Deciding it was best to leave him for now, Haakon went to retrieve his boots but stopped before he could touch the first one. There was a shuffling in the corridor. This time it could well be Gytha. It was clear from the discreet noises that it wasn’t another drunken, stumbling oaf of a man but someone who knew the house well and did not want to disturb anyone who might be sleeping.
Haakon went to open the door, candle still in hand, and found himself face to face with Gytha, who gave a muffled scream when she saw him.
“Haakon?” Surprise caused her lovely eyes to round. “Heavens, you made me jump again. What on earth are you doing here?”
He blinked. Whatwashe doing here?
“I came to see your father earlier, as agreed, and was told he was not home,” he finally remembered. Gytha waited, indicating that this explanation was not sufficient. Perhaps she had meant to ask what he was doing in her room. He decided to ignore the question for the moment. “I had come to tell him about what happened with the slave trader. But all that can wait right now. Here. Come and have a look.”
He took her by the arm and led her to the place where the man was still lying down. She went deathly pale when she saw him.
“Oswald,” he heard her say.
Ah. So she did know the man. Had she been expecting him also? Was she about to remonstrate with him for hurting her lover? For preventing their night of wild passion? His grip on her elbow tightened at the idea.
“Is he your lover?” he asked with more ferocity than he’d intended. Damn, he sounded angry. And…jealous. Again. He had a sudden vision of Gytha asking him if Rowena was his lover. Had she felt as upset at the idea as he was? If so, it was no wonder she had been so unreasonable. “Sorry I sent him to the floor, knocking him out cold, but he didn’t give me any choice. He was about to assault me.”
“He’s not my lover.” Gytha said in a tone he had never heard. She sounded both incensed at the assumption and disgusted by the idea of this man going anywhere near her. She was not lying, he was not her lover. The hold around her elbow slackened. “Though he wants to be. And possibly more.”
Yes. This, Haakon had already guessed. Why else would this Oswald come to her bed in the middle of the night, talking of getting inside her? He wanted her, but it seemed that she had not given her agreement to the scheme. This had not been an arranged visit but an intrusion and it would have turned into an assault had she actually been in her bed.
Jealousy transformed into outrage.
“Who the fuck is he, that he knows where to find you at night?”
When she didn’t answer, he led her back outside, in the corridor, where they would be able to talk without waking the man up or being overheard. His blazing eyes made it clear he was waiting for her to start her explanation. Eventually, she did, looking ill at ease.
“Oswald is my sister’s husband’s brother. As the family lives quite far away, I only met him a few weeks ago, at the wedding.Somehow, that day, he convinced himself that a union between the two of us would make sense. Two sisters married to two brothers, that sort of thing.” She snorted, indicating she had seen right through the man’s plan. “Of course, the fact that my father is reeve weighs a lot in the balance.”
Indeed. The prestige of a union with such a family would bring many advantages. Not that any man would need extra incentive to want to make this beautiful, stimulating woman his wife.
Stop! She might be stimulating, she was definitely beautiful, but she was a Saxon, the last person he should be worried about.
“I see,” he said through gritted teeth, annoyed that he could not quite focus on the conversation. “And you don’t agree that a union between the two of you would make sense?”
“No. He’s self-centered and petulant, nothing like my brother-in-law, Leofric, who is a good man and a good husband to my sister.” She gave an involuntary shiver, which told him more about what she thought of the man than anything else. “I will never marry him. I told him many times, Leofric told him many times, but he refuses to listen.”
“And now he’s decided that if you won’t be his wife, at least you will accept him in your bed and become his lover?” His tone was icy, Haakon noticed. Damn, he sounded as if he was angry at her. But he wasn’t, he was only incensed at the man’s presumption.
Thankfully, Gytha seemed to understand that. She nodded. “Yes. That is why I decided to spend the night away, knowing that my father would not be here tonight. I feared something like this might happen. And to tell you the truth, Oswald…frightens me. That is the main reason I will never agree to marry him.”
Everything within Haakon snapped.
He would not have any woman frightened if he could help it, any more than he would have her hurt.
“You don’t need to fear him. Say the word and he will pay for his presumption.”
He will pay.
Gytha stared at the tall warrior in front of her, declaring himself her protector. This was a man she barely knew, a man she had been falsely betrothed to, a man she was attracted to, but wasn’t sure she could afford to like. A man who should not have cared about what happened to her.
And yet here he was, telling her he would protect her if she asked him.
He made it sound so simple. She’d been struggling with Oswald for what seemed like forever, and he was saying that she only had to say the word and the problem would be solved. Could she accept his offer, ask him to rid her of the man? It was tempting.
Haakon placed the candle on the floor and sighed. In that moment he was nothing like the arrogant, teasing man he could be at times. He didn’t have any boots on, his hair was all in disarray, as if he’d been dragged from bed, and he was looking at her with warm concern.
He’d said he would help her if she asked, and he clearly meant it. Something inside her melted. This Haakon she could afford to like.
