Hearts Aflame by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online

been sent to him if the matter were important.
    “What is it?” Royce barked at the little man.
    “The Vikings, milord. They came this morn.”
    “What!” Royce picked Seldon up by the front of his tunic and shook him. “Do not say me false, man. The Danes are in the North, dealing with the revolts against their rule in Northumbria, and preparing to attack Mercia.”
    “’Twas not Danes!” Seldon squawked.
    Royce set him down slowly, a cold dread creeping over him. He could deal with the Danes, who now had control of two kingdoms in the country. They had already made their attempt at Wessex, Alfred’s kingdom of West Saxons, in what was already called the Year of Battles, 871. The young Alfred had been only a score and two years when he succeeded to the throne that spring when his brother Aethelred died. And in the autumn, after nine battles had been fought with the two great Viking armies for control of Wessex, Alfred negotiated a peace.

    It was peace no one expected to last, but Alfred had bought time for his people to regroup and prepare defenses in greater depth. His ealdormen, along with the lords and thanes of all the shires, had been training freemen and improving their own fighting skills as well as fortifying their manors these last two years. Royce had gone one further to even train some of his more able-bodied serfs in the arts of war. He was prepared to ride against the Danish Vikings, who were all intent now on settling the land. It was the Vikings from the sea that were never anticipated, that could take Wyndhurst by surprise and destroy it as they nearly had five years ago.
    To have the last Viking raid at Wyndhurst recalled so clearly was anguish for Royce, a rekindling of the hate that had simmered for these five years, hate that had killed many Danes that summer of 871, for it was Danes who had raided Wyndhurst in 868, before going on to sack the monastery of Jurro. He had lost his father in that raid, his older brother, and his beloved Rhona, who was repeatedly raped in front of his eyes before her throat was slit, while he, unable to get to her because of the two spears that had pinned him to the wall, had to endure the agony of listening to her cry and beg and call for him to help her even as his own life’s blood poured out of him. He should have died, too, and would have, if the Vikings had stayed for longer than they did.
    “Milord, did you hear me? They are Norwegians, these Vikings.”
    Royce could have shaken the man again. What matter who they were? If they were not part of the two great Viking armies in the North, then they were raiding pirates from the sea, bent only on killing.
    “Is there aught left of Wyndhurst?”

    “But we beat them!” Seldon said in surprise. “Half are dead; the others, captured and in chains by now.”
    Royce did pick up the man again this time and shake him once more. “Could you not have told me that first, you fool!”
    “I thought I did, milord. We won.”
    “How?”
    “Lord Alden sent out a call to all the men to come for field maneuvers in the east field. But my cousin Arne was south on the river and did not receive the summons. It was he who saw the Viking ship.”
    “Only one?”
    “Yea, milord. Arne ran straightaway toward Wyndhurst, but came upon Lord Alden’s men in the east field. ’Twas only that they were armed and ready and so close to the river that prompted Lord Alden to attack. We had time, just enough, to prepare an ambush. The men took to the trees in the forest before the river and fell on the Vikings as they passed under them. So many were killed in the surprise attack that we were able to defeat those remaining.”
    Royce asked the dreaded question: “How many of our men killed?”
    “Only two.”
    “And wounded?”
    “Slightly more…eighteen, actually.”
    “Eighteen!”
    “The Vikings fought like demons, milord—giant demons,” Seldon said defensively.
    Royce’s expression grew taut and forbidding. “Let us be