Lord of Hawkfell Island by Catherine Coulter Page B

her about and looked silently at her pale face.
    He released her, hooked his foot behind her leg, and sent her sprawling to the ground. Again, there was little or no pain, but another dose of humiliation, which for her was a more powerful lesson. Slowly, he fastened his belt around his waist. “Get up,” he said. “Go bathe. Your smell offends me.”
    The men were nodding in approval. She got to her feet, felt the pulling in her back, but walked away, not speaking, not looking at him or the men. She heardKerzog wuff to Rorik, as if in agreement with what he’d done, she thought, anger flooding through her, momentarily blocking out the pain in her back.
    She heard one of the men say with great satisfaction, “Aye, no more from her. Well done, my lord. She is only a woman and she is our enemy. She deserved a lesson. She will know better next time. Let her tell of her beating to the other women. If they were wondering whether to obey you, they won’t wonder now. Aye, they’ll now do as you bid them to do.”
    Rorik didn’t say anything. He wondered what she had wanted to speak to him about.
    To her surprise, Mirana heard another man say, “Nay, Askhold, she’s a small girl and proud. Her pride does honor to her parentage. Despite her brother’s dishonor, she has honesty. She’s a true Viking woman. She shouldn’t be abused, Rorik, she should be protected.”
    Mirana resolved to discover the man’s name. Unfortunately she couldn’t turn around to see him.
    She heard Rorik curse.
    What she was, she thought, wincing with each step from the stinging in her back, was stupid. He’d been right. Her pride had kept her silent. Her pride had seemed her only choice until he’d struck her back with his belt. All she’d had to do was bend, just a small yielding, but she hadn’t. So simple really, just say my lord to him, nothing more, just a simple my lord, for it meant naught, she could even have said it with revulsion in her voice and he would have known she didn’t mean it. But she had to be stubborn.
    What had Einar done for the man to call him dishonorable?

9
    A STA RUBBED THE white medicinal cream into her back, made from the oily tender root. The belt hadn’t broken the skin, had only sliced through the tunic and gown in two places, and the material could easily be mended. There were only welts on her back, Utta said, as she watched Asta rub the cream into Mirana’s flesh.
    Mirana would have choked before she’d have told anyone, but Utta had come into the sleeping chamber when she was naked, holding the gown in her hand, examining the damage.
    But the girl had said only, “I will fetch the healing cream from Old Alna. It will take the stinging away.” She paused in the doorway and added, “I will tell her I have a bee sting and it pains me.”
    Mirana had smiled at her, wondering at her wisdom, at her youth, remembering herself at twelve years old, a lanky, proud girl, ready for any mischief, ready to fight any boy. She’d not had a dollop of wisdom. She smiled at her now. “Thank you, Utta. Do you have thread and a needle so that I may mend this lovely gown?”
    But Asta had come with Utta, Asta, the woman married to Gurd the blacksmith, the man who had insultedhis wife before all the assembled company this morning. To Mirana’s surprise, Asta was smiling at her, soon laughing as she told her of the old shoe the goat had chewed and chewed until the women had stirred it into a stew for the men. Before she’d left the chamber, she said, “Don’t worry. Both Utta and I frequently suffer from bee stings. You try to rest now, Mirana. I thank you for what you tried to do, as do all the other women. We believe that Rorik spoke so quickly because he dreaded doing it and just wanted it over and done with. But you tried, and we do thank you.”
    Mirana just shook her head. “I did naught of