Page 52 of Haakon's Fate
“I should never have accepted your company,” Haakon told Gytha when they finally brought the horses back down to a walk. “This is a dangerous mission, even more so than I expected.”
“But I wanted to come. I’ve always wanted to help my father fight injustice, and no cause could be more worthy than to reunite a little girl and a mother who have been separated.”
He knew why this would be especially important to a woman who had just lost her own mother. Still. That didn’t make the trip any less dangerous.
“How did you know the men were stealing the horses?” She had to have known the youths’ intention even before they approached the animals, otherwise there wouldn’t have been time to stop them.
“After the exciting evening, I couldn’t sleep.” Haakon thought he detected something like embarrassment in her voice.Why? Had she lain in bed thinking of him and the tension between them? Was that the real reason she had found it hard to settle? “As I lay on my blanket, I overheard the group of four men talk. They said they would lead the horses to a nearby village where they knew an accommodating farmer. Three of them would come back before dawn, while one would remain with the animals, wait for the rest of the troop to join him later.”
“And they thought we wouldn’t notice something was amiss?” He was incredulous. “We would hardly have forgotten we had horses with us.”
“No, of course, but if only one man was missing, we might not have noticed his absence. I mean, I have no idea how many people were in the troop exactly. As to the horses, the musicians would have made it appear as if they had freed themselves and gone to find grass to graze on.”
“Do they really take us for such fools as to believe that both horses managed to loosen their ropes?” He was always extra careful when tying them up. He would have guessed something was wrong.
Gytha shrugged. “Even if we suspected them of foul play, what could we have done? We could have looked for the animals but we would eventually have had to give up when we couldn’t find them.”
“Mm. I suppose. I’m grateful you woke me.”
“Yes, well, if it comes to that, I’m grateful you stepped in. Alone, I would never have been able to stop the men.”
“Again, that was all down to the muscles I happened to be born with. But you used your intelligence and your own initiative to get me out of a very nasty situation. It was remarkable quick thinking on your part to threaten the starlings and very brave.”
“It wasn’t brave. It was the only solution.”
“Tell me. Would you really have killed the poor beasts?”
She turned to him, looking horrified, and he cursed himself for the question. He had already guessed she would never have harmed anyone or anything. “You know I would not! But there was no other choice. The idea that you could be hurt, or worse, for doing nothing more than defend what was ours was…unbearable. I would never?—”
“Yes, I know you wouldn’t have hurt the birds,” he soothed, “because I know you for the kind, generous soul you are. But fortunately, the musicians, who don’t know you, took the threat seriously.”
“Yes. Fortunately.”
“Who was the dark-haired girl who apologized to you before we left?”
“Someone I talked to last night. She wasn’t aware of what they had planned, I don’t think and was genuinely sorry.”
“Mm.” Haakon was not convinced. After what they had been through, he was not as generously inclined as she was. “Well, it’s over now. And from now on we will avoid people offering suspicious hospitality.”
“I agree.”
Gytha carried on riding in silence.
When she had gone to wake Haakon up, the desire she felt for him, ever boiling under the surface, had threatened to erupt. Despite the urgency of the situation, she had taken a heartbeat to admire his chiseled profile, his perfect body, and examine the effect they provoked inside her. When he had opened his eyes, there had been a moment when she had thought he would draw her to him and kiss her.
And she had longed for that kiss.
Then when she had seen him in the men’s arms, in danger of being killed, her blood had frozen in her veins. She had seized that stone because there had been no other way. She could notstand there and watch him being harmed for doing nothing more than defend his possessions.
She would have to examine her feelings and her intentions very closely in the days to come, and decide what to do about them. It was time she started to be in charge of her life, instead of watching it pass by. Since her father had become reeve, she had put everything on hold, telling herself that she couldn’t attract anyone’s attention but now she was seeing that she had wasted some of the best years of her life waiting to be allowed to exist.
No more.
As if to signify his agreement, the sun chose this moment to send its first rays shooting above the horizon. It was a sign. Just like the day, a new part of her life was dawning. On impulse, she launched Bear into a gallop.
“Catch me if you can,” she cried to Haakon, who threw his mount into the chase without missing a beat.
Despite her efforts to stay in front it wasn’t long before he caught up with her. When they finally slowed back down into a trot her heart was beating hard and she was certain the race was not responsible for the fluttering in her chest.
