By the time he looked up, she was looking at him.
Her golden eyes held the exact expression he recognised from the dark of her room: calm and faintly amused, as though she were watching a man do exactly what she expected.
The cup in his hand creaked once more.
The Igwe rose, offering a toast."To new alliances.And to the union that will strengthen both our houses."
Ragnar stood.Someone refilled the cracked cup; he drank from it quickly so as not to spill anything.The hall echoed the toast back.
From somewhere across the room, quiet enough that only someone listening for it would hear, came the sound of barely suppressed laughter.
His ears heated.
Obscene woman.
"Daughter," the Igwe said warmly."Attend to our guest."
The alcove was to the side of the main platform, separated from the feast by heavy brocade drapes.Thane positioned himself on the step outside, back to the outer wall.The feast's noise became a muffled roar.Ragnar let his shoulders settle and waited.
He had been sitting perhaps five minutes when the curtain moved.
She slipped through it and drew it closed behind her in one motion, sealing them into a pocket of intimacy, then knelt on the cushions across from him, keeping an appropriate distance, one he felt was an exaggeration.The pearls of her veil caught the lamplight like scattered stars.
She tilted her head, and he caught her eyes, glistening with amusement.
"How are the stitches?"
Of all the things she might have opened with.
His grip tightened on the cup."They hold."
"Good."She sounded genuinely satisfied, which was somehow worse than if she had been baiting him."I would hate for my work to be wasted."
"You nearly killed me."
"Will you let go of that?I wasn’t actually going to kill you.The sedative kept you still, which was necessary given that you kept tearing your own sutures."A soft click of her tongue."You're welcome."
Something that was almost delight moved through him.He suppressed it."Are you always this difficult?"
"You were possibly the most inconvenient patient I had ever treated."She dismissed him easily."I hope you're easier to manage as a husband."
What did she take him for?A pet?
"Do you make a habit of saving strange men?"
"Do you make a habit of sneaking into a woman's chambers in the dead of night?"
The walls of the alcove seemed to press slightly closer.He had walked directly into that and they both knew it.
"My apologies," he rasped."I did not intend to disturb your rest."
Why am I apologising?
"Think nothing of it."She waved a hand, rings catching the light."As long as you pay your debt, we can consider it settled."
"Pay you with my life, as you said."
She nodded.The pearls clinked."Whatever remains of it belongs, by rights, to me."
