“Let us speak no more of it, sweetling. It can only cause us both needless anguish.”
Choked with emotion, Ruby asked with a tearful laugh, trying to tighten Thork’s mood, “What did you do with my teddy? Will you put it under your pillow on the long winter nights in Jomsborg to remind you of what you might have had?”
“You call that lacy man-teaser a teddy? How odd!” The corners of his lips lifted enticingly, even though his eyes remained dull with a resigned sadness.
Ruby wiped at the wetness rimming her eyes with the back of her hand, laughing despite her desolation. “Well, it’s a special design of mine—a combination bustier and teddy.” Her eyes narrowed and she asked menacingly, “You wouldn’t think of giving it to another woman? If you do, I swear I’ll put a curse on you—from wherever I am.”
Thork laughed and swung her around in his arms with pure joy. When her feet touched the ground again, he answered, “Nay, you are the only woman ‘twould suit. Leastways, I decided on my forfeit for our baseball wager. You must model the teddy for me again. One last time.”
“You better make it soon… before the Thing,” Ruby declared grimly. “The outfit goes better with a head, and you’d never be able to get the bloodstains out of silk.”
“I find your humor ill-timed and inappropriate.” His jaw tightened at her sick joke. Then he turned and walked away from her stiffly.
Ruby decided that Thork must care for her, more than he would acknowledge to himself, and the prospect of her death frightened him. That didn’t speak well for Thork’s optimism about her fate at the Althing. Ruby shivered apprehensively.
Just before she stepped inside the tent, Ruby saw Selik approach with shoulders drooping. “What’s the matter?” she teased. “Did you strike out tonight?”
The uncommonly handsome man had a notorious reputation for attracting females. Ruby pitied Astrid if she hoped to keep this womanizer tied to a hearth fire.
“Strike out? I did not play baseball tonight.” Selik arched his dark brows, a sharp contrast to his almost-white hair. He tilted his head quizzically as he looked Ruby over from head to foot, probably assessing whether she would be worth the trouble of his amorous advances.
“I wasn’t referring to baseball,” Ruby said, amused at his transparency. “I meant that you looked like a horny male who hadn’t been lucky tonight.”
“Lucky? What language do you speak?”
“Oh, Selik! It’s just an expression. You know, if you found a woman to share your tent, you might say, ‘I got lucky tonight.’ ”
His face lit up with understanding. “So to be unlucky is to strike out?”
“Right!”
“I like that,” he said with a nod, “although I usually only hit home runs.”
When she made a tsk-ing sound of disgust at his conceit, he smiled widely, exposing the whitest, evenest teeth Ruby had ever seen outside an orthodontist’s office. Despite his devastating good looks, Ruby felt no attraction whatsoever toward him. She was deliberating over that sudden insight when Selik asked in a low, silky voice, “Did your husband really shave your legs?”
“Yes, he did,” Ruby answered, laughing at his bluntness.
“Mayhap I would enjoy doing that for you… seeing as how you have no husband to—”
“Mayhap you would like to have your balls cut off.”
Ruby and Selik both jumped at the voice behind them. It was Thork.
“Hardly,” Selik answered dryly, crossing his legs comically to cover his genitals in pretended horror.
“Then get the hell to your own tent where you belong.”
Ruby and Selik gaped at Thork, finding it hard to comprehend Thork’s anger over a casual conversation.
“Methinks the man is testy because he was unlucky tonight,” Selik bantered, glancing pointedly at Ruby, then inquired sweetly, “Didst thou perchance strike him out?”
Ruby bit her lip to stifle a giggle.
“Do not push me, Selik. You will not like the results.”
“Methinks you play the dog in the manger,” Selik said with a grin, apparently undaunted by Thork’s dire warnings. “If you do not want the wench, Thork, there are others who do.” Selik winked slyly at Ruby.