by Bobbi Smith
“She is far from sweet. She is a dangerous little thing.” Ulf bent down to retrieve her dagger. He showed it to him.
“She attacked you?” Seger laughed, finding humor in the fact that the woman had challenged the giant beside him.
Ulf grunted in disgust as he showed him the bloody gash on his arm.
“Perhaps the Saxons should set their women to fighting us instead of their men. It seems she is a far more formidable foe.”
Ulf agreed as he studied the small, jeweled dagger with interest. He thought it odd that a peasant woman would have such a prize in her possession. He looked from the knife to her, seeing the glint of defiance and anger in her eyes, and wondered at her daring. Dragging Dynna with him, he started back to where Neils waited with the other female.
“Take one last look around and make sure there aren’t any more of them,” he ordered Seger.
Matilda was still struggling with Neils when Ulf and his captive reached them.
“Be still!” Neils commanded in their tongue.
Matilda ceased her struggle when she saw that her lady was unharmed.
As the men began to talk in their own language, Matilda whispered tearfully to Dynna that she was sorry for their situation.
“Save your tears. There was no escaping them. We would have been caught no matter what.”
“Silence!” Ulf ordered gruffly as Seger rejoined them and told them that there were no others.
“What are we going to do with these two?” Neils asked.
“We can’t let them go,” Seger said.
In that moment, as Dynna listened to their discussion, she believed her life and Matilda’s were over. These were the dreaded Norse invaders. They were known as the scourge of the coast for good reason.
Dynna glanced at Matilda. Of everything they had worried about when they had planned their escape, being caught by newly landed Viking raiders had never been one of them. And now. . .
“True, we cannot free them,” Ulf was saying. “If we do that, they will spread the word of our landing.” He paused as he let his gaze rest upon the two. Outwardly, they appeared to be mere village women, and yet something about the jeweled dagger bothered him. “We’ll take them back with us and let the Black Hawk decide what to do with them.” He was not pleased with the prospect of taking them along, but there was no other way.
Neils grabbed the unsuspecting Matilda and threw her over his shoulder. She let out a grunt as she landed painfully on her stomach on Neils’s shoulder, and she pounded on his back in outrage at being so manhandled. The Viking only laughed at her. He rested his hand familiarly on her hip to hold her still as he moved off. His touch shocked her, and she squirmed wildly, trying to get away. Neils gave her a warning spank to still her.
Matilda wanted to keep kicking and fighting and biting and scratching, but she realized it was useless. There would be no escaping this man. He was ruthless. It tortured her to know that there was nothing she could do to help her lady. She only hoped Dynna would bear up well under the warriors’ abuse and that they would not learn her true identity.
When Dynna heard that they were going to be taken along with the warriors, relief rushed through her. They were not going to be killed! Tears threatened, but she refused to shed them. She would be strong, for herself and for Matilda, and, somehow, she would survive.
Ulf bound her wrists with a leather strap and ordered her to start walking. He looked none too pleased as he led the way back to the landing site. He had expected to encounter Saxons to fight, not two sleeping women whom he had to herd back to the ships.
Glancing down at the raven-haired beauty walking beside him, Ulf once again found it hard to believe she was a peasant woman. There was something about her . . . a beauty, grace, and pride not usually found in commoners. And to think she’d been brave enough to attack him with her dagger . . . Had she been a Viking woman, he would have been proud of her exploits. As an enemy, she would bear watching. He would not give her a second chance to maim him.
They had walked a goodly distance before topping a rise near the shore. Dynna stopped dead still in her tracks to stare at the scene below. Three Viking longships had put ashore, and over a hundred men were waiting, armed and ready, to begin an invasion. At the sight of the one ship’s scarlet sail, marked with the sign of the hawk, she began to tremble. It had all been true! The Black Hawk was going to raid the tower!
“Move!” Ulf ordered, giving her a push in the direction of the others.
Dynna started down the incline, holding her head high. She watched as one separated himself from the group and came forward to meet them. He was tall and bearded, his coloring as dark as her captors’ were fair. Dynna found herself mesmerized by the sheer, brutal force he exuded. He was powerfully built, with broad shoulders and heavily muscled arms. He wore a padded leather vest over his tunic, tight trousers, and leather boots. A lethal-looking sword was strapped at his side, and he carried a large, round battle shield. The shield was red with a hawk painted on it, and she realized in horror that this was the infamous Black Hawk. She tried to make out his features, but couldn’t see his face clearly, for the beard and intimidating helmet he wore shielded him from her scrutiny.
Dynna tried to remember everything she had heard about the man. For the last five years, it seemed, he had been invincible—raiding, kidnapping, and plundering the coast at will. No kingdom had been safe from his swift and vicious attacks.
Staring at him now and seeing his power, she understood why he had been so victorious. The Norseman looked primitive and frightening. She thought of the Saxons at the tower, and though Sir Edmund had bragged about how prepared they were for the possible attack, she wondered if, even with their superior numbers, they would be any match for this man and his invading force.
She stopped before the Viking leader. Taking care to remember Matilda’s admonitions to keep her eyes downcast and her shoulders a little slumped, she played the serving wench.
Ulf was at her side. “We found these two sleeping in a grove of trees.”
Neils had been following close behind, and he dumped Matilda unceremoniously on her feet as Ulf explained how they had discovered and captured them.
“These two women were alone, sleeping in the countryside?” Brage glanced at the females standing before him. He had thought they might be village women who had been caught trying to run ahead and warn Lord Alfrick of their pending attack.
“Yes, and look at this.” Ulf handed him Dynna’s jeweled dagger. “Once again, I’ve been wounded protecting you,” he said with a grin, showing him the cut on his arm.
Brage took the knife and studied it, then looked at the two women. “Which one did this to you?”
“This one.” He pulled Dynna forward so Brage could get a better look at her.
“Lucky she did not have a bigger blade,” Brage taunted in good humor. “Yet odd that she should have such a fine dagger.”
When Dynna did not respond to his statement or look up, Brage cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her head so she was forced to look straight at him.
For an instant, as Brage gazed upon her features for the first time, he could only stare in wonderment. Her beauty was uncommon, from her raven-black hair to her fair and flawless complexion. As he met her gaze, he saw that her gray eyes fairly sparkled with intelligence, and that intrigued him. Dull-witted wenches had never appealed to him. He let his gaze drift lower, studying her body disguised beneath the coarse garment, and knew that she was a woman full-grown. Her breasts seemed ripe where they swelled beneath the gown, and her hips were pleasantly rounded. It was then that he noticed her hands and saw that they were soft and well cared for. This woman was no mere peasant. His curiosity was piqued by the mystery of her.
“Tell me, wench, where did you find such a fine weapon?” he asked as he held the dagger out to her.
“I stole it,” Dynna said, surprising herself at her ability to lie. As she gazed up at him, she found herself almost hypnotized
by his blue-eyed gaze.
“Perhaps . . .” Brage replied thoughtfully, watching her intently for a moment longer. “But I do not think so.”
He dropped his hand away from her chin and grasped her hand, drawing it up to study her palm. His thumb was resting across her wrist, and he could feel the rapid beat of her pulse beneath his touch.
“These are not the hands of a serving wench,” he observed.
The touch of his hand on hers was gentle, surprising Dynna. When he lifted his gaze to hers again, she forced her eyes to remain level with his, trying to brazen it out. But his piercing, somehow knowing, regard unnerved her; it seemed he could see into the very heart of her.
“What shall we do with them?” Ulf asked, wondering at his brother’s unusual interest in the woman. When they raided, females were the last thing on his mind.
Ulf’s question forced Brage’s attention back to their real reason for being there. He released Dynna’s hand and turned to his brother.
“Bind them both and bring them along with us. Just make sure to keep them to the rear, out of my way. I want no distractions for my men.”
Ulf signaled to one of the waiting warriors, and the man rushed forward.
“Take the women and see that they cause no trouble.”
“Will we share them later?” the man asked eagerly.
Dynna saw the hunger in the Viking’s face and felt a shaft of fear.
Brage looked back at Dynna and Matilda. There was something about the gray-eyed one . . . something special that he wanted to look into once the fighting was over.
“No,” he answered. “No one is to touch them.”
Dynna’s knees almost buckled in relief at his answer, but her relief was short-lived.
“Keep them out of harm’s way. They’ll bring a better price in the slave market if they’re untouched.” Brage glanced down at the dagger she had carried once more and then tucked it into his own waistband. He would have liked to find out more about her, but there was no time to think of females now. He was a warrior, ready to do battle. He had to lead his men.
Still, even as Brage turned his attention to the tower and their attack strategy, he glanced over and watched the women being led away.
Dynna’s fury and frustration were boundless as she was drawn along with the other man. The future looked hopeless and threatening. She did not know which was worse—to be used as a whore by the Vikings here or to be sold into slavery and never heard from again. She wondered if her life would ever change. It seemed she was forever to be mere chattel to some man.
When the women were gone from sight, Brage, with Kristoffer by his side, spoke quietly with Ulf, Seger, and Neils, finding out all they had learned while they’d been scouring the countryside. The knowledge that they had observed no resistance and the march was clear to the tower encouraged him. He called the men together in preparation to move out.
“We attack Lord Alfrick’s tower!” Brage told them as they gathered around. “When we have breached that, the land and all its riches will be ours!”
The warriors shouted their approval, eager for a fight.
“Remember! Captives bring us gold; the dead are worthless to us,” Brage reminded them.
The men understood. While they had often faced death on their raids, it was the treasure they were after. Killing served no purpose unless in self-defense. Healthy slaves brought wealth.
Brage invoked Odin and Thor to aid them in their quest, and then led the way inland.
The Black Hawk’s warriors were more than ready for the excitement of battle as they climbed the hill and started on the trek to the tower. With Brage, Ulf, and Kristoffer in the fore, they moved quickly and quietly, heading relentlessly toward the riches they believed would soon be theirs.
Three
“What do you mean she is not in her chamber?” Edmund roared at the female servant.
“Her room is empty, Sir Edmund.”
Edmund had left the tower early that morning to train with the men. He returned just past noon, wanting to see Dynna. He had searched below for her, and when she was nowhere to be found, he set the servant off to her room to fetch her and bring her to him. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“Now that I think about it, Sir Edmund, I have not seen her all morning.”
Edmund brushed past the woman and mounted the stairs two at a time to Dynna’s chamber. He threw the door wide and stared about the empty room. His gaze went first to her bed. It had not been slept in, he saw, and the clothes she had worn the night before were tossed haphazardly upon it.
“Where is the servant who cleans this room?”
“That would be her maid, Matilda, Sir Edmund, and I have not seen her today, either,” the servant answered.
“Inquire of the others. I want to know if anyone has seen her today. Report back to me immediately,” Edmund ordered, suspicion coiling hot and ugly within him.
The servant rushed off to do as she had been ordered, leaving Edmund alone in Dynna’s room. He gazed about, then moved to the bed to pick up Dynna’s crumpled gown. His hands caressed the soft fabric, and he imagined it on her slender body. As he stared down at the bed an image of her, warm and willing, holding her arms out to him in invitation, flooded his mind. Heat surged through his body. He was still holding the garment when the servant returned long minutes later.
“No one has seen either of them.”
Edmund growled at the servant to leave the chamber. After the woman had scurried away, he remained standing among Dynna’s things, cursing her even as he desired her. Finally, in anger, he cast the gown aside and strode from the room. He sought his father to tell him of Dynna’s disappearance.
“You think she’s run away?” Lord Alfrick was genuinely surprised. He was not accustomed to anyone, male or female, contradicting him in any way.
“What else am I to think? No one has seen her today, and her bed was not slept in.”
“Find her.”
“I will, and once I do, I will bring her back, and our plans to wed will be announced.”
“The priest will be returning within four weeks. The ceremony can be performed as soon as he arrives.”
“I will speak to you again when I return with my betrothed.”
After leaving his father, Sir Edmund gathered a small group of his men to ride with him. They charged from the stable ready to search the countryside for the errant Lady Dynna and her maid.
It took them several hours to comb the area near the tower. After no success, they spread out farther across the countryside. Sir Edmund knew if Dynna were trying to escape marriage to him, she would attempt to reach her family home and seek her father’s protection. With that in mind he widened the search in the direction of the lands of her father, Lord Garman.
They rode like the wind, checking along the roads and byways, seeking some clue to the missing women, but to no avail. They were just starting through a narrow part of the road that was bordered on both side by trees when they caught sight of a distraught-looking villager racing toward them. The man appeared near exhaustion, yet he kept running, waving his arms frantically at them to stop. Edmund urged his mount forward and met the man.
“Sir Edmund! I saw them!” he blurted out as he gasped for breath.
“You saw who?” he asked, looking up past the man in the direction he’d come, thinking Dynna was just beyond the hill.
“The Black Hawk, Sir Edmund! He is coming and he has brought hundreds of Vikings with him! They are going to kill us all!”
Caught off-guard and stunned by the news that the raiders had landed Edmund could only stare at the man in disbelief.
“They are here, I tell you! I was in the woods when they passed by. I cut through the back path to reach the tower first. Thank God I found you, so I could warn you in time!”
“How do you know it is the Black Hawk?”
“I saw his shield! Everyone knows his emblem!”
The declaration jarred Edmund into action.
Turning to his men, he called out, “Bring this man with us. We must ride quickly. Our trap must be set at once or all will be lost!”
He ordered a return to the tower, though his thoughts remained on Dynna. He wanted to find her, teach her she should never have run from him, but there was no time to think of her now. The battle he had been preparing for was about to begin. He would deal with the Vikings first. A mere woman could wait. Wheeling his horse about, he put his heels to his mount’s flanks and raced back to tell his father of the invasion.
“The warning the stranger gave us that night was true, Father,” Sir Edmund advised Lord Alfrick. “Viking ships have landed and the Black Hawk is approaching on foot from the east with at least a hundred warriors.”
“You are certain of this?”
“One of the villagers has seen his shield. It is the Black Hawk all right.”
Lord Alfrick smiled, but it was not a smile of pleasure. It was a smile of grim determination. They were as ready as they would ever be to defeat the Vikings. He was thankful they had had time to prepare. “We will attack as planned, my son.”
Edmund hurried from his father’s chamber to summon Sir Thomas and call the men to action. The Saxons were ready. They took up their arms and raced to assume their designated positions along the only road leading to the tower. There, hidden among the foliage, the heavily armed Saxons awaited the invaders.
Brage led his men on the trek to Lord Alfrick’s tower. Ulf stayed near the rear, watching out for trouble at the same time as he kept an eye on the two women and guarding Brage’s back. Kristoffer marched in the middle. There was little talk as they trudged silently onward, each man concentrating on the battle to come. They saw a farmer in the distance and watched with obvious pleasure as he fled in terror at the sight of them. Having a terrible reputation had its benefits. Sometimes fear could bring about a capitulation without any use of force or bloodletting at all. The Vikings were hoping the Saxons in the tower would be as easily cowed.
Brage realized that Lord Alfrick had surely been alerted by now, but he was not worried. The Saxon lord had no time to call for extra men, so the fight would be a relatively simple one. The worst that could happen, he reasoned, would be that they might be forced to resort to a siege. But even if that came to pass, the siege would not last long, for the Saxons would not have prepared the needed supplies to wait it out.
