Ruby’s mind accepted the logic. Her heart was a different story. Despite everything, she wanted Thork for herself.
Ruby shook her head free of the sad thoughts and turned back to the activity surrounding her. Thork acted the helmsman to his crew, moving the tiller on the steering oar to change direction, guiding them around treacherous rocks. The sixteen sailors on each side of the ship sat on large wooden chests, which held all their personal belongings, as they strained mightily, rowing the long wooden oars. Another thirty-two men stood ready to spell them or to assist, two men to an oar, during times of danger. Heavy battle shields gleamed in the sunlight from where they hung compactly along the outside of the boats.
Thork loved this sea life. Ruby could see that as he threw his head back often, inhaling deeply of the tangy air, and smiling. How could women, or children, compete with the exhilaration this life-style gave the Vikings? Ruby wondered.
“You should stay under the canopy,” Thork advised, coming up behind her. He pointed to a canvas shelter that had been erected for her in the center of the ship near the mast pole. “By midday the sun will bake your fair skin.”
“I’m too excited to sit down right now, but I promise I won’t get in anyone’s way,” Ruby said woodenly, knowing she needed to avoid contact with Thork as much as possible.
“Best you do not,” Thork advised gruffly. ” ‘Tis easy to fall overboard, especially when we hit the open seas.”
“When will that be?”
Thork shrugged. “We camp tonight along the Humber. The next day, winds willing, we will reach the North Sea and camp on its shoreline.”
Thork stood with feet widespread to counteract the rocking motion of the ship. His sun-bleached hair, like that of his sailors, had been braided to keep it off his face in the wind.
A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Ruby’s mouth.
“My appearance amuses you in some way?”
“No, I was just marveling that I could be attracted to a man who wears braids.”
“You are attracted to me?” Thork asked in a low voice, leaning closer to her as they both rested their arms on the rail.
Ruby slanted her eyes sideways at him. So now he chose to talk to her—when it was too late.
“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you since we first met?” she replied wearily. “As much as I hate the dark side of your nature, the one that could possibly blood-eagle a man, as much as I disapprove of your militant life-style, I recognize that you’re the other half of me.”
Thork inhaled sharply.
Ruby wanted Thork to understand why she was so hurt and why his actions had sealed her future—a future without him in it. “We are soulmates, Thork. Whether you accept that we knew each other in another life or not, I believe you and I were meant to be together just as much today as we were in the future. At least, I did before you announced your wedding plans.”
Thork ignored her reference to Elise. “Feeling like a soulmate, you let your husband leave. Nay, you drove him away.” His forehead creased in puzzlement.
Ruby felt her face flush with heat. She brushed a wisp of hair off her face distractedly. “I didn’t realize my mistakes then. I would change things if I could go back.”
“And so, even as you proclaim I am some vital part of your life, you yearn for your husband.” Thork’s eyes searched her face intensely.
“You don’t understand. To me, you and Jack are the same man.”
He shook his head despairingly at her refusal to face the facts.
“Hah! What I understand, and you do not, is that there never was a husband. Ruby, you have been caught in lie upon lie. You are a virgin, unwedded and unbedded. But know this, sweetling, the latter will soon be remedied the first private moment we have.”
“No, it won’t. Your engagement to Elise changes all that.”
“I am not wed yet,” he countered, moving closer.
“But you will be,” Ruby pointed out and put more distance between them.