Tykir shrugged. “We had a fiercesome storm in Jorvik and my workers could not complete the work on my ship ’til today.”
“Does that mean you will be leaving us once again, now that your ship is seaworthy?” Eadyth asked. She liked her brother-by-marriage and, with all the problems she and Eirik had been having with Emma, not to mention their own disagreements and her agonizing over the ominous silence from the Witan, they could all use a little of Tykir’s levity in their lives.
Tykir grinned in his usual rascally fashion. “Well, if I had known I was missed so much, I would have returned long ago. Apparently, I have not taught Eirik well enough how to keep a woman… happy.” He jiggled his eyebrows at his frowning brother.
“Sit down, Tykir,” Eirik muttered, “lest I teach you a few lessons in brotherly respect.”
“Hah!” Tykir said, trying to ease into the chair next to them. It was difficult with Emma wrapped around his body—arms circling his neck, legs locked around his waist.
Eadyth stood and held out her arms for Emma, but the little girl shook her head vigorously and held on even tighter, whimpering, “Uncle Tykir.”
“Women love me no matter their age,” Tykir boasted unashamedly. “But listen, sweeding,” he added gently, stroking the little girl’s bony shoulders, “I must needs visit the garde-robe. Let go, for now.”
She refused.
And Eirik looked at Eadyth, offering her a quick, arresting smile, as if suddenly enlightened. He stood and snaked his arm around her waist, looking down at Tykir. “You know how you hate to sleep alone, my brother,” Eirik said smoothly. “Well, you have a new lady to share your bed linens.” He pointed at Emma, who smiled brightly, apparently understanding perfectly and having no objection to her Uncle Tykir taking the place of her father or stepmother.
“And, you, my lady wife,” Eirik said, turning to Eadyth. “I have something for you.” Searching the various folds of his surcoat and tunic, he finally retrieved a bedraggled green feather.
“What?” Eadyth asked, tilting her head questioningly as Eirik laid the parrot feather in the palm of her hand.
Eirik’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Since I abandoned you on the night of our marriage, and since we have had no time to ourselves since then,” he said in a low, husky voice close to her ear, “you have my permission to consider this our wedding night.”
“Permission?” Eadyth choked out, then looked down at the feather. “And this?”
” ‘Tis your bride gift.”
“A bride gift?” Tykir chortled. “What kind of bride gift is that? You have become tight-fisted in your old age, my brother.”
Eirik ignored his brother’s taunts and put his hand over Eadyth’s. His eyes smoldered with some hidden message. “Remember the feather I demonstrated for you one day in our bedchamber and my promise that the exercise would continue?” he said smoothly, running the quill across her lips as a reminder of what he had done once before. ” ‘Tis time, Eadyth. Past time.”
Then he scooped her up in his arms before she had a chance to protest and started to carry her off the dais. She squirmed and protested shrilly as Tykir and his men cheered and offered lewd suggestions.
“You are truly a loathsome lout.”
“Yea, I am.”
“And an odious oaf.”
“Yea.”
“A lecherous libertine.”
“Most definitely.”
“And a… a…”
“Do not forget horny toad.”
Eadyth tried to push out of his embrace, but he held her arms firmly in his embrace. Then he called out over his shoulder, “Good eventide, everyone. We will see you on the morrow.”
“The morrow!” Eadyth squeaked, giving up on her struggles and burying her hot face in his neck. ” ‘Tis only past noon now.”
“Yea,” he said, smiling with supreme male satisfaction. Then he added in a voice of silky promise, “I have twelve ‘peaks’ to climb afore then, and I want to get an early start.”
“Twel… twelve! Oh, you are outrageous.”
“Yea. That is one of the things women love about me.”
Once they were in his bedchamber, Abdul began squawking, “Loathsome lout. Awk. Big trouble. Awk. Kiss my arse. Awk.” Without hesitation, Eirik picked up the cage and deposited it in the hall, ignoring the bird’s angry protests.