Page 64 of The Outlaw Viking

“Why? Are ye hungry?”

Rain laughed. “No, but if I could get some cow adrenal glands, I might be able to make a primitive form of cortisone. It would do absolute wonders for your arthritis.”

At first, his face brightened with hope, but then quickly changed to horror when Rain explained adrenals. “Ye want to put cow innards on me body?”

“No, silly man, you would have to take it internally.”

He thought for a moment, weighing her words. “By ‘internally’, you cannot mean fer me to eat the bloody parts.”

“Yes, but—”

“Never! Mistress, I allowed ye to massage me body in a most unseemly way. Ye made a laughingstock of me at Ravenshire by slatherin’ hot mud on me, and I did not protest. Well, not too much. I even swam in that icy water of the pond to satisfy yer whims, not to mention the scalding hot baths ye forced me to endure. But I refuse to eat raw cow innards. Even I have me limits.”

Rain burst out laughing at Ubbi’s long-winded tirade. “Ubbi, I didn’t mean for you to eat them raw. At least, I don’t think they would work that way. Although…hmmm…anyhow, I was thinking of mixing the fresh glands with something else, then compressing it into a pill. I’m not sure if it can even be done.”

“Hah! But ye would make me be the—what did ye call it when ye were experimentin’ with the different exercises?—Jenny Pig!”

“Guinea pig,” Rain corrected him with a smile. She reached over to pat Ubbi’s twisted hand. Really, he’d been more than cooperative in her various attempts to alleviate his condition. And some of them had helped, too.

“Selik!”

Rain and Ubbi both turned to see a petite, gray-haired woman calling out warmly to Selik from the doorway of a large home. Set apart from its neighbors by a wide expanse of side yard and wooden fences, its rectangular shape followed the Viking style with a thatched roof. Finely carved Nordic symbols decorated the large oak door and windowframes. Several armed men stood guard near the doorway, and Rain saw even more to the side and back of the house.

“Mother!” Selik greeted the woman in a warm voice as he dismounted and handed the reins to Gorm.

“Mother?” Rain asked Ubbi. “I thought Selik said he had no parents.”

“’Tis Gyda, Astrid’s mother. He is the same as a son to her.”

“We have been so worried. Especially when we heard of the Great Battle. Why didst you not send us word of your safety, you wretch?” the woman chastised Selik before throwing herself into his arms. He lifted her off the ground in a huge bear hug while she clung to him warmly, her pudgy arms wrapped around his neck.

“Selik, my son,” she said softly as she drew back slightly and scanned his face lovingly, no doubt looking for new scars. “Put me down now, you big oaf, and let me feed you. You are naught but skin and bones.”

Selik laughed lightheartedly, putting her gently to the ground, and threw his right arm over Gyda’s shoulder. She barely reached his chest. “I want you to meet someone.” He motioned Rain to dismount and come forward.

When Rain stood next to Selik, towering over the diminutive woman, Selik said, “Do you remember Ruby Jordan? Thork’s wife?”

“Yea, of course,” Gyda said hesitantly, her brow furrowed in puzzlement at his odd question.

“This…hostage…is their daughter, Thoraine. Her other name is Sleet—I mean Rain.”

Rain shot him a look of disgust at his joke which she didn’t find a bit funny. “And your other name is jerk,” she muttered in an undertone to Selik.

But Gyda overheard, and her face brightened merrily with understanding. “I know that word. Jerk. Your own mother taught it to me.” She turned to Selik, wagging a finger in his face. “And it has come in very handy, I must tell you, Selik, on the odd occasion with all these guards you insist on leaving here with me. God’s blood! I cannot step out to the privy without tripping over one or another of them. But a daughter born to Ruby! After Thork’s death? Why, she is too old! ’Tis unbelievable! And such a giant!”

Rain tried to listen to Gyda’s long-winded discourse, but the Norse woman spoke too fast. “What is she saying?” Rain asked Ubbi.

“It seems that yer mother taught Gyda the word ‘jerk’, that Selik left so many guards that Gyda is tripping over ’em, and that she finds it hard ter believe that yer mother gave birth to Thork’s baby after his death.”

“And she called me a giant, too, didn’t she?” Rain asked, sensing that Ubbi was sparing her feelings.

“Yea, she did,” he admitted, “but then anyone taller than a calf is a giant to her.”

Gyda stepped closer and put out her hands in welcome to Rain. Speaking more slowly, she said, “Welcome, Rain. Any child of Thork and Ruby is a friend to this house.”

Rain squeezed the small woman’s hands in return, sensing the genuineness of the greeting.

“Selik says you are a hostage, but you will ne’er be treated as such in my home.”