“When will I see you again, Quarrie MacMurtray?”
“I do not know.”
Not an answer she could accept.
“I must see you.”
“Aye, so.”
“I must lie with you again.”
He did not look at her now but gazed away toward the sea, giving her his profile, which was very fine. Strong nose with a slight hook to the bridge. The beard curling along his jaw looked red. She loved everything about this man.
Loved.
“Aye,” he said so softly that she barely caught the word. “But we maun be careful, lass.”
Ja, they must. Difficult to tell her heart so, for it already missed him.
He looked at her then, his eyes sparkling with green in the morning light. “We will find a way.”
She wanted him to promise. But she had wrung promises enough from him, had she not? And nei, she was not a child.
She turned northward even as he must head south.
“Ást min,” she branded him in parting.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Any number ofeyes located and followed Hulda long before she reached camp. Ja, they had been watching for her, had her men, and several came forward through the morning to meet her, Garik among them.
He examined her with concern, head to boots and back again. She strove to appear calm, as if naught much had happened last night, even though her very world had changed.
“Hulda!” he called. “Where were you? We had begun to worry.”
“That the Scot had killed you,” said Helje, who followed him.
She tossed her head in a vain attempt to seem casual. “Ach, nei. We walked too far and took shelter in a ruined hut from the rain. Thought it best to wait for daylight. But we have a good hunting ground. I can show you today.”
Helje lifted his eyebrows. “It is well. I will tell the others.” He loped off toward camp.
Garik did not move. Again, his gaze prodded her. “Is that what truly happened?”
“Ja, sure.”
“You did not spend the night with the Scot?”
“I just said we sheltered together.”
“Hulda, do not lie to me. I saw you with him back on the boat, when you let him go. I see the way you look at him. And your tunic is not tied properly.”
Her fingers flew to the laces and arrested there.
Softly, Garik added, “I ask as your friend as well as your fellow viking.”
“We spent the night together, ja—as you suppose.”
Garik swore, addressing Loki grievously.
