Page 91 of Viking Unchained

Just then, Cage came around the side of the house. He was one of the guys assigned to protect the Dentons.

“Hey, darlin’,” he said, coming up and giving Lydia a brotherly peck on the cheek.

Hearing a low growl, he let his arm remain around her shoulders and turned to Finn, grinning. “Hey, Haraldsson! How’s it goin’?”

“Remove. Thy. Arm,” Finn said.

Herb and Julie watched the interchange with puzzled eyes.

Lydia stepped between the one grinning and the other glowering man. “Cage, would you mind going inside to entertain Mike for a little while. Finn and I have something to discuss with Herb and Julie.”

Going up onto the porch, which wrapped around three sides of the old Victorian farmhouse, Herb and Julie sat on two rockers, while she sat beside Finn on the swing. He tried to hold her hand, but she shrugged him off. He was being a horse’s ass, in more ways than one.

“Let me start from the beginning,” she said.

But was interrupted by the wild barking of a dog. A huge furry mass, as big as a small horse, came barreling around the corner of the house, up the steps, then launched itself at Finn. With front paws on his chest, he was barking and licking his face at the same time.

It was Whiskey, their aged German Shepherd. Dave’s dog before he left home.

Everyone was stunned at the implication.

Once Finn had petted the dog and settled him at his feet like a rug that would not budge, Lydia started again, “I know how it must look, but Finn is not Dave. No, don’t interrupt ’til I finish. There’s a secret that I know Finn and his family would rather I not divulge, but you have to be told so that you can understand.” She glanced to Finn for his permission.

He hesitated, then nodded.

They listened to her, but their eyes were on Finn, who, despite all odds, seemed like Dave to them.

“He is not Dave,” she repeated for emphasis. Then she proceeded to tell them the whole story, minus the sex. It took her more than fifteen minutes, even without interruptions. Herb and Julie were too stunned and disbelieving at her incredible story to voice any questions . . . yet.

“Time travel? Are you crazy, Lydia?” her father-in-law asked.

“Sometimes I think so.”

“And all these other people . . . Magnus, his family . . . they all believe this crap?”

“Not only believe it, they have experienced it.” Finn spoke up for the first time.

“It’s impossible,” her mother-in-law said, but there was hesitancy in her voice.

“Do you really think there’s such a thing as time travel?” Herb continued to prod her.

“Well . . .” She wet her lips, dry after talking so much. “I can only say what Finn and the others say. It must be a miracle. Not some phenomenon that can be explained by science, but something God deigned to happen.”

“Finn, what do you think?”

He shrugged. “Strange things happen in this world, things that we cannot understand. We can only live with the consequences.”

“And you’re going to be a SEAL?” Julie was blinking away another bout of tears.

Lydia hated piling this on them when they already had enough on their plates with the barn burning and a terrorist lurking out there, somewhere.

“Hopefully,” Finn answered.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to be a farmer?” Herb asked.

And Lydia knew that the Dentons, like her parents, wished, beyond reasoning, that Finn would be the lost son come home to run the family farm.

“Nay,” Finn said, but then chuckled. “Who can predict? Stranger things have happened.”