The Viking Takes a Knight Read Free Page B

am—”
    â€œCall me Leo.”
    â€œLeo, I am nobly born. A princess.” Betimes, Ingrith found it convenient to mention her title. “My father would send a hird of warriors to kill any man who beds me without wedding vows.”
    â€œWell, then, I might just offer for you, I suppose.” He smiled as if that were a great compliment and squeezed her hip and a portion of her buttock with his big hand. His pincer-like grasp would probably leave a bruise. “And do not be telling me that I am too far below your station. At your advanced age, you cannot be choosy.”
    If he thought to win her graces with such words, he was sadly mistaken. “At my advanced age ,” she asserted, “I am able to make my own decisions. Mayhap you should direct your attentions elsewhere. A woman not so old as I.”
    He laughed and squeezed her again, more on her buttock than her hip now. “You are mine.”
    Oh, the nerve of the man! “I have never indicatedthat I am yours.” Ingrith spoke with more forthrightness than she usually did in his presence, but his insulting words defied diplomacy.
    â€œM’lady, do not exceed yourself,” he warned. “The fact that I’ve marked you as my woman does not give you license to malign me, whether it be through wedlock or otherwise.” With those words, and before she could protest, he lifted her by the waist and took her to the side of a building, where he propped her against the wall, feet dangling off the ground.
    As his men laughed behind them, calling out lewd jeers, he began to lower his head. She tried pushing against his massive, leather-vested chest, to no avail, then shrieked, “You are such a pig! Put me down at once, or I will—”
    Her words were cut off as he chuckled, “Oink, oink!” and slammed his lips over hers, prying them open with a nip at her lower lip, then thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth. She needed to gag, but she could not breathe. The roaring in her ears presaged that she would soon faint, something she never did.
    Then suddenly he jerked back with the exclamation, “What the bloody hell?”
    It was Ubbi, striking at Loncaster’s back with the wooden part of his lance. The children were rushing toward her from one direction, and a half dozen of Leo’s men were coming at them from the other direction. Meanwhile, Leo had lifted Ubbiby the scruff of his neck and was shaking him like a limp rag.
    â€œNay, nay, put him down.” She pulled at Loncaster’s tunic. “He was only protecting me.”
    â€œFrom kisses?” Loncaster snarled at her. “Striking a soldier in the king’s guard is a hanging offense.”
    â€œPlease, Leo, I beg you. Put him down, and I will…I will welcome your visit to Rainstead.”
    He paused. “Hah! I want a hell of a lot more than a ‘Greetings, Leo’ from you.”
    â€œI understand,” she said in a low voice only he could hear.
    He dropped Ubbi to the ground, then eyed her icily. “Prepare yourself then, wench.” He said wench with deliberate insult. “My appetite is huge and not easily sated.”
    On those ominous words, Loncaster joined his soldiers, and they ambled off, laughing at some ribald man-jest.
    The children were sobbing, except for Godwyn, who looked fierce enough to do battle, as he helped a shame-faced Ubbi to his feet.
    â€œOh, Ubbi, we are in such trouble!”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œEveryone at Rainstead. We must close down the orphanage for a while.”
    â€œBeggin’ yer pardon, mistress, but we cannot just shove thirty children out ta fend fer themselves. Mayhap you could go home to the Norselands fer a short time, or to visit one of yer sisters in Northumbria.”
    â€œI would, except I’m not the only problem facing Rainstead. You are aware that King Edgar wants Henry…for some nefarious purpose, I fear. Now he grows more insistent.