Page 138 of The Outlaw Viking

“Be quiet.”

“And whatever ye do, do not be throwin’ her on a bed and plowin’ her first thing.”

Selik inhaled sharply and stopped dead in his tracks. Hands on hips, he turned to glare at the impudent scamp.

“I know, be quiet.”

Adam was the first to see the children playing in the fallow fields of the farmstead. Noticing Adela, Adam ran ahead and hugged his sister warmly. Then he threw his shoulders back and puffed his chest out with self-importance as the other children questioned him about his great adventure.

Hearing the noise, Ubbi came out of the barn and exclaimed, “Well, ’tis about time. We had given up on you.”

“Where is Rain?” Selik asked immediately, his eyes darting about the farmyard. Ignoring Ubbi, he rushed inside the barn, but it was empty, the early spring weather having drawn everyone outside—except for Ella, who was stirring a pot over the fire.

Ella! Bloody hell! She must finally have trapped Ubbi.

Seeing him for the first time, Ella scowled condemningly and muttered, “Bloody bastard,” before turning her back on him rudely.

“Where is she?” he asked Ubbi once again when he went back outside.

Adela came rushing at him, wrapping her little arms around his legs. He whisked her up into his arms, and she wrapped her thin arms around his neck, kissing his face wetly. “Missed me, did you, Adela?” he asked, twirling her high above his head, to her delighted squeals.

She nodded her head up and down vigorously. He noticed that her thumb was no longer planted in her mouth. She seemed happy and unfearful, unlike the shivering child he had first seen on the street in Jorvik.

“He is me father now,” Adam boasted to the other children, jerking a thumb toward Selik.

“Fer shame, Adam, tellin’ such tales,” Ubbi chastised the little boy. He darted a look of apprehension toward Selik, knowing how he misliked reminders of his lost son.

“He is, too. Yea, he is,” Adam protested indignantly to Ubbi. “He ado…adopted me.”

Ubbi looked up at Selik in question.

He shrugged. “I had no choice. He came for me at Athelstan’s court and threatened me with Lifesavers if I would not do his bidding.”

Adam grinned at him, happy as a pup.

Selik put Adela down gently and looked directly at Ubbi. Ubbi’s eyes shifted nervously.

“Where is she?” he asked in a low voice, almost afraid of the answer.

“Gone.”

He closed his eyes for a moment and put a hand to his heart. Please, God, please!

Trust in me.

Hah! Look where it got me so far.

Perhaps you haven’t trusted enough.

He inhaled deeply and asked, “When? When did she leave?”

“This morn.”

Selik’s eyes shot open. “This morn? How could that be? The very day I return to Northumbria, she chooses to go back to her own country?”

“She goes every day,” Ubbi said with disgust.

“Every day?”