I was fighting for breath.
Shit!
What did I do now?
I instantly realized my mistake of not, perhaps, taking some time away from enjoying my parallel universe adventure and, say, preparing for his return, considering the fact he told me he would be returning. I realized this as my eyes flicked beyond him and I saw about seven men, all smaller than him (not by much) all dressed a lot like him, all sporting thick beards, all having hair (of a variety of colors) that needed a cut, all of them scary and all of their eyes were on me.
This must be some of his Raider brethren.
Ho boy.
I pulled in a deep breath to fill my lungs.
Then I smiled huge and called, “Hi honey! I see you’re home.”
There was some movement around me but not much as that weird, pulsing, warm, very scary energy filled the pub until it was suffocating.
Then he growled at me across the expanse, “Wife, arse over here.”
Hmm. Not sure I liked that.
Nope, I was wrong. I was sure I didn’t like that.
Nevertheless, he was twice the size of me and he had seven men of much the same size behind him. I had Frederick, Ulysses and Laurel. Sure, Ulysses was the blacksmith and he had forearms the size of anvils (and likely the consistency, though I hadn’t checked), but Frederick and Laurel were lightweights compared to the Raider Party.
And I liked them, I knew they liked me, we’d had some good times, but we weren’t exactly BFFs (yet) so I wasn’t certain they’d wade in for me.
Not with these guys.
It was probably best that I got my arse over there.
I nodded to Drakkar and turned, putting down the cards.
“Thanks guys, see you all later,” I muttered, grabbed my little, satin, drawstring bag off the table, decided to let my winnings sit where they were and with some haste I stood, snatched my cloak off the back of my chair and moved quickly, trying to do it without appearing like I was moving quickly, through the silent pub, taking every step with every eye in the place on me.
I wasn’t certain what would happen once I got my arse to him because one could say I didn’t know my husband like, at all, but I would never have been prepared for what did happen.
The minute I was within reach, he reached. Then, with a small, surprised cry, I found myself, ass in the air, over his shoulder. Then I found myself out of the pub and into the cold night. Then I found my ass on my horse and my arms automatically came up quickly to catch the cloak I had lost and he had caught and was now throwing at me.
Then he growled two words, “Arse. Home.”
“But –” I started but didn’t finish.
He lifted a large hand and slapped my gray on the rump, barking, “Yah!” and my gray took off at a full gallop.
I didn’t even have the reins in my hand!
What a f**king dick!
I quickly hooked my leg around the saddle, leaned forward, holding onto the gray around her neck so I wouldn’t fall off, I grabbed the reins then sat back and, as best I could with purse and reins, I flung the fur lined cloak around my shoulders.
Then I rode home and I did this fast. This was because I was pissed way the f**k off and I knew if I didn’t go in that direction, I’d go back to the pub and probably do something that would get me murdered by a giant Viking-type, parallel universe Raider.
So I went home, straight to the stables where I unsaddled and stalled the gray, stomped to the house, stoked up the banked fires, dropped logs on them, lit candles and lamps, climbed up and built a fire in the loft and then I went down the ladder and paced.
What I did not do was calm down.
My husband and I had to get a few things straight.