Read Online Sandra Hill - [Vikings I 02] by The Outlaw Viking - Free Book Online Page B

Selik.
    “Ubbi, what the hell are you doing here? Did I not order you to stay in Jorvik?”
    You-bee. You-bee Rain rolled the strange-sounding name on her tongue silently.
    “But, master, I heard of the battle and thought ye might have need of me.”
    “I am not your master, Ubbi. Endless times have I told you that afore.”
    “Yea, master. I mean, yea, m’lord. Oh, ye know my meaning, master,” he stumbled out.
    Selik groaned and raised his eyes wearily to the skies. “Just what I need—a servant I do not want or need and a guardian angel.”
    Ubbi looked at Rain for the first time, and his eyes widened with surprise. “In truth, master, be she a guardian angel?”
    Selik’s eyes, no longer angry, but twinkling with weary amusement, caught Rain’s. “Yea, she claims her Christian god sent her to save me.”
    Ubbi’s rheumy eyes darted from Rain to Selik, then back to Rain. “From what?” he asked dubiously, apparently figuring a mere woman wouldn’t do Selik much good in battle.
    “From myself,” Selik answered flatly.
    But Ubbi surprised them both by nodding sagely and saying, “’Tis about time.”
    Selik threw both hands in the air, as if he gave up on the two of them. Then he turned to Rain. “Show Ubbi to my tent.”
    “And where should I put Fury?” Ubbi asked sheepishly.
    “ Fury! You brought Fury here?”
    “Yea. Methought you might have need of your horse.”
    “Fury! That figures. Only you would give your horse such a morbid name,” Rain commented.
    Selik swept her with a contemptuous, dismissing glance. “Go stick a needle in someone’s eye—preferably a Saxon’s.”
    “I did not stick a needle in Tykir’s eye,” she asserted defensively, “but I’d like to stick one in yours. And a few other choice places. Have you ever heard of a vasectomy?” she asked innocently. At his dumbfounded look, Rain explained just what a vasectomy entailed. She was pleased to see Selik’s face pale at the idea of needles pricking his precious manhood.
    “Needles? Eye?” Ubbi sputtered, pivoting his headback and forth from Rain to Selik as they exchanged insults.
    “You stuck them everywhere but his eye,” Selik accused.
    “He’s alive, isn’t he?”
    “Humph! You no doubt waved your bloody angel wings over him.”
    “You just can’t admit that a mere woman is a physician.”
    “Do not be ridiculous.”
    “Ridiculous! Ridiculous! Hah! I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous. It’s you and all these other Dark Age warriors,” she shrieked, sweeping her arm outward to indicate the battered soldiers flooding the vast fields. “You think that war and the taking of human life solve your problems. That’s what’s ridiculous.”
    Ubbi, Sigrid, Gunvor, and all the other spectators who’d gathered nearby gaped at her in stunned disbelief that she would dare to yell at the fierce outlaw knight, but there was a suspicious quirk at the edge of Selik’s twitching lips. Criminey! She’d fallen right into one of his traps again, Rain chastised herself disgustedly.
    “Oh, I give up,” she said, throwing out her hands in resignation. She turned to stomp back to Selik’s tent and called out to Selik’s sidekick, “Well, don’t stand there like a turnip, Ubbi. Are you coming?”
    “Me?” a slack-jawed Ubbi squeaked out.
    Selik grinned infuriatingly.
    “Yes, you,” she snarled and grabbed his arm so forcefully that she almost lifted his small body off the ground. “Talk about ridiculous names. Who ever heard of a name like Ubbi?”
    “What’s wrong with me name?” Ubbi asked weakly, scampering to keep up with her long strides.
    “Sounds like a stupid Motown song. You-bee, doo-bee, doo .”
    Ubbi chortled gleefully at Rain’s softly sung words.“Oh, mistress, thank the Lord fer yer comin’ to save me master. ’Tis just what m’lord be needin’ to lighten his harsh life.”
    After Ubbi cared for Selik’s horse, Fury, a magnificent black destrier with a temperament mean enough to