Lord of Raven's Peak - Catherine Coulter [122]
Helga gave a small laugh and moved a step closer to Merrik. He was tall, this Viking, and he smelled delicious, a man smell that was uniquely his, a scent both dark and musky that made her want to touch her fingertips to his mouth, to his shoulders, to the thick hair at his groin. “No, Ferlain,” she said, abstracted by him, “you love Laren, as do I. Naturally, she wouldn’t kill Taby to save herself.”
Laren could but stare at the two of them. Odd, but Helga seemed to look younger than she had two years ago. Ferlain looked older, petulant, downward lines about her mouth, streaks of gray in her once rich brown hair. She was fat.
She felt Merrik stiffening beside her, but just smiled. “No, of course, neither of you would ever think I would not guard Taby with my life. Merrik, would you like to pour some of the sweet wine for Ferlain and Helga?”
He nodded, and walked to the low table that was near the doorway. He poured the wine into ivory goblets, beautifully made those goblets, like none he’d ever seen before. And the heels of his boots thudded on the wooden floor. He was used to pounded earth floors, as were most normal humans. This was noisome and he didn’t like it. If he had no boots on he would have splinters in his feet. He gave each of the women a goblet of wine.
He felt the heat of Helga’s flesh when she took the goblet from him, and there was that same heat in her eyes, dark eyes, deep and mysterious.
“Where are your husbands?” he said, his eyes mirroring the same hunger in hers. He didn’t look away from her even as he slowly walked back to stand beside Laren.
Helga gave him a long, slow smile, nodding slightly as if she recognized and accepted what had happened between them, and said, “Fromm is doubtless practicing with his sword. He is a very strong man, you know—”
“He is a bully,” Ferlain said, took a large gulp of her wine and fell into spasms of coughing.
“Aye, he is,” Helga agreed easily. She looked over at Laren. “So you carry Merrik’s child. It seems you are as fertile as your poor mother was. Such a pity that she died so soon after Taby was born.”
Laren couldn’t remember her mother’s face, but oddly, she could remember her singing, her voice firm and strong and off-key. And her father had strangled her, all had seen the imprint of his fingers around her neck. She nodded, then said quickly, “Uncle Rollo spoke of how everyone believed it was his blood family from the Orkneys responsible for Taby’s and my abduction. What do you think, Helga?”
“What I think,” Helga said slowly as she sipped her wine, her eyes on Merrik, “is that whoever it was felt some mercy. After all, you did survive, Laren.”
“Aye, I often wondered why Taby and I were spared. I never thought it an act of mercy though. Nay, I believed the person responsible wanted both Taby and me to die slowly, to suffer, for what reason I don’t know.”
Ferlain said, “I always believed it was your father, come back to take you and Taby away. He knew he would be put to death if he remained after murdering your mother, and thus he went away until he could capture you and Taby.”
“Our father,” Laren said flatly. “And it wasn’t Hallad. I cannot believe that you would think that, much less say it.”
“I do wonder what happened to him,” Helga said. “He was never the warrior Uncle Rollo was, but he was a nice man, a good father until he married your mother. Doubtless he was killed by outlaws. But enough of that. It is long in the past. You are home now, and you have brought the man who will be one of Rollo’s heirs. I wonder what the Frank King Charles will make of all this. A man who is a stranger, becoming a possible heir to the duchy of Normandy.”
“I will go pay homage to the king,” Merrik said. “Aye, and he will bless our union, doubt it not. But not just yet.” He rubbed his hands together then, and there was an opulent pleasure in his eyes, and unmasked greed, but just for the barest moment, not longer.
Helga said slowly, her eyes never leaving his face, “Ferlain and I will leave you now, Laren. We will dine with you this evening,