Page 117 of Viking in Love

“Yea, you can. Did your mother never teach you manners, how to accept a gift graciously?”

“My mother died when I was nine.” Try learning manners from a father who favored a heavy hand with his children.

“That explains it then.”

“Explains what?” Good Lord! Shut your teeth, Caedmon!

He just smiled at him. “Take these heavy things off my lap afore you give me a cramp. You know I will find a way to leave them behind if you do not take them openly.”

Walking back to the keep, muttering curse words under his breath, he ran into Breanne, knocking her to the ground. Which was an amazing thing in itself. He had been avoiding her like a…well, rash. No good would be served by them being together anymore.

But wait. She had been blathering something about visitors.

“What is it?” he asked, helping her to stand.

“Four riders are approaching. I think it might be Vana.”

Caedman put the bags of gold inside, then followed after her, but at a slower pace because he recognized in that moment that if Vana was here it meant they would all soon be departing, never to return.

How would he bear it?

Sometimes true love does run smooth…

Breanne and her sisters were waiting in the upper courtyard for Vana, their father having insisted on their staying with him.

Wulf, Ivan, and Ivar dismounted, then helped Vana off her horse. Without skipping a beat, she smiled widely and ran toward them. First into her father’s big arms. Then, hugging and kissing each of them. “At last, my sweet, I can take you home,” her father said, swiping at the tears in his eyes.

Holding her away from him, he examined her features. Luckily, all the bruises had faded, and she no longer had her arm in a sling. In fact, she looked better than she ever had, having gained some weight, and her skin had a healthy color.

Vana turned again to her four sisters, who enclosed her in a group hug, with more tears and hugs. What a relief that their dangerous escapade was over!

Just then, their father interrupted them. “Now, let your sister breathe. Step back. Vana, I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh, please, no more surprises. My life has been too full of surprises of late. I want to go home and live a calm, uneventful existence.”

“I do not think that is going to happen.” Her father turned Vana by the shoulders so she could see the man approaching with a slight limp.

Vana gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Rafn, is it truly you? Oh, please, gods, do not let this be a dream.”

“Heartling,” Rafn choked out.

They ran toward each other.

In a shout of joyous triumph, he lifted her in his arms so her feet dangled off the ground and hugged her tightly. He was crying, too. “I never thought I would see you again.”

“I thought you were dead.”

They kissed then, long and passionate.

“You look thinner.”

“You look more beautiful than ever.”

More kisses and disbelieving caresses as if to prove the other was actually there.

“Will you marry me?”

“How soon? Can we do it today?”