“My son! I have no sons,” Thork scoffed furiously. “Missay your lies elsewhere, wench.”
“Your son Eddie bought it last year at the shore. And forget about this Ivar stuff. I never heard of the guy.”
Thork and the king exchanged puzzled looks, as if they didn’t understand her words. Then Thork said heatedly, “I have no son, and most definitely none named Ed-die who spies for Ivar.”
“Yes, you do. We have two sons—fifteen-year-old Eddie and twelve-year-old David.”
“Says she that you have children with her?” Sigtrygg questioned Thork. “Dares she say such and—”
“He’s my husband, and we have two children,” Ruby interrupted the king and heard some people gasp behind her.
Sigtrygg looked at Thork questioningly. “You would jeopardize your Jomsviking to marry this… this man-woman?”
“Nay!” Thork denied vehemently. “She lies. No wife have I.”
The king locked furious eyes with Ruby and challenged her: “Who are you?”
“My name is Ruby Jordan. I live in America. I come from the future, not Ivar, and—”
Sigtrygg backhanded Ruby so hard across the face her knees buckled and she dropped to the floor. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks at the pain. Her cheekbone felt as if it were broken. She looked to Thork for help but he just stared back at her unsympathetically.
“Stand,” Sigtrygg ordered.
After she awkwardly groped her way to her feet by holding on to one of the steps, Sigtrygg warned her, “Do not ever, ever lie to me with tales of the future or mythical sons or marriages. Now, take it off.”
“What? Take what off?”
“The shirt. Take it off.”
“Do you chop off her head and send it to Ivar in the shirt?” one man shouted out from the back of the hall, and others muttered in agreement.
At first, Sigtrygg frowned at the unasked-for advice but then pouted his lips thoughtfully. “Mayhap. Mayhap.” Turning back to Ruby, he repeated icily, “Take it off.”
Ruby realized, with horror, that the Viking king expected her to remove her T-shirt in front of everyone. She glanced at Olaf who nodded his head up and down vigorously. It appeared she had no choice.
With a burning face, Ruby lifted the shirt over her head and slapped it into Sigtrygg’s extended hand, ignoring his growl of annoyance over her lack of respect. Despite her mortification, she held her head proudly high, not bothering to hide her bra-covered breasts with her hands. She somehow knew she wouldn’t be allowed to do that.
Muted murmuring and shuffling rippled through the crowd behind her while Thork and the king gaped at her black lace bra. Sigtrygg’s one good eye almost bugged out, and Thork seemed to have trouble swallowing. Humph! Ruby thought. He’d seen her custom lingerie often enough in the past!
Reluctantly, Thork’s puzzled blue eyes locked with hers. Despite her dangerous predicament, the smoldering flame in their depths ignited a tenuous fuse connecting them in some odd way and caught fire in her most secret places. Without touching, Thork caressed her body with his eyes. Without speaking, he told her all her heart wanted to know. Ruby yearned to touch this man who was her husband and yet was not. She needed to connect with him in the most basic, intimate way known to men and women throughout the ages. Perhaps then she could satisfy this raging hunger he stirred in her. Perhaps then she could save her marriage. Perhaps then she would understand this crazy free-fall through the time warp.
Their seductive trance was broken by Olaf loudly clearing his throat. At their dazed expressions, Olaf threw back his head and hooted with laughter. “Odin’s staff! You two have raised the heat in this room to a fiery pitch. Best you find a private corner soon afore you drop your braies afore one and all.”
Clearly embarrassed by his intense reaction to her, Thork shook his head to clear his mind, then glared angrily at her as if she had cast a spell on him. One dark look at Olaf ended his ridicule immediately.
Then Ruby’s jeans drew Sigtrygg’s attention. “Take them off, too.”
“Whoa! Wait a minute. Enough is enough. I don’t do public stripteases.” At the questioning tilt of the king’s head, Ruby explained, “Public disrobing. No way!”