Page 97 of My Fair Viking

"Yea, I may have to get one of those red gowns for myself," Ingrith added.

"And jealousy… don't forget jealousy. It worked when Gunter and Egil expressed an interest in Tyra."

Vana said. "Adam was nigh livid at the sight of other men interested in her."

"We never could get her to walk in a feminine way, though. She does have a tendency to swagger," Alinor put in. "And as for acting like a damsel in distress, forget that. Even I have trouble swallowing such silliness in a woman."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Adam said, raising his heavy head and trying to make sense of what they were blathering about. "Are you saying that Tyra had a plan for seducing me?"

"Nay, you dimwit. We had a plan for getting Tyra to seduce you," Alinor explained.

"We? What we?" Adam was getting more confused by the moment.

"Me, Vana, Breanne, Drifa, and Ingrith," Alinor replied.

"Alinor! For shame, that you would stoop to such devious means to entrap a man!"

"Well, it was not really so different from our plan," Rafn said, coming up to join the group. "Except that our plan was for Adam to seduce Tyra."

Adam narrowed his eyes at Rafn, who should be in heaven now that Tyra was gone. He and Vana would be able to marry now… in fact, he'd overheard Ingrith speaking of a wedding feast to be held in a sennight. "Explain yourself, Viking," Adam ordered, though the words came out a bit slurred and not as threatening as he intended.

"Our plan… mine, Tykir's, Rashid's, and Bolthor's… was no doubt more enlightened. It involved hot looks, compliments, constant touching, kissing, and jealousy."

"Do not forget the erotic conversation," Rashid added.

"And the telling of wicked tales," Bolthor added.

"I was the one who suggested the Viking S-Spot," Tykir said proudly.

"What's an S-Spot?" Ingrith, Drifa, and Breanne wanted to know.

"Never mind!" Vana inserted, then immediately turned bright red at her telling slip.

"My God, you have got to be the biggest bunch of bungleheads I have ever met," Alinor said to all the men, and the sisters nodded their agreement, though some of them were still mumbling questions about the S-Spot. "As if women could be won over with hot looks!"

The men looked sheepish, except for Adam, who was growing angrier by the minute. "Are… are… are you saying," he sputtered out, "that all of you… men and women alike… have been discussing me and Tyra in such intimate detail? That you have been plotting behind our backs to get us together?"

An awkward exchange of glances followed, but the silence was telling. Adam groaned, firmly convinced that his life could not get any worse. He was wrong.

Bolthor stood and announced, "This is the saga of Adam the Lesser, called 'Advice to a Dumb Dolt.' "

"Sometimes a man has woman-luck.

Sometimes a man does not.

But methinks the gods have a master plan

For each and every one of us.

One man, one woman destined to meet,

Their fate sealed in the heavens.

But men have a tendency betimes

To think with their cocks

instead of their hearts.