Hearts Aflame by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

on our way, then, and I will see to the rest of those bloodlusting pirates.”
    “Uh, milord, Lord Alden was…”
    “Not dead?” Royce groaned.
    “Nay,” Seldon said quickly, for he knew how closethe cousins were. It was reluctantly that he had to add, “But he is sorely wounded.”
    “Where?”
    “In the belly.”
    “God’s mercy!” Royce groaned even as he ran from the hall at Raedwood.

Chapter Seven
    K risten woke slowly to an awareness of Thor’s mighty hammer pounding on her head. God help her, now she was having fanciful imaginings, but this headache was the worst she had ever had in her life. And then other discomforts became known to her and she remembered.
    She sat up too quickly and a wave of dizziness washed over her, making her fall to the side with a dazed groan. Two arms caught her, and the attendant rattle of chains brought her eyes wide open with a start. She was looking at Thorolf, who was looking at her, and then she turned her head to see who held her. It was Ivarr, a friend of Selig’s.
    She sat up, looking all about her frantically. They were grouped around a tall post, all of them sitting on the hard ground. There were seventeen of them, many lying unconscious with untended wounds, all of them chained together at their ankles in such a way that they formed a circle around the post. But she did not see Selig.
    Her eyes met Thorolf’s blue ones again, and hers were pleading. “Selig?”
    He shook his head at her and the scream tore out of her throat. Ivarr instantly put his hand over her mouth, and Thorolf brought his face close to hers.
    “They have not noticed yet that you are a woman!” he hissed. “Would you make us sit here and watch while they drag you away and rape you? Have a care, Kristen. Do not give yourself away with screams.”

    She blinked her eyes that she understood, and Thorolf nodded at Ivarr to release her. She caught her breath, then bent over double, racked with the pain of loss. She wanted to scream, needed to, to let go of the pain that way. Without that release, it built and built until she could not help herself. The anguished moans came out of her until a fist struck her jaw and she fell again into two waiting arms.
    When Kristen woke again, the sun was just beginning to set. She started to moan, then caught herself and sat up slowly, looking accusingly at Thorolf.
    “You hit me.” She did not make it a question.
    “I did.”
    “I suppose I should thank you.”
    “You should.”
    “Bastard.”
    He would have laughed at the mild way she said this, if he felt free to laugh. He didn’t. They had been left unguarded earlier while the enemies were busy seeing to their own wounds, but two guards rested near them now.
    “There will be time to grieve later, Kristen,” Thorolf offered gently.
    “I know.”
    She straightened her ankles with the heavy iron rings about them. Ohthere’s borrowed silver helmet was gone, as was her jeweled dagger and belt. Even her fur-trimmed boots had been stripped from her feet.
    “They took everything of value?” she asked.
    “Aye. They would have taken your vest, too, if it were not such an old shaggy fur.”
    “And bloodstained,” she added, looking down at the dark blotches all over her, for the blood had shot out from the tall man she had killed when she pulled her sword out of him. She felt her head for the bump there that had rendered her unconscious, and then realized. “My hair!”

    The braid was still tucked into her tunic, but it would be clearly obvious if she was closely examined. Instantly she began to break the hair from the braid.
    “Nay, Kristen.” Thorolf grabbed her hands away, realizing what she was trying to do. “It will take you forever to cut it that way.”
    “You have a knife to offer?” she snapped.
    He grunted at such a stupid question, but then began to look her over. With the belt gone, her short tunic lay in straight lines down to just below her hips, effectively hiding the deep curve