Page 9 of Loving the Blacksmith
“I will.”
An awkward silence settled between them. It felt as if they had made a much more significant pledge.
“Now. The room where you sleep is the one I usually give Sven when he visits. Of course he could always come sleep in the hut with me this time.” Magnus started to rub at the back of his neck, the gesture betraying intense discomfort. She had seen enough of the two brothers to understand why he never welcomed him under his roof and would prefer to keep it that way.
“It’s not a problem. Let him sleep where he usually sleeps. I can sleep with you. I mean...” Heat flooded her cheeks when she realized how it sounded. “I mean in your hut.”
“You would do that?”
“Of course. It’s better than a ditch in the forest.”
Magnus recoiled as violently as if she had slapped him. “If one of us had to sleep in a ditch, it would be me, not you!”
She could not help a smile at his vehemence. How had he not seen it was a jest? “But neither of us has to sleep outside, that’s my point. I trust you.”
The declaration had moved him, she could tell from the way his eyes glimmered. Her own chest tightened in turn. But, of course, she trusted him. She felt as if she had known him all her life.
“I’ll go prepare a pallet for you in my hut, then. Thank you.”
Magnus was still trembling when he exited the forge, overset by a mixture of anticipation at the idea of having Agnes under his roof, gratitude at the trust she had gifted him with and anger at his brother’s behavior toward her. The way he’d held her had been highly inappropriate. No wonder she’d taken fright. As to his own reaction, blind rage, it was perhaps less easily explicable.
Outside, Sven was waiting, a smirk on his face, looking not guilty in the least.
“Well, now, little br?—”
“What are you doing here?” Magnus cut in. He was not in the mood to endure any teasing from him today, and certainly not about Agnes. When he had seen his brother bent over her, as if about to kiss her neck, and heard him talk about removing her dress, his blood had run cold.
No, not her, his whole body had protested. Sven could seduce all the women he wanted, but he could not touch her, he could tease him as he usually did, but he had better not cause her a moment’s discomfort. His ire and determination must have shown on his face, because Sven answered his question seriously, as if knowing that doing anything else would earn him a fist in the face.
“I came to ask for Wolf’s advice.”
Of course. How had Magnus not guessed? The Icelander was the first port of call for the Norsemen around. Once he’d become a man, Sven had elected to go and live in a Saxon village alone, but every now and then he still needed to consult with Wolf on some issue or another.
“How long will you stay?”
“Not long. I will leave tomorrow.” Sven tilted his head. “Tell you what, you can take me back home in your cart. ’Tis a rather long walk from the village to here.”
Magnus scoffed. How like Sven to assume he would just do his bidding. “I have work here, you know. I can’t just leave on a whim.”
“It would not be the first time you’ve done it.”
“No, but?—”
Just then the door opened on Agnes. He saw from the way she blushed she had not expected to find them so close to the forge and would have stayed inside if she’d known where they were. He gave her a reassuring smile and turned to face Sven again.
“I’m not taking you all the way back home,” he said, switching from Norse for her benefit. The last thing he wanted was for her to be ill at ease when she imagined them talking or even arguing about her. “I have done on occasion when I happened to have business in town, but I don’t this time.”
“People always need something or other from town,” Sven said with an exasperated wave of the hand. “Why can’t you be like anyone else for once?”
There was small inhale of breath from his left side. Agnes. He might not have heard it coming from someone else but somehow his senses seemed to be attuned to her. He turned to address her once more.
“Do you have need of going into town?” It was the only thing he could think of to explain the way her eyes had suddenly brightened, as if in expectation.
“I-I could do with buying a few items,” she admitted in a whisper. “I left home rather precipitously.”
Of course. How had he not thought of that? Why, she was this very moment wearing a dress belonging to another woman. She would welcome the opportunity to get some things for herself.
“Very well,” he agreed. “We’ll leave early in the morning.”
