“How do we tell the others without making Dafydd and Enfys aware that we know something is wrong?” Strian asked.
“Sigrid, I need you to find Lena and Lorna then the royal children. Take them to a small gate in the southwestern wall. The key sits under a patch of grass someone cut way to make a hidey-hole. Leif, you and Strian need to wait for them at the wall. Take them through and into the field to the west. Keep them there until I come for you. No one else unless it’s from our immediate circle should tell you to come back.”
“No.” Strian crossed his arms and shook his head. “Send Erik or Bjorn. Even Freya or Tyra. I’m not getting separated from you again.”
“But that’s what I need. I need Dafydd and Enfys to see me away from you. They need to think you’re not protecting me. They’ve seen me fight, but they don’t understand what the other women can do. They still think I’m an oddity. I could tell from the way Dafydd looked at the women. He doesn’t fear them but rather pictures joining with them. I need Tyra and Freya for this.” Gressa faced Strian and rested her hands on his folded arms. “It won’t be like before. I won’t let it. I thought crawling into those trees would make me safe until you found me. I never imagined that I would be too weak to be loud enough for you to hear me. I’ll be with Freya and Tyra the entire time.”
“Doing what?” Strian’s eyebrow seemed to disappear into his hairline.
Gressa shook her head. If she revealed that part, there was no way any of the husbands would agree.
“Please. I need you to trust me.”
“Gressa, you promised no more secrets.”
“It’s not a secret. You just will not allow it if you know, but I know Enfys and Dafydd. This will work.”
“You don’t know them at all. If you did, they wouldn’t have been able to manipulate you and betray you.”
Gressa pulled back and set her shoulders, an edge creeping into her voice.
“That is true. But I lived with them for ten years. There are things about them I know that few others do. I intend to manipulate them just as they did me. I need their children safe. They aren’t a part of their parents’ machinations, but I will use them, or rather threaten them. We have to hide the children far enough away that the guards can’t find them in the keep or the grounds. Strian, they can’t see themselves become orphans.”
Gressa’s voice trailed off, knowing that she, Strian, Tyra, and Bjorn were all orphans, too. They had been part of loving families, even if she had not, and for all the prince and princess’s faults, they loved their children. Gressa was an orphan, too, but she had never known what it was like to miss her parents. Ivar and Lena were the closest she had. She might not understand the feelings, but she could sympathize with her friends and the royal children.
“Leif will take Sigrid to find Lorna and Lena while I come with you to find Freya and Tyra. Only then will we consider leaving either of you.” Gressa knew that was the only compromise they would offer her.
Both husbands pulled their wives in for searing kisses that held promises of love making but also included an element of goodbye. All four knew there were no guarantees to their safe returns.
Gressa watched Strian walk away, looking back over his shoulder often. It had been easy to find Freya and Tyra, but it had been difficult to convince their husbands to let the women go with Gressa. They sent Bjorn and Erik grumbling to oversee the Norse warriors who milled about in the courtyard and to prepare for the second half of her plan. Gressa, Tyra, and Freya joined Ivar and Rangvald who held Dafydd a captive in his own solar. The women shared Gressa’s plan with the jarls, and both Rangvald and Ivar laughed as they looked down at Dafydd who had been firmly placed in a chair. Lorna and Lena entered soon after with a hissing and swearing Enfys. The Norsemen and women left the solar but not before Ivar locked the door and handed the key to Gressa.
Gressa had already told Freya and Tyra the plan, and Lorna and Lena were wise enough to be patient until their husbands could share the details. The two frús knew they were to help Sigrid gather the four royal children, so left in search of Sigrid.
The three women stood in the passageway listening to the squabbling that came from within the solar. Gressa quietly interpreted the argument between the royal couple while they stripped off their vests and tunics only putting the vests back on. She had a hard time keeping a straight face as she told Freya and Tyra some of the more colorful insults Enfys fired at her husband and his manhood. When the arguing seemed to end, Gressa counted to one hundred, then she unlocked the door and ushered Freya and Tyra in. It relieved the three women to see the others had bound both Dafydd and Enfys to the chairs they occupied.
Dafydd’s eyes followed the three young women who entered his solar. He noticed they had removed their tunics and not because it was warm. All three of the women had their bosoms on display, and while he knew they were attempting to seduce him, his mouth watered. He shut out his wife’s curses that they were whores and gorged his eyes on what he wished to feast upon. Freya approached him first, leaning far forward as she inspected the knots that bound his wrists together. Dafydd reached for Freya, but she was too quick. She wagged a finger at him. Tyra came next, squatting between his legs, checking that each of his calves was bound to a chair leg. Dafydd tried to lean forward to touch the amble flesh he could see beneath the neckline of Tyra’s vest, but the rope around his middle yanked him back. Once Gressa was convinced Dafydd could only look, she walked over and straddled his lap. Freya and Tyra pulled the man’s arms over his head, so he could not touch Gressa. Instead she rested her hands on his thighs beside his very noticeable arousal. She rocked forward, bringing her breast a hairsbreadth from his chest. He grunted as he tried to thrust his hips below her.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Gressa purred. “Not yet. Soon enough you will finally have me.”
Dafydd scowled.
“What about your husband? The one you were so adamant that you wanted. The one you brought here.”
“We Norse have a different idea of marriage than you do. Now that we are together again, he is free to keep concubines, and I can have whichever men I want as long as it’s not their bastards I bear.” Gressa wanted to retch as she told her lies. She could not look at Freya or Tyra while she spun their story. “Not only will you have me, but you will have all three of us. I know that’s what you want. I saw the way you looked at them on the dock.”
Gressa looked over at Enfys who continued to spew vile words at them while forced to watch the three women seduce her womanizing husband since they bound her to her chair, too.
Gressa slid from Dafydd’s lap and began to unbutton her vest. Tyra and Freya joined her and began to undress as well. Gressa had not been untruthful. The Norse did not view nudity as something fearful or shameful, so while none of their husbands would be pleased to learn that they had bared their breasts for another man, the confines of Norse marriage did not forbid it. The three women took up places near Dafydd’s chair. Close enough to tease but not close enough for him to touch. All three of them had boundaries they refused to cross even if their culture did not frown upon nudity.
“I know what you want, Dafydd. I’ve heard the way you talk to your women when Enfys is pregnant, the way you tell them what to do. We can do all of those things for you. Is that what you’re imagining?” Gressa once more used a sultry tone that surprised even her. She would tuck the memory away until she could use it with Strian for a very different purpose.
“Perhaps,” Dafydd’s gaze spoke of his cynicism and suspicion even if the hardened rod in his pants declared his arousal.
“Why would you help Grímr when we have arrived with enough warriors to defeat your enemies without you having to spend coin or jewels? Why help him when you know we would never lay with a man who supports our enemy? Renounce Grímr, and we’ll defeat your enemies, so you can strengthen your claim to Wales.”
Dafydd was quick enough to grasp Gressa’s waistband and pull her forward, tipping her onto his lap, his mouth aimi
ng for her breast. She pushed his chin up at a painful angle.
“We shall play soon enough. You will have your feast but not until we have what we want, too.”
“Don’t tell the bitch anything, Dafydd.” Enfys’s voice held a warning that Dafydd ignored.
“Would you like to make your wife watch us? Watch you with all three of us?” Gressa purred.
“Yes,” Dafydd ground out as his hands yanked on Gressa waistband again, but this time she did not budge.
“Then you must play our little game. You answer my questions, then you will receive your reward.”
Tyra and Freya embraced each other; their breasts pressed together made Dafydd’s eyes widen. Gressa returned her hands to each side of his cock and squeezed his thighs.
“I’m waiting.” She pushed back off his lap and stepped away.
“You would ally with us if I no longer support Grímr? Why should I believe you?”
“If we didn’t want the agreement, why would be here with you now?” Gressa countered.
“I already have what Grímr promised me. It is more than enough to buy the allies I want. Once you leave, what happens? My allies renege on their agreements with no threat of force to uphold them. If I pay them, they have reason to remain.”
“And when the money runs out? You will look weak if the only way you can control them is with a purse. A show of force will make them understand why you are the prince who will lead this country.”
“I’m not worried about that. Grímr brought more than enough to last until I have secured my power.”
“There isn’t a chamber in this keep large enough to store what you would need to accomplish this. You must have some other way.”
Gressa looked over at Enfys as she continued speaking to Dafydd.
“Which of the children have you promised in marriage? How old are the men now that you wed your daughters to? Will you wait until they are thirteen or send them as soon as their courses begin?”
Enfys screamed when she registered the look of surprise on Dafydd’s face. It was the look of being caught.
“You sold our children?” Enfys was so irate she tried to stand from her chair, forgetting they bound her to it.
“I began the complicated work of forming allies.”
“You whored your daughters,” his wife wailed.
“And what do you think your father did with you? Our marriage formed an alliance. You were just fortunate that you possessed beauty and like to fuck.” Dafydd snarled at his wife.
Tyra, Freya, and Gressa backed away as the argument overshadowed their playacting.
“You will not send my daughters away.”
“They are mine, and I shall decide their future.”
“Bah. You think they’re yours. I’ve been bedding Rhys since the second night after we married. I only waited long enough for you to know I was a maiden.”
“What?” Dafydd exploded.
It even shocked Gressa that Enfys confess a secret that Gressa had suspected for years but had never confirmed.
“That’s right. At least three of our children are his, and this one might be, too. I don’t know since I was with you both on the same day for several moons.”
“Enfys, I thought you would never tell Dafydd this secret,” Gressa interjected, goading both of them.
“It’s just as well she has since her lover is dead, and we already sold their bastards to my allies.”
“Just what did you receive besides an agreement to come to your aid if you summoned them?” Gressa wondered aloud.
“The gold and silver I shall use to build the other alliances.”
“Have you seen that, Enfys? Didn’t you wonder where it came from?” Gressa continued to insinuate herself into the conversation as Freya and Tyra slipped behind the couple to replace their clothes.
“No, I haven’t. It seems my husband has been hiding as much from me as I have from him. I can guess where it is though.”
“Enfys,” Dafydd threatened.
“Are you daft enough to think we are coming out of this alive? What does it matter now?” Enfys glared at Gressa. “The ruins of the monastery at Angelsey. He had it all taken there. He assumed that since your people had already raided and sacked the monastery, leaving nothing but rubble behind, no one would think to look there.”
“Our people? They were Danes. We are Norse. We are no more alike than you are the Saxons or Britons. Perhaps, if you had learned the difference, neither the Norse nor the Danes would have sacked your shores so many times.” Gressa taunted.
“Angelsey is not your land, Dafydd.” Gressa pointed out. “How could you be so sure no one would find your treasure?”
Enfys cut in before Dafydd could answer, “Because he once again thought with his cock rather than his head. The prince of Angelsey has a wife who spreads her legs for Dafydd each time we visit.”
Gressa rapidly translated the conversations for the other two women now that they role in the seduction was over.
“And they call us heathens. I thought their vows of marriage pledged forsaking others,” Tyra looked askance at the royal couple. “They are little better than farm animals, rutting anything in heat.”
Gressa shrugged. There were a few more pieces of information she needed.
“You took the bride prices paid for your daughters to Angelsey, but what of the riches Grímr gave you? He bought your archers and me. I know you didn’t give the archers for free,” Gressa wry expression matched her last comment.
“No, they weren’t though you were,” Enfys turned on Gressa. “I gave you to him to get you away from Dafydd and Rhys, but my husband wanted Rhys to take you. Do you not see, they wanted to share both of us?”
“But I thought Dafydd didn’t know of your affair with Rhys. No, you sent me away to keep Dafydd from forcing himself on me. You didn’t do it to protect me but to mark your territory.” Gressa turned back to Dafydd. “Where did you hide Grímr’s payment? Tell me, and perhaps I will stop questioning you and finally give you what you have desired. And your wife, who tried to keep us apart, can watch.”
Gressa placed one hand on each side of the back of the chair and allowed her breasts to sway before Dafydd’s face. The man was predictable to a fault. The arousal that had waned during his exchange with his wife returned, and his pupils dilated.
“It wasn’t that much, but rather the first installment. I lied that he’d given me everything. I didn’t want you to know there would be more. He was to return with more once he ransacked and pillaged Ivar’s and Rangvald’s homesteads. That riches are gone already, gifted as incentives to the other princes to join with me.”
“There’s nothing left?” Enfys snapped. “You are too stupid to rule. You thought to do this without consulting me and see where we are now.”
“I consulted you about Gressa.” Dafydd barked.
“A lot of good that did. The bitch is standing before us.”
Gressa looked at Tyra and Freya, and both women nodded. Gressa whipped a knife from her boot and sliced the blade across Dafydd’s throat, blood splattering her chest, belly, and arms. Enfys screamed and tried to pull away.
“We aren’t going to kill you, you bellowing sow,” Freya hissed. “Shut up.”
Gressa was sure to translate each of Freya’s words.
“You’re not?” Enfys whined.
“Not until after you have your babe.” Tyra reassured.
Enfys looked to Gressa, but Gressa cocked an eyebrow, challenging Enfys to ask any favor from her. Tyra cut Enfys loose and pulled her from her chair. She and Freya dragged her from the room before Gressa took a log from the fire and brushed the flames along any surface that would spark. She left the log burning at Dafydd’s feet, his blood dripping into the flames and making them hiss and leap.
Twenty-Eight
“Do you think baring our breasts made that much of a difference? Bjorn will have a fit when he finds out.”
“You can reassure him it made all the differen
ce. Dafydd had odd predilections, and if my devotion to Strian hadn’t been enough to keep me away, the rumors were. He liked pain. The men could have tortured him, but he would not have broken. He has a high tolerance for it. I heard his father abused him and his brothers. Rhys grew up to enjoy inflicting it on others, while Rowan avoids it at all cost, and Dafydd finds, found, it arousing. More so than even seeing our breasts. He would have confessed nothing to them, but then found a woman or even his own hand to pleasure himself as soon as the men abandoned their torture. I knew the type of arousal we would offer and the chance for immediate pleasure would get us what we needed to know. And I wanted the satisfaction of killing him myself.”
The women paused in the passageway, Enfys still with them, as they rushed to put their clothes back to rights, the smell of smoke wafting from beneath the solar door. Once they covered themselves, they shuffled Enfys through the keep and out of a side door that Gressa pointed out. She guided them to the gate they found unlocked. They dragged the pregnant woman, stopping often as she stumbled, until they reached the field where Strian and the others waited. She whistled a loud bird call that she knew would carry back to the keep. It was only a few minutes later that the first plumes of smoke began to rise above the wall.
Gressa stood with her husband and friends as people raced out of the main gate with horses and livestock squealing. Enfys huddled with her children as Ivar and Rangvald led a group of their warriors to corral the people and separate the guardsmen and Welsh warriors from the others. Erik dragged a young boy who looked about the same age as Freya’s barrel man, Freund, who was only twelve. Freund bounded after them, chattering away despite the terrified look on the boy’s face.
Strian (Viking Glory Book 4) Page 21
