Page 103 of Viking in Love

“Will you come to me tonight?” He ran a hand along her arm, from shoulder to wrist, caressingly.

She shook her head, even as she nigh purred at his touch. “I am sharing a bedchamber with my sisters and Sybil. I cannot imagine you having your own room with all the guests here or about to arrive.”

“You are correct. Geoff, Rashid, and I have reserved one horse stall in the stables for ourselves.”

“A step down in the world for you.”

“Not so much. The straw is clean, and believe you me I have made my bed in worse places, especially when off to war.”

“Everything is happening too fast.”

He nodded. “Will you be returning to Larkspur with me once the wedding is over?” He had no idea where that question had come from, but suddenly the answer was very important to him.

“I do not know. It depends on whether Dunstan and the king are satisfied with our explanations for Oswald’s disappearance. The safest route would be for me and my sisters to return to Stoneheim, except for Tyra, of course, who lives at Hawkshire with her husband. Are you worried that I have not fulfilled our bargain?”

“Yea, you do owe me four more nights. Or is it five?” He grinned at her, then twined the fingers of one of her hands with his and raised the fist to his mouth where he kissed the knuckles.

She just stared up at him, aroused already, he could tell.

“Come, let us walk outside. Soon, the king will arrive, and there will be no opportunity,” he said.

“’Tis a good thing you did not bring the children. With all the tension here, the least bit of misconduct might set off a disaster.”

“For a certainty. And they will be safe under Hugh’s guidance, along with Amicia and Mary.”

“I will miss them when I depart Northumbria. They are fine children, Caedmon, even if they are not all yours.”

“You will miss the children? What about me? Will you miss me, wench?”

She laughed and swung their linked hands between them. “Fishing for compliments, are you?”

“You do not give them readily…not to me, leastways.”

“Yea, I will miss you.”

He gazed at her for a long moment. “Would you stay if I asked?” Damn, damn, damn, I must be daft to mention such a possibility.

“As what? Nay, do not answer. No matter how I might feel, my father would consider it a grave insult if you wanted me only for a mistress. Wait …do not get your bowels in an uproar. I am not asking for matrimony from you. That was understood from the beginning. So, long way of getting to my answer. Nay, I would not stay if you asked.”

A reprieve for my hasty tongue, he thought, but why does it feel like a stab to the heart? He remained silent as they walked across the angled bridge that led from the upper motte to the bailey below and then through the drawbridge outside the keep toward an orchard of cherry and apple and pear trees, still in blossom.

“I would say one more thing, Caedmon. I am appreciative of the protection you offered me and my sisters, and if, by some mischance you lose Larkspur as a result, I am certain that my father would offer you an estate in the Norselands to reestablish yourself.”

He grinned at that. “You would make me into a Viking?”

“There are worse things.”

“Would you buy me a longship? Would I be able to rape and pillage?”

“No Norsemen I know rape and pillage. Plunder is a different matter. Some folks deserve to be plundered. You have been listening to too many biased priest historians.” Offended at his teasing, she tried to pull away from him, but he held on tight.

“Now who is getting their bowels in an uproar?” Backing her up against a tree, he dropped her hand, but imprisoned her with elbows braced on either side of her head. He watched with fascination as a shower of white flower petals dusted her head and his.

She turned her face away from him, but he just used that opportunity to lick the red spots on that side. When she pivoted to chastise him, he kissed her. “Raspberry kisses,” he said against her open mouth. “Have you e’er been tupped against a tree?”

“You know I have not.” Try as she might, a smile twitched at her plump lips.

In between kisses, he was ruching up the hem of her gunna, bit by bit, until she was bare from the waist down. “There are so many ways I want to make love with you. So many things to do that I have not yet had a chance. How can you think of leaving afore then?”