Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
She pulled back from him, looking as if he just slapped her across the cheek.
“So stay the course?” she asked. Her voice was hard, her eyes dead. Erik felt the cold air bite away the heat her kisses had left on him. “Stay with Rolf. Marry the savage. Become a duchess. Rot away. Anything without love just rots. I should know. I was rotting until the day you came into my village and burned my life away!”
He quickly got to his feet, suddenly caught with the same foolish urge to run through the snow as she had. “We need to go back before Rolf worries.”
“Oh, to hell with Rolf!” she yelled, the urgency in her voice weakening him. “How do you know he won’t one day stab me through the heart because I displeased him so?”
“He wouldn’t do that to you,” he mumbled, but he couldn’t meet her eyes. “You can learn to be happy with him.”
“Just as you learned to be happy with him? Always at his side but never his equal? Don’t think I can’t tell when someone is thinking of running.”
He was close to spilling—dangerously close. He wanted to tell her everything, to tell her the plan and convince her that her path was actually with him, as insignificant as he now was.
“Let’s not fight, Cherine,” he said and held his hand out for her. She paused, debating, and then accepted. He helped her up to her feet and didn’t let go of her hand. “I can’t stand to fight with you.”
She exhaled loudly, trying to pull away, but he pulled her right back to him.
“I’ll be here for you for as long as I can,” he told her, squeezing her hand hard. “Until then, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
It was too bad that only gave them two days.
But his words caused the hardness to melt from her eyes, and she nodded, relenting. They walked back to the horse, their hands holding onto each other for a few steps until they both let go.
Chapter 20
Cherine
Erik had returned me that day, just in the nick of time. I had only just entered the manor when Rolf came looking for me, begging my forgiveness for being so barbaric and uncouth. He showered me with kisses and lavish gifts I had no doubt he had pilfered from the same manor, and that night, he made uncharacteristically tender love to me, going down on me over and over again until I was too blissed out to argue.
The next day, however, I felt trapped in my growing feelings for Erik, and Rolf was back to being unruly and snappish. The snow had fallen throughout the night, and though it was beautiful to gaze at from my high windows, the manor was unprepared for the cold snap, and the Vikings were growing even more restless with their immobility.
As a result, everyone was terse and terrible to be around. I had spent the better part of the morning just walking up and down the halls, partly to avoid Rolf’s wrath, and partly in the hopes of running into Erik again.
But he was nowhere to be found, and his absence gnawed at my chest. For the three weeks I had been with Rolf, I had concentrated on him and him alone. Rolf was so large and mysterious, it was hard not to think about anyone else. Yet the moment Erik came back into the picture, the moment I heard that Erik had wanted me as badly as I found myself wanting him, I knew he was the man I needed to be with.
And yet, he still pushed me away. He told me he loved me, and those very words caused my soul to soar, to fly higher than any falcon, but he seemed adamant that we couldn’t be together. I knew why. I knew it was foolish to think we could just turn our backs on Rolf and he would be fine with it. He would murder us both in our sleep—if we were lucky.
By the time dinner rolled around, Rolf was still in a foul mood, made worse by the copious amounts of strong ale he was consuming. Thankfully, Erik was dining with us. I wondered if he had invited himself to our table, having picked up on Rolf’s temperament. He hadn’t shared a meal with us since Rolf took me away.
I sat across from the two men, busying myself with the leftover pig roast from the night before. It seemed that poverty was hard-wired into me, and I couldn’t help but eat more than my share, as if I would never be fed again.
Rolf blabbered on in his drunken manner, occasionally shouting obscenities and slamming down his ale mug, dousing all three of us in sprays of pungent beer. I kept glancing at Erik, trying to read his stoic expression, to not to sigh internally over his handsome eyes. Tonight, they were cautious, the same inky color as dawn on an overcast day.