Surrender My Love Read Free Page B

that he grunted, so she added, “Why do you want to involve yourself in this? ’Tis none of your concern.”
    “This…something else.” He shrugged. “I merely have time on my hands now, with naught to do but amuse myself in your hall for the next fortnight.”

    With a half-dozen women still ogling her handsome brother, she turned to her husband and said, “Mayhap ’tis not such a bad idea.”
    Royce laughed. “Do you get the impression she does not like you underfoot, Selig?”
    “’Tis not funny, Saxon,” she said in annoyance. “I love my brother dearly, as he well knows, but I like having my hall run smoothly, which it never does when he is about. Mayhap if you would take him out and break his nose, as I have suggested more than once—”
    Royce cut in with a hoot. “You never did.”
    “I should have.”
    “I suppose I could go with him,” Royce said to placate her, “to stand as the second interpreter.”
    “With the way you hate Danes? You would go there with one hand on your sword and the other gripping a dagger. Better I go than you, and there would be no need for a second translator, since I speak both languages.”
    The narrowing of his green eyes proved Royce did not take well to that suggestion. Send his beautiful Kristen into a host of Danes who had just spent years pillaging and ravishing and taking for themselves whatever struck their fancy? He would put her back in chains first, even though the last time he had done so, she had made his life miserable.
    All he said was, “Nay, you will not.” But his look dared her to argue about it.
    Selig intervened before she thought to. “Father would skin me alive did I let you journey to East Anglia without a full armyat your back, Kris, and well you know it. Nor would you care to be parted from your children and husband that long. Both of you have better things to do, but I do not. And besides, Royce has a number of men who speak Celtic, any one of whom could stand as the second interpreter.”
    “Elfmar could do that well enough, I suppose,” Royce allowed, only to point out, “But the bishop may not like things so complicated, having his words pass through two others before they reach Guthrum.”
    “As to that,” Selig replied, “’tis more than likely that Guthrum will have his own interpreter on hand who can be used, while Elfmar and I merely stand present to assure that Saxon interests are protected. Either way, the deed would get accomplished.”
    “Aye, well, ’tis a moot point, and the bishop’s decision to make.” And Royce grinned to show that what he was about to add didn’t reflect his own feelings. “He may prefer to return to Alfred rather than trust a Norwegian Viking to represent Saxons against a Danish Viking. You would be amazed how many Saxons do not differentiate ’tween the two.”
    Selig laughed at those last words. “I recall clearly there was a time when you did not.”
    “That was before I came to know this particular Viking.” And Royce hauled Kristen across the bench and onto his lap—without protest, Selig noted, and no easy task, for his sister was a giant compared with Saxon women. “She has away of making a man think of other than war.”
    “And what are you thinking of now, husband?” Kristen asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
    “That the hour grows late.”
    Selig grinned, watching their play. It was a fact that he and his family had had to accept, that she loved this Saxon dearly.
    “Aye,” he said. “I needs must find my own bed if I am to be off to East Anglia come the morn.”
    “ If you are,” Kristen retorted. “And make your choice quickly if you mean to share that bed. I do not care to hear them fighting over you as happened the last time, not when I have guests to be wakened by it.”
    Selig rolled his eyes in protest. “That was not my fault, Kris. Edith had not understood yet that I will not—cannot—tolerate jealousy.”
    “Aye, you would drive a jealous woman to