Hearts Aflame by Johanna Lindsey

her. They had come at her from behind just as she chased the old man from the room. Tripping her to the floor, they had pounced on her immediately. She could barely breathe now, with one on her chest and another on her stomach.
    “God’s breath, Darrelle!” Royce stormed. “I give you a simple thing to do, and you make a shambles of it!”
    “She started it!” Darrelle protested. “She would not let them undress her. She lives alone with dozens of men night and day, yet she is shy now in front of two serfs.”
    “My order was for the women to bathe her. I said naught about men.”
    “But she is a Viking, Royce! You certainly could not expect us to be alone with her.”
    “God’s breath, she is just a woman!”
    “She does not look like a woman. She does not act like a woman. And she attacked those two cowards with a bench! And you want to leave her alone with us?”
    “Get off her!” he growled at the women as he walkedto Kristen, jerking her to her feet as soon as she was free. “You cause any more trouble, wench, and I will deal with you myself. You will not like it.”
    “I was ever willing to have the bath, and glad of it.”
    Royce frowned at her calm reply. “Then have it,” he said. To the oldest woman in the room, he instructed, “Eda, bring her to my chamber when you are done with her.”
    “Royce!” Darrelle protested.
    “What?” he snapped at her.
    “You cannot mean to—to—”
    “What I mean to do is question her, Darrelle, not that it is any of your concern. Now, be about your business. They do not need you to supervise a scrubbing.”
    Darrelle’s cheeks brightened as she stalked out of the room ahead of him. But Royce was in no mood to placate her. Of all the ridiculous things! A simple bath could not even be accomplished without an uproar.
    Alden was still waiting for Royce in his chamber upstairs, still standing at the window where his cousin had left him. “You saw it all?” Royce queried.
    “Aye, though I could not hear what was said,” Alden replied. He added curiously, “Did you see what I think you saw when you pulled that tunic down?”
    Royce grunted. “A lovely pair of breasts the lad has.”
    Alden started to laugh at his expression, but he flushed instead, realizing. “’Twas bad enough when I thought a mere lad had brought me low, but a woman!”
    “Be consoled, Alden. She just sent two serfs flying out of the bathing room. She is like no woman we know.”
    “Mayhap. She is uncommonly tall for a woman, tall enough to have fooled us this long.”
    “But why would they bring a woman on a raid?” Royce wondered.
    Alden shrugged. “Why else? To see to their needs onthe ship. She was late come to the battle. I would guess she was left on the ship, but saw the attack from there and thought to help. After all, if the Vikings were all killed, she would have been left alone. ’Tis no wonder she fought so hard along with them.”
    “Aye. She would even have taken more of the lash, rather than reveal she was a woman. She said ’twas to protect her from the rape of Saxon men.” He laughed harshly at that. “Men are men. What has a whore to fear of a different breed?”
    “She would be loyal to her own, and loath to lay with their enemy.”
    “I suppose. I can see now why they went to such pains to hide her sex. They would have been locked up alone with her at night very soon. But, God’s breath, what they see in such a big, manly woman is beyond me.”

Chapter Twelve
    K risten’s whole outlook on her adventure-turned-disaster took an abrupt turn the day she entered Wyndhurst for the first time. No longer did she only have to worry about keeping her mouth shut and her hair hidden. Now she faced the problem that she had only tried to avoid before: How would these Saxons see her as a woman? Would she be an abomination to them because of her height and the fact that she was their enemy? Or would they find her as desirable as the men at home did?
    The Saxon lord had