Lord of Hawkfell Island (Viking Era 2)

“Ah, that is why you didn’t beat him to death?”

“Aye,” he said, “that and he is still useful to me.” He pointed toward a lone gull who sat perched on a piling near the end of the wooden dock. “Lella loves birds, just as you do. She feeds that one daily. She calls him Gorm. I scold her, sometimes discipline her for her benefit, but she is young and filled with excitement over foolish things.”

Mirana laughed softly. “You mean the young lad who dresses like a girl?”

He stiffened and she felt a tremor run through him. “How do you know, Mirana?”

“Your Lella wanted to meet me. She came to my chamber last night and took off her clothes to show me she was different from the others, that you would never tire of her, that you loved her because of her differentness, because she could give you pleasure a woman couldn’t give. Your Lella is a lovely boy, Einar. How odd that I did not know this about you. Odd that everyone else did know yet no one told me.” Her voice was matter-of-fact, utterly without judgment, without revulsion or disgust. It was difficult, but she managed it, and she saw that he eased slowly, but he did ease.

“I will beat the boy,” he said mildly. “He shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t think I had to tell him to keep away from you. He acted on his own. Aye, I will beat him for that. As I said, he is young and needs firm discipline. I would have told you in my own time, that or I would have tired of him and it would have made no difference, for I would have sold him and he would have been gone.”

She shrugged. “It matters not what pleasures you seek or where you seek them. Surely a man should do as he chooses. And you are a leader of men, Einar.” She watched him preen with her words. She had to learn well to dole them out—the flattery, then the spurs. It was finding the balance that would be difficult.

“Did Rorik do as he pleased with you?”

She felt her blood gathering, pounding through her. “What do you mean, Einar?”

“I was thinking about what Sira has told me, what Gunleik and the others have told me as well. You claim you were married to Rorik Haraldsson, that you are no longer a virgin, and thus you cannot wed the king. You will now tell me you lied. And you will tell me why you lied. I wish to hear the words from you, Mirana.”

She looked at him, her eyes clear. She realized that she didn’t want to die. She didn’t want Einar to stick a knife in her heart and twist it upward with a flick of his wrist when she sent him into a rage with the truth. She saw herself clearly in that instant falling to the ground, a knife deep in her heart. No, she thought, no.

So she said, her voice firm and steady, “Aye, I lied. I didn’t want to marry an old man, Einar, be he king or pauper. I have no care for jewels or slaves, you know that. I would say anything to prevent marrying that old man, even claiming to be wed to our enemy, Rorik Haraldsson. Aye, I would claim to be married to Gunleik were it to save me from marrying him. I beg you, don’t force me to do this.”

“There are things you don’t understand,” he said, and looked up into the heavens. A star appeared through a brief clearing in the clouds. “It is the North Star. There are men on the sea who are cheering at this moment, doubt it not.”

She prayed one of those men was Rorik.

“What things?”

“I cannot tell you as yet. Just trust me, Mirana. What I do benefits not only me but you as well. Trust me.”

She let her voice grow smooth and mocking, for pleading would never gain anyone anything with Einar. “And if I tell you I don’t trust you, brother? What would you do to me then? Beat me? Kill me?”

“Nay, for the time is too short when the king and his advisor, an old ancient named Hormuze, will arrive at Clontarf to fetch you. What I will do, though, is examine you myself. I cannot take the chance of the king finding you unchaste after he has married you. I want my own finger to feel your maidenhead, Mirana. You will come with me now. If you wish it, I will even give you pleasure as well. You’ve never known a woman’s pleasure. Come.” He held his hand out to her.

She stared at it as if it were a snake to bite her.

She continued to stare at his hand as she said, “I told you the truth, Einar. I lied about a marriage to Rorik Haraldsson. Nor did Rorik touch me. I was his hostage, a valuable hostage to be used against you. He did not ravish me. He had no interest in me in that way.”

She realized then that this was but a pretense. Einar wanted to touch her, perhaps for his corrupt pleasure, perhaps to humiliate her, she wasn’t certain, nor did she care. She’d been a fool not to see it immediately. Now she saw the darkness in him so clearly, shining as black as the night in his eyes, beautiful green eyes full to brimming with a strange intensity, and knew in that instant that he’d placed her in the center of his dark soul, that the boy Lella was quite wrong.

She felt the perversity in him reaching out to her, remembered many times now when she’d seen the depravity, the darkness of him overflow onto others, causing pain and humiliation and even death. And now she was his focus. She remembered believing that Rorik would kill her. Now she wondered if her half-brother would as she said calmly, “No, Einar.”

He smiled at her. He lifted her hand in both of his and

stroked her palm with his thumbs. She was deadly cold yet her palm was sweating.

“I am your brother, Mirana, and until you wed the king, I am your master. You will always do as I bid you.”

Again, she said, “No. It isn’t right. It isn’t normal or natural. You are my brother, I remind you of it and remind you of its significance and obligations. You will not touch me in such a way.”

“It is because I am your brother that I do not wish to humiliate you by having another man do it.”

“Then it will be a woman if you disbelieve me. If you truly think I am lying to you now, we will ask Hannah to do it.”

“You lied before. You claimed he was your husband. A husband plows his wife. The women love you and would do anything you asked of them. I could not believe what Hannah would tell me. You lie and you don’t lie. I no longer see what is right, what is the truth. Which is which, Mirana?”

She drew herself up. She looked skyward and said, “If you do this to me I will not wed your king.”