian had made great strides in that area, the fading light and the insistence that she hurry gave her little time to try to sort out what to do.  She had to think!  As she paused, Ulric, in no uncertain terms gave the order for one of the men to remain and not return without Eriik’s head.

“You will die trying.”
  Lillian said with assurance she didn’t feel.

“Are you so sure of that, lady, that you are willing to take the chance
that his head won’t come back in a bag?  It would be so easy to catch him off his guard.  He would never suspect a priest, after all.”  Ulric grinned sarcastically.

Lillian did her best to swallow down the nausea that notion caused,
“Why do you think I even care?  He kidnapped me after all.”

“
Let’s just say I have a hunch.”  He looked at her as if she was some immoral creature.  “We’ve paid attention while we’ve been here and it certainly hasn’t been difficult to figure out.  Now write before I forget my orders and carve you up like an evening’s feast.”

S
he started to scream, but felt a dirty, smelly handkerchief being stuffed in her mouth.  She began to gag and was afraid she might throw up. 

Lillian
continued to write, hoping she had said what was needed, but not obvious enough that Ulric’s man would notice.  Ulric nodded to one of the men and as he read slowly and laboriously, he nodded back, “Seems alright to me.  She says she’s leaving this god forsaken country to be with her lovely or loving mother and father, something like that.  Nothing about us or leaving against her will.  Ulric concurred, they started off quickly, and she was roughly dragged through the countryside to a heavily wooded area where another man was waiting impatiently with some fine horses for all of them, and several others to spare.  Superb horses such as these must have cost quite a few coins.  She wanted to know if the revolting Lord Montfort had fingers that reached this far to finance all this but nothing audible could be heard with the filthy rag fouling her mouth. 

Lillian was
hoping with all her might to wake up to find this had all been a horrible nightmare and Eriik was sleeping peacefully by her side, but it was not to be.  It was all very real and seemed as if it was only going to get worse.