Viking Passion Read Online Free PDF Page A

beard and
mustache. He nodded vigorously and replied in a scornful tone.
    Lenora heard the other Vikings laugh behind
her. She saw the dark man beside Thorkell flush, his hand
tightening on the hilt of his sword, before he relaxed, lifted his
head to meet Snorri’s eyes, and responded in a quiet, low-pitched
voice. There was a murmur of approval throughout the hall, and in
that moment Lenora understood that Snorri and the dark man were
enemies.
    Snorri took Edwina by the elbow and led her
to Thorkell’s side.
    “Lenora,” Edwina cried, looking around
anxiously.
    Confused, uncertain what was happening,
Lenora followed her friend closely. Snorri pushed her back with his
free hand, snarling something in his harsh voice.
    Lenora started to protest. Snorri ignored
her. He was speaking to Thorkell again. It was by now clear to
Lenora that Snorri was giving Edwina to Thorkell. She could see
Edwina trembling as Thorkell’s hand ran lightly up and down her
bare arm.
    “No,” Lenora exclaimed, again moving toward
her friend.
    She was stopped by the voice of the dark man.
His tone was low and urgent. It took a moment for his words to sink
into her mind.
    “Be still,” he said. “Do not interfere, or
you both die.”
    Lenora stared at him in amazement. He had
spoken Latin, the language her father had once attempted to teach
her, which since his death she had heard only in Father Egbert’s
church -services. How could this Viking know Latin?
    As she met the full intensity of his gaze,
Lenora caught her breath. His eyes were a clear, beautiful green
fringed by thick dark lashes. Like two emeralds set in his tanned
face, they bore into her, seeming to reach into her very soul.
Stunned, she looked back at him in silent wonder.
    “Your friend will be treated kindly by
Thorkell,” the dark man said. “She is safer with him than with
Snorri.”
    At that moment Snorri caught Lenora’s
shoulder and pushed her at the dark man.
    “Erik,” Snorri said, and then continued in a
rush of words Lenora did not comprehend.
    Again there was laughter in the hall. The
dark man’s eyes narrowed, becoming cold green pools, but he made no
response to what was obviously another insult from Snorri. He
looked down at Lenora.
    “You also were intended for Thorkell, but at
his order you have been given to me,” he said, still speaking in
Latin, “along with a few suggestions as to what I should do with
you.”
    There was no doubt about it this time; he was
examining her. His eyes filled with admiration and something else
that made Lenora go hot and then cold under her tattered gown as he
looked her over, beginning with her tangled and none-too-clean
curls and her dirt-smudged face. His glance slowed for a leisurely
inspection of her full, rounded breasts. One dark eyebrow arched
upward; a corner of his mouth tilted in a half smile. Lenora felt
her face flaming. He seemed not to notice. He was too busy visually
measuring the slenderness of her waist and then proceeding to a
cool appraisal of her well-rounded hips •and the curves of long,
slender legs, just visible where the seam of her skirt had split.
At last he raised his eyes to her face again, contemplating her
features with a bemused expression.
    “For once,” he said softly, “I agree with my
brother.”
    “Snorri is your brother?” Lenora, shaking
with helpless anger at being subjected to such close scrutiny,
spoke in her own language, which this strange man seemed to
understand, although he replied once more in Latin.
    “I am Erik, called the Far- traveler,” he
said. “Snorri and I are both the sons of Thorkell the
Fair-speaker.” He indicated the white-haired man who was rising
from his chair.
    Thorkell spoke, and two men came forward to
carry away his share of the goods from Snorri’s voyage. Thorkell
took Edwina by the arm and said something to Snorri, who gave a
wolfish grin in response. Still holding Edwina, Thorkell moved
toward a door at one side of the hall. Edwina cast