Page 52 of Edge of the Wild

“That’s not a happy look.”

Tessa glanced up to see Revna seated on one of the low sofas, pouring out two cups of tea on the table.

“Oh.” Tessa scraped up a smile. “It’s nothing.”

“Uh-huh. Come and sit. We’re having tea and biscuits like proper ladies.” She rolled her eyes, and Tessa found herself chuckling as she went to sit opposite and take a warm cup. It was immediately soothing between her hands.

Revna, she noted, while still a little tired around the eyes, looked much improved. Relief had taken all the strain out of her features, and today her hair was clean and tidily-braided. Her hands were steady as she added sugar and milk to their tea; her gaze direct as it fixed on Tessa’s face.

“What happened?”

Tessa took a sip of tea, bracingly sweet. “Nothing happened. I only carried Rune’s breakfast tray down to the kitchen.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to help, and Rune had fallen asleep. I thought I might as well make myself useful.”

“All right.” Revna sipped tea. “So you returned the tray. Then what happened?”

In a light voice, Tessa said, “I had an encounter with Lady Estrid and her friends. They invited me out riding, but I’m afraid I was tired, and had to decline.”

Revna snorted. “How thoughtful of them.”

“Yes, wasn’t it?”

Revna’s teacup landed on the tabletop with a decisive thump. “Let me tell you something aboutLady Estrid.” Her tone had Tessa pausing with her with own cup halfway to her mouth. “She’s nothing but a spoiled brat who’s never been told ‘no’ a day in her life. The only things she cares about are fashions and feeling superior – having things that her friends don’t and lording them over them.”

“At the feast,” Tessa said, hesitating, “Rune expressed that he…wasn’t fond of her.”

“I should think not. She was horrid to him when he was little – she was already scheming to become a princess then! Not even of marriable age and working the boys over like a professional. When I found out what she was doing, I put a stop to it. If it were up to me, she wouldn’t still be here under our roof.”

Tessa lifted her brows in silent inquiry.

Revna sighed. “I could send her home, if I wanted, I know. But.” She shrugged. “I try to play the part of the magnanimous lady of the palace. How would it look if – given my position – I turned away a young woman who asked to be at court with me?”

Tessa winced. “I see your point.”

“We must endure her, I’m afraid.” She picked up her cup again. “But don’t worry, dear. She’s not any threat to your marriage.”

Tessa offered a tight smile, and sipped her tea before it could fall away.

~*~

They stopped for lunch at midday, at the edge of a lake whose shores were laced with frost, and which they had to break with axes to allow the horses and reindeer to drink. Beneath the snow-heavy branches of sentinel pines, seated on a felled log they’d dusted off and covered with a waxed canvas tarp, they ate cold sandwiches from their saddlebags and passed around a wineskin. A few deep swallows went a long way toward thawing Oliver from the inside out, and waking up his stomach, reminding him that he was, in fact, very hungry.

“We should reach Redcliff before nightfall,” Birger said between bites. “It’s just halfway ‘round the lake.”

“Good,” Erik said, and did what he’d done several times: cast a long, narrow-eyed glance along the lake’s edge, and amongst the trees behind them. The other lords and their parties were spread out ahead of them, sitting in clusters; a few had bothered to start small fires. But Erik’s attention wasn’t on them.

Oliver had just taken a bite of ham roll, and swallowed it with difficulty. “What do you think the odds are last night’s raiders are following us?”

“Good, I’d say,” Magnus said. His brother elbowed him. “What? I don’t see any benefit to pretending.” He took a glance at their surroundings too, far less gracefully than Erik had. “A bunch like that shows up, shooting people in the dark, killing people – I don’t think it was random.”

Erik finished off his sandwich and licked his fingers – distractingly. “They’ll harry us all the way to Dreki Hörgr, I’d imagine,” he said, grimly, staring off across the lake. It was a vast one, seeming to melt into the distant mountain range, its far bank invisible.

“Why not attack us outright? Right now?” Oliver asked, and wished he hadn’t. “Why wait, last night, until we were all inside the hall.”

“The clans prefer outright warfare,” Birger said, “but with each other. They crash together like two waves in the open field. But they’ve no hope of storming a palace or hall; nor of surviving our attempts to repel an outright attack. They had to draw us out last night in order to do any damage.”

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