Oh, Lord!
Had she really traveled back in time? No, it wasn’t possible.
Searching her brain for other alternatives, she wondered if she might be having a nervous breakdown. It was a definite possibility, but people having nervous breakdowns flipped out totally, didn’t they? Oh, well, if there was such a thing as “walking pneumonia,” maybe she was having a “walking nervous breakdown.”
Disoriented, Ruby frantically searched Jack’s study for clues. Everything remained the same, just as it always was. The clock on the shelf above the desk ticked away. Five o’clock. Oh, my God! Only two hours since Jack had left! How was that possible?
Suddenly, memory rolled over Ruby like a tidal wave, and she cried aloud with the pain of it.
“Thork! Oh, please, God, don’t let Thork be dead.” She frowned. What was she saying? Thork didn’t exist. Jack did.
Ruby raked the splayed fingers of both hands through her hair and held them there. Rocking back and forth, she wailed sorrowfully in desolation over the death of her Viking husband. An inner, nagging voice viewed her mourning as irrational, and yet, at the same time, Ruby could not stop herself.
Her head pounding with the beginnings of a killer migraine, she stood and walked woodenly to the downstairs bathroom for an aspirin. As she filled a cup with water, about to put the pill in her mouth, Ruby looked into the mirror above the sink. The cup and aspirin fell from her shaking hands.
A tear-streaked, thirty-eight-year-old face stared back at her with its chic Sassoon hairstyle. It was an attractive face, but with the first stages of those hated tiny laugh lines flanking her eyes and mouth.
Thirty-eight! Hell!
Ruby looked down at her son’s Brass Balls T-shirt and her jeans. She hesitated, sensing what she’d find, then undid the waistband of her jeans and peeked below.
Yup! Stretch marks!
“Shit!” Ruby said aloud.
She could almost guarantee that if she pulled the jeans down farther she’d find the beginnings of cellulite on her thighs. Well, just a little! Ruby told herself with near-hysterical irrelevance. A slight grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. Criminey! She was having a nervous breakdown and making jokes with herself.
The hall phone rang, jarring Ruby’s senses. She picked it up on the second ring. Maybe it was Jack.
It wasn’t.
“Mom, can I go to Greg’s house after football practice? His mom said I could sleep over. We’re gonna rent videos.”
“I guess it would be all right, Eddie, as long as his parents will be there,” Ruby said, the normalcy of her voice striking her as odd. Actually, she was thankful to put off her painful discussion with her sons about their father’s leaving. “Make sure you behave yourself, and don’t forget to thank Mrs. Summers for having you.”
Ruby realized then, with a rueful giggle, that maternal instincts must kick in automatically. They didn’t require sanity at all.
“Oh, yeah, I’ll behave,” Eddie promised with sick teenage humor. “I promise not to puke all over their carpet during the beer party.”
“Eddie, that’s not funny.”
“Lighten up, Mom. It was just a joke.”
Ruby realized then that David should have been home from school. “Do you have any idea where your brother is?”
“Are you losin’ it, Mom? You told him this morning that Grandma was pickin’ him up after school and that he could spend the weekend with her.”
“Oh, that’s right. I remember now.”
“Mom, are you all right?” Eddie asked worriedly.
No, I am definitely not all right, Ruby thought, but she told her son, “Sure, hon, I just woke up from a nap and I’m a little groggy.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon then.”
“Bye-bye, hon.”
Ruby walked into the kitchen and made herself a cup of instant coffee. Sitting at the kitchen table, she drummed her fingers distractedly. Thoughts twirled at random in her head.
Okay, these were the facts. Something had happened to her today, Ruby was convinced of that. It didn’t matter that only two hours had passed. She could never have dreamt all those characters and events—Jorvik, Gyda, Olaf, all their daughters, including lovable Tyra, Dar and Aud, Eirik and Tykir, gossipy Ella. Ruby grinned at that last thought. Imagine dreaming of a Viking version of her cleaning lady! Not to mention all those other people—Sigtrygg, Byrnhil, Selik, King Athelstan, King Harald.