Page 71 of The Caged Viking

“Yeech!”

Hauk hunkered down to the boys’ level, still keeping a hand on each of their shoulders. “Listen, you two bratlings. I want you to stop beating on Gorm. ’Tis cowardly of you, being so much bigger than he is. I’ll be talking to him, and he’ll stop provoking you, or have a blistered arse. But I want your promise to stop bedeviling him, as well.”

The two boys shuffled their feet and then nodded.

“Maybe you can all be friends,” Kirstin interjected.

The boys looked horrified, as if she’d suggested they eat worms, or something equally objectionable.

“Well, if not that, then I think a perfect punishment for all of you is to finish scraping the grease off these tables tomorrow.” Kirstin pointed to the last two greasy tables to her right.

“Good idea!” Hauk said. “Dost agree?”

The boys nodded, reluctantly, then bloody lip asked, “What about Gorm? What’s his punishment?”

Kirstin thought for a moment and said, “He’s going to help me make soap.”

Once the boys scampered off, Hauk turned to her. “Do you know how to make soap?”

“No, but I’m going to learn.”

Hauk took her hand once again. She’d thought he would head toward the dais at the other end of the hall, but instead he led her down a short corridor toward the garderobe. There was a door just before that, behind which was a small room…a closet, really…that held piles of bedding and odd fabrics.

Hiding under one of the piles was the little gremlin who’d caused all the trouble. Before he could run away, Hauk grabbed him by an upper arm and lifted him out to stand on his bare feet.

The boy’s grimy face had tear tracks on it, and like before, Kirstin noticed a number of bruises on his body. At first, he cowered with an arm over his face, as if to fend off a blow.

What had he been subjected to here to make him fear an adult, as well as those bully youthlings?

Quick as a wink, Hauk leaned down and pulled the boy up off his feet to dangle, with his arms pinioned to his sides.

Despite the fear evident in the boy’s wide eyes, he squirmed in Hauk’s hold and called him every foul name he could think of. “Dirty bugger! Big sod! Slimey snake! Pig arse! Wormy cock!”

Hauk just laughed, holding tight to the squirming boy. “Gorm. Gorm. Settle down. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Once Gorm finally calmed downed, Hawk told him, “Those boys are not going to bother you anymore. They have promised. But what I need from you is a similar promise.”

Gorm’s face immediately took on a stubborn expression. “They started it.”

Hauk shook his head. “Doesn’t matter who started it. It ends now.” He gave the boy a few quick shakes, but before he let him go, called out to a male house servant walking by, “Gunnar, take this boyling to the bath hut and scrub him until he shines. Then toss his garments into a fire and put clean clothes on him. He smells like a cesspit.”

“Wha-what?” Gorm exclaimed as he slowly began to realize what Hauk was ordering. “Nay, nay, nay!”

Gunnar, who was an older man but of considerable size…well over six feet tall and built like a body builder…stepped closer and picked up Gorm by the waist, tossing him over his shoulder. Gorm’s screams of outrage could be heard as Gunnar strolled down the corridor toward the kitchen and out to the back courtyard. A loud smack could be heard, presumably on Gorm’s rump.

Now that the screeching could no longer be heard, Hauk took her hand again, and stepped outside the room, closing the door behind them. Hauk’s treatment of the two bullies and of Gorm caused Kirstin to give Hauk still more credit.

“How did you know to look there for Gorm?” she asked.

“’Tis the same place I used to hide from my father when I was about his age.”

Hauk made that revelation casually, as if of no import, but Kirstin sensed the pain in his voice.

“Be careful, Hauk, I’m starting to like you,” Kirstin said before she could bite her fool tongue.

Hauk stopped and look at her. “Now you are blushing, on top of the sex flush.”

She felt her face heat even more.