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“Why are you not asleep, Svanhild?” Einar asked. “You are clearly tired.”

“Sleep does not come to me,” she said.

She sat on the bench by Holly’s side, the cat curled in her lap. Holly smiled warmly at her and rubbed her shoulder.

“Are you worried about something?” Holly asked.

“Thorir Treebeard is still somewhere around.”

Einar’s shoulders tightened. It was his fault his daughter had trouble falling asleep. Why had he not found the man yet? Holly exchanged a glance with him. She would be the one to reassure the girl. Not him.

“What if he takes you away, Holly?” Svanhild continued. “What if you leave us? I heard that you are from another time. A witch. Is this true?”

Einar tensed. “She is not a witch,” he said.

That, he knew. The part about the future—he did not know if he quite believed that story himself. She looked Viking enough now, dressed like a local woman, in a long shift and an apron dress with brooches and threads of beads suspended between them; although, she often wore her strange jacket. But there were so many things that were different. Her way of cooking was unheard of. Her speech was strange at times. The clothes she had arrived in and her hairstyle were more a man’s than a woman’s. All that might mean she had told the truth about coming from another time, but he still did not quite believe it.

Holly bit her lip, a frown creasing the space between her eyebrows. She forced out a smile and took Svanhild’s hands in both of hers.

“Look, your father is not going to let Thorir hurt you, me, or anyone else.”

Einar breathed easier, Holly’s support releasing the tension in his shoulders. She did behave like a true wife.

“And as for me…yes, I am from the future, but I’m not a witch.”

She did not answer Svanhild’s concern about leaving soon, and he understood why. She was Svanhild’s new mother, and if she felt anything for the girl, she wouldn’t want her to suffer another loss.

“How is the future?” Svanhild asked.

Holly smiled. “Well, it’s a lot cleaner, at least where I live. I’m from Orlando, Florida. That’s on the other side of the world. It’s warm—we don’t have winter—and there’s always sun. But there are also big and dangerous beasts with giant jaws full of sharp teeth. They are called alligators and they live in the lakes. They can swim and move on the ground.”

Svanhild gasped.

“Don’t worry. They look scary, like a combination of a lizard and a dragon, but they won’t harm you unless you want to harm them. Your father would totally kick a gator’s ass,” Holly said, and shot a quick smile at Einar, making his chest melt. He allowed a soft chuckle at Svanhild, who answered him with a smile.

“And how did you get to rule the big company you told me about?” Svanhild asked. “You must have a big army to conquer and protect it.”

Einar shook his head slightly. This talk of a company and business that a woman could run was all very strange. So strange, he doubted Holly could have just made them up.

“No, sweetheart, I didn’t use any force to get where I am, just my mind and hard work. I studied really hard at school and learned how to write and calculate. Then I went to university and worked my butt off there. Then I got an internship and made my way up the ladder.”

“There are a lot of words I do not understand,” Svanhild said. “But I would like to learn. I would like to read and write and calculate. I can already count.”

“I’ll teach you if you like,” she said, “to write and speak English. That might come in handy in the future, especially here in the Orkneys, so close to kingdoms that speak English, or at least some version of it.”

Svanhild nodded enthusiastically. Loki damn him, she was right. Holly was proving to be more useful than Einar wanted.

“And your family?” Svanhild said. “Do you have a mother and a father? Were you married before?”

He’d wondered about that himself but had not dared to ask, not wishing to feel more for her than he had wanted to.

“No,” Holly said, and her voice shook. “I wasn’t married, but I came close once. I wasn’t lucky in love.” She cleared her throat and shot a quick glance at Einar. “I suppose something about me was not right, or at least not what men want in a woman.”

Einar could not believe his ears. What about her could seem wrong to any man? She was beautiful, strong, smart, and capable. If she was telling the truth, all those men from the future must be out of their minds. Not that he liked to think about any man in her life other than him.

“But yes, I do have parents,” she said. “Although like you, sweetheart, I don’t know the mother who gave birth to me. Nor the father. My parents adopted me when I was a baby because they couldn’t have children.”

Svanhild petted Loki. “Now I have you, Holly,” she said. “For me, you are like that mother that adopted you, aren’t you?”