Anna Markland - Viking Roots Medieval Romance Saga 01 Read Online Free PDF Page A

Kaia insisted, pulling off her coif and wimple.
    “ Da! ” Ekaterina repeated, filling the air with more trumpets of foul smelling wind.
    Cathryn held her breath. The lone candle’s flame flickered alarmingly. “What makes you think that?” she asked finally.
    Kaia sighed. “He tells me with his eyes—those beautiful blue eyes.”
    Her words struck Cathryn like a bolt of lightning. She had noticed Javune’s blue eyes, but only because colors and their many hues were important in her work. She obviously hadn’t seen in his eyes what Kaia had. On the other hand it hadn’t been difficult to read the dislike in Sprig’s heart when he turned his dark eyes on her.
    “What do you mean?” she asked hesitantly , removing her own headgear then scratching her scalp.
    “He loves me,” Kaia whispered, pulling her habit over her head.
    “ Da! ”
    Cathryn and Kaia both puffed out their cheeks, holding their breath, but no sound emerged from the dozing doyenne. When she deemed it safe to breathe again, Cathryn snorted. “How can he be in love with you? He doesn’t know you, and you don’t know him.”
    Kaia looked at her wistfully. “It was love at first sight.”
    Something in her friend’s eyes gave her pause. She’d never seen Kaia look radiant before. “Love at first sight?” she whispered.
    Kaia hunched her shoulders, beaming a smile Cathryn never suspected she had in her arsenal of facial expressions. “He makes me feel tingly.” She smoothed her hands over her breasts. “Here,” she whispered.
    Cathryn averted her gaze from Kaia’s nipples, pouting against the thin fabric of her chemise. A good nun didn’t notice such things.
    Then Kaia trailed a fingertip slowly down her belly to her mons. “And here,” she said throatily.
    Cathryn’s lungs stopped working. T he fetid air was suddenly too hot, the habit too confining. As her friend settled onto the second pallet, evidently lost in thoughts of Javune, she felt cast adrift from everything she had ever known. She’d grown up in the certainty she would devote her life to Saint Catherine. The martyr had been the virgin bride of Christ. Had the long dead woman she served ever tingled in those intimate places?
    You are bound straight for Hell.
    Certainly no one in Cathryn’s life had ever made her feel that way. She clenched the inner muscles between her legs, wanting inexplicably to stretch like one of the cats that prowled the kitchens in Rouen. On the morrow she’d have to do penance for these sinful thoughts.
    She quickly stripped off her habit, resisting the temptation to glance at her own strangely tingling nipples, and slumped down on the pallet next her friend.
    She dozed fitfully and wasn’t sure how long she’d tossed and turned when she became aware Kaia no longer slumbered beside her. She sat up abruptly, peering into the gloom. Ekaterina snored on. Kaia was gone.
    Fear gripped her heart. To venture abroad at night was dangerous especially after the Abbott had mentioned there ’d been reports of thieves downriver. She was certain Kaia was with Javune.
    She felt around in the darkness for her habit, struggled into it and crept from the cell, fumbling with the corded belt. Mater had made it clear her wealthy friend was her responsibility.

TRYSTS IN THE NIGHT
    Bryk had made a decision during the cross-country trek. He resented Hrolf, but the chieftain had brought them safely to Francia. His plan to coerce the King of the Franks into ceding territory made sense. The rich plains and forests they’d traversed held great promise. A man might settle here and plant apple trees, build a more comfortable and secure life than the one he’d left behind.
    But the choicest lands would be doled out to those who enjoyed Hrolf’s favor. Only warriors would be richly rewarded.
    Bryk had courage. He didn’t fear death, and would fight for a stake in this new country. But he wouldn’t murder. He would win his place with honor.
    He and his cohorts came to