Page 37 of Summer of the Viking

Alwynn ran her hand through the nearest sack of wool. Valdar had a point. Certainly Edwin had not bothered staying. He and his men had left two mornings ago with banners fluttering in the wind and the sacks of wool had started arriving soon after that. ‘Why would you say that?’

‘They know nothing about me or my reputation.’

‘Do you have a ruthless reputation?’

His face became shadowed and hardened to planes of granite. When he looked like that, Alwynn had to wonder how many battles he had seen. Who did he fight for? Who was Raumerike aligned with? ‘If I do, would I share it with you?’

‘You will not behave ruthlessly with my people! They are finally free of one oppressor.’

‘Your late husband?’

‘He disliked anyone crossing him,’ she admitted.

A tiny smile tugged at his mouth. ‘Are you so ready to believe the worst of me? Is it because of your husband?’

Alwynn hugged her arms about her waist. How to admit that she’d turned a blind eye for so many years? And that she’d kept giving excuses because she’d thought he loved his daughter and was doing his best for them as a family? It was only after Theodbald’s death that she even realised what sort of cruel man he’d been. ‘I know little of you, but I suspect that you are not afraid to use your sword.’

‘Knowing how to use a sword doesn’t make a man a brute.’ He tapped his heart. ‘What makes a man is within here. Without a code, all men become like the animals. A man must keep to his code or he risks losing everything.’

Alwynn wished she could take the pain from him. Whatever had happened to make him jump off that ship must have been something truly terrible. And she knew deep within her that he had not abandoned his friends.

‘You are alone in the world?’ she asked instead.

‘I have nephews and a sister-in-law, who pokes her nose far too often into my business. However, she says that she runs it better than I do.’

‘Do you have a large estate?’

A muscle jumped in his jaw. ‘A reasonable size. My father ensured it. I do know how to run an estate, my lady.’

Alwynn stared at him. Merri’s proclamation that he was an atheling was maybe not so far off the mark. ‘You are a prince, then, in your country?’

She watched the shutters come down on his face. A tiny pang went in her heart. She much preferred his face when it showed warmth. Whatever his past was, he wanted to keep it from her. She concentrated on a spot behind his head. That was fine with her. She understood about secrets. There were some things about her past that she wanted to keep hidden.

‘Nothing like that,’ he said before she could make a meaningless comment about what needed to be done next. ‘I farm, I trade and I serve my king when called on. I leave the politics to someone else.’

‘If Raumerike’s politics are anything like Northumbria’s, you are wise.’

‘I had my fingers burnt once,’ he admitted with a shrug.

She released a breath. The moment of danger had vanished.

‘Is that why you were on the voyage? Because of her? Because of the healer you knew?’ The words spilled from her like a sore that she couldn’t stop picking. This Kara person should make no difference to her, but she hated that the woman had some sort of hold over him, that in his mind he had been kissing that woman instead of her that first night. ‘My apologies. You don’t need to answer that. None of my business.’

He picked up a whorl and tossed it in the air before neatly catching it.

‘Partly.’ His voice was barely louder than a whisper but gathered strength as he went on. ‘We needed new markets. Our traditional ones are being closed down. But I wanted to go. It was harder than I thought seeing her happiness and knowing that it had nothing to do with me. I was happy for her. There was just an ache inside me which would not go away.’

‘Did you find any new markets?’ she asked when she trusted her voice.

‘A very poor voyage, but the crew should return home and report my death. My sister-in-law knows what is to happen. There will be no reason for her to fear for her estates.’

‘But once you return, they’ll know you’re alive.’

His face broke out into a heart-stopping smile which tugged at a place deep within her. She wished that there wasn’t this attraction between them.

‘Yes, they will. Everyone will.’

‘That pleases you?’

His smile widened, but his eyes became remote. ‘I will be able to find out if there was a gnashing or wailing at my funeral. Who sang the lament. Who fainted.’

‘How like a man! Do you expect it?’

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