Page 8 of Shared By the Vikings

Chapter Three

“Ican’t do it! I justcan’t.”

It was as if the fabric of Ingrid’s world had been ripped to shreds and she couldn’t stitch it back together.

“I know, believe me, I know, Princess.” Raud paced along the bank of the river, clutching the handle of his axe. It was a crisp blue-skied day though still bitterly cold and his boots crunched on the frosty blades of grass.

Ingrid struck her maiden’s sword into the air then spun, battling against an imaginary foe.

Ever since she’d been promised to Bjorn Har her anger had boiled inside her. She’d reached the point she was sure her innards were on fire, hot coals that were burning her guts. Soon they’d simmer right through her, and she’d be a mess of smoldering embers on the ground, no good to anyone.

“He’s a revolting old man.” She sliced her blade to the right. “And I’d rather die than have sex with him.” She wielded it to the left, taking off the top of a hawthorn bush.

“That’s a harsh declaration.” Raud stopped and watched her, the head of his axe touching his right knee.

“It’s the truth. He’s an ugly, smelly bear. How could my father do this to me?” Again she twisted, taking a right cut with her sword and this time decapitating a tall, skinny wildflower.

“Mmm,” he said. “To utter truth, it makes me sick to my bones to think of him touching you.”

She paused. “It does?”

“Of course.” He frowned.

She lowered her sword; she was breathing hard. “Why would it?” She hoped he’d give the right answer.

“Surely you know, Princess.”

Shaking her head, she dug the tip of her blade into the hard ground, exposing a shard of frozen earth. “Maybe you should explain.”

He bit on his bottom lip, his small plait moving as his chin did. “Imagine I was marrying another maiden from the village. How would you feel?”

“I wouldn’t want you to.” The words had tumbled from her mouth. She hadn’t been able to stop them, they were truthful.

“And why would you not want me to?” He took a step closer, his wide shoulders blocking out the view of the hill behind him.

“Why are you questioning me now? It was I who asked you a question first.”

He smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Where his skin brushed hers a small tremor of sensation tickled over her flesh and up to her scalp.

“Neither of us wants the other to marry someone else, don’t you see what that means?”

“That we should be together?” There, she’d said it. Her heart, which she’d always kept safe and protected, was now vulnerable, ready for the gods and Raud to do whatever they pleased with it.

“Ja, we should be together.” He dropped his axe. It landed with a thump on the ground. “In this life and the next.”

The next thing she knew she was in Raud’s strong embrace. His face filled her vision and he seemed to be looking into her soul—his blue eyes as wild and raw as chips from a glacier.

“Raud,” she gasped, releasing her weapon and gripping his patterned leather tunic.

“It has always been you and me.” He pulled her closer, so the lengths of their bodies touched. “The goddess Freya mapped it out for us all those years ago when we were born just one moon apart.”

Ingrid’s heart sped up. Raud really did feel the same way she did. But for how long had he kept his heart hidden from her?

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