Except...His gaze devoured the tempting curves that were revealed so lusciously when the rising breeze pressed her gown back against her.
When he was with her, alone as they were now, he did not wish to think of anything but her.
She could be both his guide and his betrayer, for she stole his thoughts from his quest.
Was this fascination with her another trick perpetrated by Loki?
The wizard exulted in confusing mortals until they completely lost their way.
Nils must not allow that to happen.
Linnea held out her hand to him.
“Scamp is barking as if he found something interesting.
Shall we see what it is?”
“Yes.”
He slipped his hand into hers.
“After all, that is how you found me.”
“I hope Scamp has not found anything that unexpected again.”
Her smile caressed him, inviting him to sample her lips.
She did not offer him the chance as she led him toward where the puppy barked excitedly.
Maybe she had guessed Nils’s thoughts, because she chattered on like a spring bird meeting the morning.
She spoke of the days when she and her siblings had enjoyed playing on this beach while their governess and tutors watched.
She smiled as she drew her hand out of his and ran to where Scamp was still yelping at a crab that had been washed up onto shore.
“Scamp, leave the poor beast alone.”
Picking up a branch, she tossed it along the edge of the water.
The puppy took after it with glee.
“Your dog is not only a great hunter but offers you protection against such wild beasts.”
Nils squatted.
He lifted the crab from the sand and flung it back into the waves.
“You are fortunate to have grown up here.”
“I am.
As I told you, any time we have traveled from home, I have always been delighted to come back here.”
“As I was always glad to see my home whenever I went a-viking.”
Her smile disappeared.
“When you came here to attack
England
.”
“This was to be my last trip to Britannia.”
Standing, Nils drew his knife from the waist of his breeches.
“I made the vow to complete my search for my chieftain’s blade and be done with the life I had taken as mine when I was little more than a boy.”
She glanced uneasily at the long blade.
If she had thrown it into the sea instead of giving it to Jack to hide in the stable...Berating herself was futile, because she knew Nils would have found some weapon to wear as had been his custom.
“I don’t understand,” she said as his words echoed through her head, forcing her to pay attention to them instead of the honed blade that glistened in the dimming sunlight.
“Why weren’t you going to go a-viking any longer?”
“I was hoping to go west to
Iceland
.”
She shivered.
“
Iceland
?
I have never wanted to go there.
It sounds dreadful.”
“But it is not.
My brother went to
Iceland
and returned to tell of the
rolling meadows
that were spread in valleys beneath smoking mountains, and the hordes of fish in the cold waters.”
“Brother?”
They had spoken of his dead wife, but Linnea wondered why she never had given much thought to the rest of the family he had left in the past.
Family and friends and allies and enemies.
Looking toward the chimneys of
Sutherland
Park
, visible above the sea cliffs, she tried to imagine how it would be to lose all that was familiar and to know that she might be separated from her family forever.
She could not imagine it.
“My brother Hastein told me wondrous stories of the people who lived in
Iceland
.
They were creating a government that was ruled by the freemen who lived there.
They have no kings like the ones who fight to claim all of the lands of the
Norrfoolk
.”
His lips twisted as he put the knife back in his waistband.
“I should say they
had
no kings.
I thought I would be accustomed to this change by now.”
“So why did you come to
England
this time?
I know you were looking for your chieftain’s knife, but why did you make that vow when you wanted to go to
Iceland
?”
“I had to atone for our family’s disgrace before I could think of my future.”
“Disgrace?
What disgrace?”
“The disgrace that was put upon us when Hastein stole our chieftain’s blade, embarrassing him.”
Linnea sat on a nearby rock.
“Your brother took the knife?
You never mentioned that before.”
“It is something that I wish I never had to say.
Hastein believed that our chieftain was more concerned about his own grasping for power than leading our people.”
He lowered his eyes for the first time since she had met him.
Shame rang through his voice when he added, “For his actions, my brother was outlawed.
He took Kortsson as his friend, which is why it is possible that my blood-enemy has the knife that Hastein stole.”
“So you vowed to recover the knife to restore your family’s honor?”
“Yes.”
Rising, she put her fingers against his cheek and turned his face toward hers.
“I am so sorry that this has not come about as you had hoped, Nils.
It seems that the Fates are determined to make your search more difficult than anyone could have imagined it would be.”
“Not fate, but the gods.
I know you do not believe in their powers, but they exist.”
“Tell me more about
Iceland
.”
Linnea did not want to change the subject, for she wanted to learn more about the private man he hid so often behind his blustery exterior.
“Why did you want to go there?”
“It was a place where a man might be free to make a life for himself.
The laws were few, and they were made by the people themselves at the annual meeting called an Althing where people came together and decided how the island should be governed.”
“Like our Parliament?”
“Save that, from what your father has said, you send others to represent you.
At the Althing, it is said that any free man can speak.”
He smiled at her as he walked to a nearby stone.
He scooped out some dark material, and she realized it was his coat that he had set aside when he came to the beach.
“Any free woman can speak as well.
Even a slave might be heard if the claim was deemed worthy.”
“A woman could be heard?”
“The ways of the
Norrfoolk
required women to make important decisions while their men were a-viking.
Why should they be denied that privilege when their men came back home?”
She laughed.
“That is so different from what I know.
A woman might oversee her husband’s estate while he is away on business or personal matters, but when he returns to that estate his wishes dominate.”
“Your ways are different.”
“
Your
ways are different.”
“Isn’t that the same as what I just said?”
She shook her head and chuckled.
“I mean that your ways now are different from what they would have been if we had met in your time.
If I had had the misfortune to stumble over you on the beach as I did, we would not speaking like this.”
“No, for I would not have been restrained by your customs.
I might have been weakened by my wounds, but not so weak that you could have slain me.”
His smile became predatory, and she backed away a half-step in spite of herself.
He matched her pace.
Pulling off her bonnet, he loosened her hair.
He caught her hands when she reached up to halt him.
Twisting her arm behind her back, he tugged her to him.
His grip was not painful until she tried to back away.
She froze, and he eased his hold on her arm, but not enough so she could escape.
“Nils, are you out of your mind?” she gasped.
“You would not ask that if we stood here, face-to-face, in my time.”
His finger slid along her throat.
“I would have seen you dead for standing in my way.”
His finger edged lower to settle over her heart.
“This fierce pulse would have been from fear.”
“Please stop this,” she whispered, wondering if her heart pounded with fear now, or from something else altogether?
The resonance of his touch pierced her even more savagely than a blade.
“Do you think I would have heeded such a request?”
“We are not in your time.
We are in my time now.”
“But I am not of this time.
When I stand here on this beach where I faced English warriors and watched my comrades fall to mingle their blood with our enemies’, I think of what might have happened if you had chanced upon me at that moment.”
“You have already said.
You would have killed me.”
“I am not so certain of that.
Maybe I would have taken you as my
traell
back to the land of the
Norrfoolk
.”
“
Traell
?
What is that?”
“A captive slave.”
His voice grew low and rough.
“
Unnasta
, you have a word in your language now that I have heard others use.
A word that is much like
traell
.
Enthrall.
It means captivated, doesn’t it?”
She met his hungry gaze as she whispered, “Yes.”
“Then you would have been my
traell
while I was enthralled with you.”
His finger swirled along her breast, and she gasped at the powerful need rising through her.
She gripped his sleeve, knowing she should halt him, but unwilling to lose even a second of this bliss.