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had begun and ended in the States, a onetime shot for him to get a good laugh. But she supposed it had made a bigger impact on her than she’d thought, for her to dream something similar a month later, and to have her subconscious recall every exact detail about Barry’s handsome accomplice.
    David was leaving her his London car forthe duration of her vacation, which meant that she had to take him to the train station tomorrow. Today he was accompanying her to the next town, where there was a large grocery that imported many of the American staples they were both used to at home. She drove in order to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road again, with someone in the car to remind her if she happened to forget, which she usually did for the first few days each time she came here.
    On the way back to the cottage, she decided to tell David about her strange dream. When she finished, he was grinning at her.
    “Blooddrinker’s original owner, and you kicked him out before you could ask him about the curse?”
    “I didn’t realize I was having a dream, David. I thought I was experiencing another break-in by Barry’s friend, who only pretends to be the owner of that sword.” And then she grinned herself. “Besides, had I asked him, whatever answer he gave would actually come from my own subconscious, and I still haven’t a clue what that supposed curse is all about.”
    “Ah, but it would have been interesting to find out what your subconscious would have come up with for a plausible answer. An amazing thing, the subconscious. Those who believe in reincarnation say every life you’ve ever lived is buried somewhere deep inside it.”
    Roseleen rolled her eyes and ended upswerving off the curve on the narrow country road. By the time she got the car back in her lane and they both finished laughing over the minor mishap, she said, “It’s bad enough that we’re discussing a ridiculous curse. Let’s leave reincarnation out of it, if you please.”
    “By all means, but you know, that thunder and lightning you mentioned wasn’t part of your dream. I was just dozing off myself last night when it woke me.” She was starting to frown when he added, “But then sounds that we hear while we’re asleep can be transferred to our dreams.”
    “True,” she replied, yet his remark made her realize something that hadn’t occurred to her before. Both times the Viking had appeared to her, in her classroom and in her dream last night, it had been right after she’d touched the sword. And she’d been under a damn compulsion to touch that sword ever since she got it. Was it possible—?
    She shook herself mentally to stop the fanciful direction her thoughts were taking. And to prove just how fanciful they were, as soon as they reached the cottage, she left David to bring in the groceries while she marched straight upstairs to her bedroom. Without any hesitation this time, she slid the box out from under her bed, placed it on the mattress, and opened it, then lifted the hilt of the sword just enough to get her fingers around it.
    The thunder cracked. She didn’t look toward the windows to see if lightning was going to follow. She looked straight at the cornerwhere Thorn Blooddrinker had stood last night, and there he was again, this time with a fat poultry bone in his fist that was heading toward his mouth.
    Oh, God, this wasn’t happening. She didn’t have the ghost of the sword’s original owner standing in her bedroom, in broad daylight. Not a pretend Viking, but a real one. A real dead one. A ghost. She didn’t believe in ghosts—but what else could he be? And somehow, he was connected to the sword… his sword. No, this simply wasn’t happening.
    His eyes were already narrowing on her in that accusing way she was beginning to realize meant he didn’t appreciate being there. “You have taken me from Odin’s feast, lady. Send me back, or feed me, for I have a large appetite that needs appeasing right