She tried to listen attentively to all the king said to her, but her gaze kept turning to Thork who pierced her with his angry stare as he drank cup after cup of wine. Selik smiled, enjoying Thork’s discomfort immensely, clapping him on the shoulder in a comradely manner, which Thork shrugged off disgustedly.
An observant man, King Athelstan finally whispered to her, “Thork turns green with envy, my dear. He must love you very much.”
Actually, Thork’s face was red with rage at the king whispering so intimately in her ear, and Ruby feared he might do something to provoke a fight. “I must go now,” she told Athelstan.
“Oh, not afore you sing for us,” he demanded, and raised his hand for the dinner to end and the tables to be dismantled.
Ruby sang all her songs once again, even “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” and looked right at Thork, hoping he knew she sang it for him. The minute Ruby told the king she could sing no more, Thork was at her side, pulling her furiously from the hall.
“Never, never do that to me again,” he said through gritted teeth.
“What?”
“Flaunting yourself in invitation afore the king. Has he given up his vow of celibacy yet?”
Ruby would have laughed if Thork hadn’t looked deadly serious, and if she hadn’t sensed hurt beneath the angry words. She thought about telling Thork of her birth control discussion with the king but decided he wasn’t in a mood to appreciate the humor of it now. Maybe later.
“I did not flirt, or tease the king,” she told him patiently. “I just talked to him.”
“Thor’s blood! He fawned all over you.”
They were on the third floor, almost to their tower room, when Ruby broached a subject that had been bothering her all day. “Thork, we have to talk about what happened between us last night. It was wonderful, but it was a mistake. I was reminded of that when you told the king about Elise. We have to be strong. We can’t let it happen again.”
Thork opened the door, pulled her in, then pinioned her against the wall with his body and kissed her hungrily. Not satisfied with that, he lifted her off the floor by the waist so her feet dangled free and the vee of her legs met his raging arousal.
He groaned and rasped out, “God, Rube, I missed you so much today. Didst you even think of me?” He lifted her even higher, wrapped her legs around his waist and made a few deft adjustments of their clothing. Within seconds, he was driving into her with her back against the stone wall.
Ruby forgot about being strong. She forgot that this wasn’t supposed to happen again. She forgot everything except the moment, this man and the love she felt for him.
A few minutes later, Selik knocked on the door, saying that he needed to tell Thork something about their departure in the morning.
“Go away,” Thork grumbled, but when the knocking persisted, he finally opened the door with a loud curse.
Selik’s mouth dropped open. He gawked at their rumpled clothing and labored breathing.
“Good Lord, Thork, dare you to ever criticize me again I will remind you of this night. Forsooth! You have only been gone from the hall a few minutes, Thork. Canst you not control yourself better than this? Tsk tsk!”
Thork slammed the door in his smiling face.
The next morning, they arose at dawn, and after gathering their personal belongings in Thork’s bag, they went to look for Eirik. They found him in the great hall where he slept on a pallet next to his uncle Haakon. Eirik rubbed his eyes groggily, then looked sadly up at his father.
“You go now, so early?”
“Yea, we must make the tides by midday. Are you sure you want to stay, son? You can still change your mind.”
“Yea,” Eirik replied with a hesitant nod.
“So be it. I have left enough coins to cover your expenses for two years if I am not able to return afore then. If there is aught you need, or if you suspect danger of any kind, or if you no longer choose to foster here, you can send a message to your great-grandfather Dar through Vigi or one of the guards who stay with you. Do you understand?”