Page 22 of A Tale of Two Vikings

“Yea, it is bare bones here, but we get by.”

“Especially with Sister Mary Rose selling the occasional relic.” He waggled his eyebrows at her for emphasis.

“There is naught wrong with relics.”

“Hah! She tried to interest me in one of the Virgin Mary’s eyelashes today. Christ’s mother must have had eyelashes like the tails of a peacock when you consider how many of them have been found over the years. But this is nothing new. When I was in the Rus lands one time, a merchant tried to sell me twelve shriveled-up things which he claimed were the manparts of the twelve Apostles.”

“Are you teasing me?”

“A little.”

“Well, don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I will have to go to confession again.”

He tilted his head in question. “Again?”

“Yea, I had to go early today for saying that bad word to you and Bolthor. Then again later when I was dusting the altar of the church sacristy and knocked over St. Stephen’s shin bone. Broke it into two pieces, I did. It flew through the air like a spear. Swish!”

“And that sin would be?”

“Taking improper care of sacred objects.”

“’Tis sinful to be clumsy?”

“Apparently.”

“Father Alaric wanted me to make a confession,” Toste told her.

“For what?”

“Abominations.” He winked at her.

Her mouth dropped open

He laughed out loud and chucked her playfully under the chin, thus closing her gaping mouth.

“Do not do that. It is not proper.”

“What is not proper?”

“Touching me…a holy nun.”

“Oh, nay, do not play that game with me. You are no more a nun than I am a monk. Once I learned that you had not taken your final vows, I began to view you in an entirely different light.”

“What do you mean?” She tried to sound prim and uninterested, which she was not.

“It means that I intend to do everything in my power to seduce you to my bed furs.”

She gasped. “You are an abomination.”

“A tempting one, I trust.”

“See, I will have to go to confession now.”

“Did I miss something? What sin did you commit? I am the one who made the sinful suggestion.”