Rough and Ready by Sandra Hill Read Free Book Online

sex."
    She rolled her eyes at him. "You will not believe it."
    "Try me."
    When she was done—and he suspected she told him only part of the story—they were almost to the top of the motte. Wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, he said as somberly as he could, "I don't think my men will need any coaxing."
    "And you?" she inquired.
    "I'm saving myself."
    "For whom?"
    He looked at her for a long moment, then said, "You." Why he'd said that, he had no idea. The thousand-year-old air must have affected his brain.
    But she appeared as poleaxed by the prospect as he. Finally she scoffed.
    "Never."
    Never, he mimicked her in his mind. She was probably right… no, she was definitely right… but he couldn't let her derisive answer stand. "Never say never to a Navy SEAL."
    "I thought it was, 'Never say never to a Viking.'"
    "Correction then. Never say never to a Viking Navy SEAL."

Chapter 4
    And then she made him an offer he couldn't refuse…
    Hilda surveyed the great hall of The Sanctuary that night and moaned her dismay.
    How did I lose control so quickly?
    Before she had even come into the hall, she had been forced to lock Stig in the woodshed because he kept following Torolf around, hanging onto his blue braies, attempting to fornicate with his leg. It must be something about Torolf's male scent that was attracting the dog, because he did it to no one else, except every female dog he could catch.
    Along the massively long tables, there were three open-sided hearths running down the center of the great hall on raised platforms; they were for heating more than cooking. Unlike many Norse keeps, there were no rushes on the floor, just swept, hard-packed dirt… straw being a prized commodity in these parts.
    Along the walls were sleeping closets, one bedchamber, and compartments for storing linens and other household items. Cooking implements and dried herbs hung from the ceiling. Every bit of space in a Viking home was utilized.
    The fare offered tonight was plain but more plentiful and varied than their usual evening meal. Roast mutton was supplemented with smoked eels, fresh pike, and hrút-spungur, that Norse delicacy of ram's testicles pickled in whey and pressed into a cake, usually saved for special occasions. There were vegetables aplenty, too. Turnips, small white carrots, edible seaweeds stewed with garlic, and tiny onions in goat cream sauce. For sweets, there were honey cakes studded with walnuts and dried bilberries. Goat milk or mead quenched their thirsts.
    On either side of the tables, sitting on benches, which would be later used for pallets, were a handful of grinning men and dozens of eyelash-batting, riband-wearing, teeth-baring, twittering females, who also happened to be so clean they nigh sparkled. Their gunnas and tunics were plain, but they'd chosen ones with color and embroidery: woad blue, madder red, lichen purple, broom yellow. When the lines at the bathing house had been too long, many had dunked themselves in the frigid waters of the fjord. All for the sake of… she shuddered… MEN.
    Not her, though. Nay, she'd washed the sheep dung off her arms and soaped her face, but she'd chosen apurpose not to change her gown or comb her hair, lest she be viewed as one of the pathetic mass, looking for a bedmate.
    Oh, she knew she was being harsh. She did understand their yearning for children and male companionship. But did it have to be so obvious?
    "Did you say something, Hildy?"
    Hilda gritted her teeth at his use of that childish name. "Dost get joy of pricking me, lout?"
    Torolf began to cough, as if something was stuck in his throat.
    She clapped him on his back a few times.
    "If I had ever pricked you, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it," he said finally and smiled.
    That innocent smile… she would like to wipe it off with… with… She looked at the table in front of her and at the bowl of small onions swimming in goat cream.
    Then she grinned, picturing the lout next to her at the high table with