Page 65 of Truly, Madly Viking

"You crazy son of a bitch!" the machine operator was screaming, practically frothing at the mouth. He had a front tooth missing and a bulge in his cheek.

"You are fortunate I do not have my sword with me," Jorund retorted as he landed on his feet with a thud.

"Well, sword this, buddy," the fellow hollered recklessly, meanwhile sticking a middle finger in the air.

Normally Jorund would have ignored the scrawny know-nothing, but he had learned from his friend Steve just what this gesture meant. He could not let the insult pass.

"Nay, I prefer to do this." Jorund said, shooting him a sharp punch in the mouth, thus loosening another tooth.

Needless to say, they were soon evicted from the amusement park. But Jorund did not care... he had had enough amusement for one day.

That night Joe was in the den, buffing his sword with a soft cloth and a jar of her silver cream. He claimed that fresh blood as in battlefield blood was the finest polish for "a warrior's best friend," but Maggie didn't know if he was kidding or not. She certainly wasn't about to open a vein to find out.

"Are the girls abed?" he asked, without glancing up from his task. She had been standing in the doorway and hadn't realized he'd been aware of her presence. She stepped into the room now and wished he'd put the sword aside. The fact that he felt the need to keep the weapon in tip-top shape bespoke a time when he would be leaving them.

"Yes, but they're still so overexcited by their day with you that I doubt they'll be asleep anytime soon."

She saw the muscles in his jaw go rigid. "Thank you for being so kind to them. I know they were a pain in the neck, clinging to you, and... well, I appreciate your... uh, tolerance."

"They were just being youthlings, no different from... from other children their age."

She knew that he had been about to say they were no different from his own daughters. Why wouldn't he talk about his girls? Greta and Girta, he'd told her reluctantly, but he almost never mentioned them by name. The psychologist in Maggie recognized that Joe would never heal until he faced his loss head-on. It was a necessary part of the grieving process. And how about his wife? It was even stranger that he shut her out of his mind. He must have loved her very much.

"Do you know what your daughters said to me when I went up to look at their wishing star tonight?"

"What?" Maggie braced herself for the worst.

" 'I wish you were my daddy.' That is what they said, Mag-he."

Yep. The worst. "I told them not to say stuff like that to you, but I guess... well, I guess they can't help themselves. Don't get bent out of shape over it. Hey, next week they'll be hoping that whale trainer at Orcaland is their father, or some hotshot movie star, or..." Her words trailed off at the disbelieving look Joe leveled at her. They both knew this was not a passing fancy on her girls' part. "So what did you say to them?"

"I told them that, by necessity, I could stay in this land only for a short time."

"And?" she prodded.

He released a long-breath. "And then Beth asked if I would be their daddy just while I am in this land...

at least till after the yule season."

"Oh, Joe! And what did you say to that?"

"Naught... I said naught. I was saved by Sue-zee asking me if I could chop down a Christmas tree for them. I said that I could indeed chop down a tree, though why they would want me to do so is beyond my understanding."

Maggie laughed then and sat down next to Joe on the couch. Briefly she explained the tradition of Christmas trees. "You're lucky they didn't ask you for firewood and snow, as well."

"You bring dead evergreen trees into your homes to celebrate Christ's birth?"

His eyes were wide with amazement.

"Yes, and we adorn them with bright lights and glittery balls and homemade decorations."

"Now see, that is the strange thing about your land, Mag-he. You deem a man demented because he rides atop a whale naked, but you see naught wrong with people voluntarily putting their lives at risk on rolling coasters and fair-ass wheels, or worshiping dead trees. I ask you, who is truly insane?"

She smiled and put a hand on his arm, about to squeeze it in playful remonstrance when she felt the heat emanating from him. It was only then that she noticed the flush on his face as well. Was it a sunburn? She put a hand to his forehead and gasped. He was burning up. This was no mere sunburn.

"Joe, why didn't you tell me you're not feeling well?"

"Dost have a hearing problem, m'lady? I told you after eating all those sweets at the amusement park that my stomach was rebelling. Riding that metal monster just churned it up more. Of course I am unwell."