Hearts Aflame by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page B

of her waist. Her dark-brown leggings were bulky beneath the loosened cross-garters, disguising the shapeliness there, too. Her hands and feet, bare now, were not tiny, yet not manly, either. But more dirt would help there, as well as on her bare arms, which were entirely too slim even for a youth.
    Thorolf was satisfied. “If not for that glorious hair of yours, it would take only your loud mouth for them to guess that you are anything more than a boy. How did you get your breasts to disappear?”
    Kristen blushed scarlet, looking down to avoid his curious eyes. “You should not ask me that.”
    “But how did you?”
    “Thorolf!”
    “Keep your voice down! In fact, do not say a word that they can hear. We can tell them you are a mute, and that will solve that problem.”
    “But what about my hair?”
    He frowned, then suddenly grinned and began to rip away the lower hem of his tunic. He called for Ivarr to block Kristen from the view of the guards, then whipped her braid out and wound it quickly around her head, wrapping the soft leather from his tunic over it and tying it tight at the base of her neck.
    “My injury is not there,” she started to point out.
    “I am not concerned with that puny little bump,” heretorted. “Wait a minute. I have just the finishing touch.” And he proceeded to slap at the ugly-looking cut on his arm until he had a good deal of fresh blood on his fingers, which he then smeared on her bandaged head.
    “Thorolf!”
    “Shut up, Kristen, or that woman’s voice of yours will render my clever efforts wasted. What do you think, Ivarr? Will she pass for a boy now?”
    “With that swelling jaw, and that big head, no one will look twice at her,” Ivarr replied with a grin.
    “Thank you so much,” Kristen retorted churlishly.
    Thorolf ignored her sarcasm. “Aye, it is a little thick around the head, but since they will not be looking for the girl in her, they will only think it is a thick bandage. As dirty and unkempt as she is now, it will do. But keep it tight, Kristen. If it falls off, you are done for.”
    She gave him a dark look for that unnecessary warning. “I think it is time you told me where we are.”
    “The kingdom of Wessex.”
    “The Saxons’ Wessex?”
    “Aye.”
    Her eyes rounded in disbelief. “You mean an army of puny Saxons defeated you?”
    Thorolf flushed at her aghast tone. “They fell on us from the trees, woman. Half our number were down before the rest of us even knew we were attacked.”
    “Oh, unfair!” she cried. “They ambushed you?”
    “Aye. It was the only way they could have won, for their numbers were not more than ours. And the irony is that we were not interested in them or what they had to offer. We would have passed by this place that they have brought us to. It was—” He paused, looking suddenly chagrined. “Never mind.”
    “It was what?” she demanded.
    “Nothing.”
    “Thorolf!”

    “Thor’s teeth! Will you keep that voice down?” he snapped at her. “It was a monastery we were intent on sacking.”
    “Oh, nay, Thorolf, tell me not.”
    “Aye, it was, and this is why Selig did not want you to know, for he understood how you would feel about it But this was our last chance to share in some of the wealth of this land, Kristen. The Danes will soon have all of it. We thought only to take a little of that wealth first. There would have been little or no killing. It was only the fabled wealth of the Jurro monastery that we wanted.”
    “How did you know where to find it?”
    “Flokki’s sister, the one who married a Dane, came home to visit last year. She had much news of what they are doing here, and she told about the failed attempt on Jurro in 871, when the combined armies of Halfdan of the Wide Embrace and King Guthorm first attacked Wessex. They are intent on the kingdom of Mercia right now, even though those fools have paid them Danegel each year to keep the Vikings at bay. And once the have Mercia under their belt,