Page 69 of Edge of the Wild

The one she wanted.

Her breath shivered out of her, and his fanned warm across her face in return.

He wet his lips, and his fingertips touched her wrist. “Tessa–”

“What on earth are you doing out of bed?”

Revna.

Tessa spun away and strode as quickly as she could without running to the window. She stopped just short of pressing her cheek to the cold glass, her face flaming. They had almost…and Revna had seen…

Down below in the yard, a groom was walking a sweat-damp, saddle-marked horse; another pushed a wheelbarrow of hay into the wide stable doors.

“Mum,” Rune said, behind her, in a startled voice. “I only wanted a bit of air. I was going stir-crazy in bed.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” his mother said dryly. “Nothing like busting open your wound for a littleair.”

“Mum–”

“Tessa, dear, I hope he hasn’t been bothering you.”

“Mum!”

Tessa forced herself to take a deep breath, and then another. Schooled her features. Hoped she wasn’t blushing terribly when she turned around and offered Revna a smile. “No, of course not, my lady.”

Revna arched a single brow.

Tessa didn’t retract the honorific. She said, “I scolded him myself when I walked in and found him all but falling over.”

Revna smirked – and, behind her, Rune did too, shaking his head, rueful. His gaze was warm, though, and didn’t help the traitorous leap of her heart.

“Good,” Revna said.

“She offered to braid my hair,” Rune said, a strange note of tension in his voice.

Revna blinked. Glanced slowly from Tessa to her son. “Did she?”

He tilted his head, showing off the braid above his ear, the bead flashing in the light. “She did well, didn’t she?”

“Yes.” Revna turned back, expression inscrutable. “She did.”

Tessa felt the wild urge to defend herself. She knew what Revna must think, especially after witnessing them poised at the sofa the way they had been. His breath on her face, his eyes on her mouth, everything inside her wanting to sway forward, like a flower seeking sunlight.

Her face heated again.

Just as Astrid came in from one of the hallways.

And the main door opened to admit an out-of-breath Hilda. “There you are, Lady Tessa!” she panted. “I went all the way down to the kitchen to look for you.”

“I’m sorry, Hilda, I was bringing Rune some books.”

Bjorn arrived, on her heels. “What are you doing out of bed, you bloody sheep head?” he asked Rune.

Thus the day began in earnest, and Tessa prayed she wouldn’t have to answer for her brief moment of insanity.

9

Oliver walked into Lord Askr’s central hall at Erik’s side, shaved, washed, richly-dressed, and with his head held high, his new ring winking on his left hand.

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