The Viking Takes a Knight Read Online Free PDF Page A

attacked by a goat…are they your children, Lady Ingrith?”
    â€œNay. I am not married.”
    He just stared at her.
    She gave him a look that pretty much said, What a dunderhead!
    Which he was. He had met her several times in recent years and she had no children then. How could he imagine that she had produced them in such short order?
    â€œThey are orphans from Rainstead. Are they not adorable?”
    He said a foul word under his breath. “How many children?”
    â€œEight.”
    â€œEight!” He cursed again. “And the gnome?”
    â€œHuh? Oh, you mean Ubbi. He is not a gnome. He is my bodyguard.”
    He rolled his eyes.
    â€œUh-oh! Your mother told me that you would welcome us…me and the orphans, but I sense that you are not happy to see us.”
    â€œI get a rash around children,” he blurted out…and could have kicked himself. What a stupid thing to say!
    For a moment she stared at him as if he had lost his mind. Then she continued, “And your mother said that you are in need of a cook, or someone to train a new cook.”
    My mother! I should have known!
    â€œThere are some new types of bees from the Arab lands in swarms over there that your mother asked me to deliver to you. Your thanks are not necessary.” Her biting wit did not amuse him.
    Frowning, he glanced over to the far wall, where several oblong crates with screened sides were stacked. “Thank you,” he muttered ungraciously.
    â€œI am a wonderful cook,” she said of a sudden.
    As if good food is worth the trouble you bring!
    â€œYou will see.”
    Nay, I will not.
    â€œJust you wait.”
    I would rather not.
    â€œI will tell Godwyn to gather up the children and make them behave. You will not even notice we are here.”
    I doubt that. He decided to try a different tactic. “It is not proper for you to be working in a kitchen, like a scullery maid.”
    â€œI love to cook and experiment with different foods and sauces and spices. You place value on your honey studies, why not my food studies?”
    That certainly turned the tables on him. But not for long. “I do not mean to be rude, but why are you here and how long do you intend to stay?”
    Ingrith’s face, already heated from the ovens, turned brighter. She really was a good-looking woman, despite her age, and height, and brassy nerve. Her figure was nothing less than spectacular, as blatantly displayed in her male attire.
    Not that any of that mattered.
    Much.
    â€œWe are here for a short while to avoid a Saxon soldier who is hell-bent on luring me to his bed furs.”
    I would not mind luring you there myself.
    Nay, nay, nay! I did not think that.
    I wonder if she is beyond childbearing years.
    Probably not. She is almost the same as me. Thirty-one. Women still have children at that advanced age, do they not?
    Good heavens! I cannot possibly be thinking of swiving a Viking princess without giving offense to a Norse king, an army, my mother and stepfather, not to mention her gnome bodyguard.
    But wait, her eyes were shifting from right to left, as if evading some truth.
    His eyes narrowed.
    She was lying, or not telling him the entire truth.
    â€œYour seduction, you say. That does not explain why all these orphans are here. And why not go to one of your sisters?”
    Ingrith’s chin went up. “Loncaster would look for me there, first off.”
    â€œLoncaster? Commander of the king’s garrison at Jorvik?”
    She nodded bleakly.
    â€œCould you have chosen a more high-ranking man? Loncaster is not known as the Saxon Butcher for nothing. He would rather drink sword dew than ale, so bloodthirsty is he.”
    Now she really bristled. “I did not choose him, believe you me.”
    He could not help but grin at her indignation. By the saints, the woman was incredibly attractive in her anger. Like a blonde Valkyrie, she was.
    â€œYou find humor in my plight? I had not