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She moved swiftly after him. He said over his shoulder, not slowing, “Remove all of her teeth, one by one. I like that. It’s a very effective threat.”
“I thought so,” she said, skipping to come alongside him.
He was silent.
She couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I hate Erik. He is a bully, and without conscience. He struck her, Merrik, struck her just to prove he was the stronger and that she was nothing. I’m sorry since he is your brother, but I hate him. He is a bully and an animal. I know another man just like him.”
“Who is he?”
She went still. Then she just shook her head, saying nothing more.
Merrik said slowly, not looking at her, “Erik has changed.”
“I am relieved you didn’t strike him after he’d hurt Sarla.”
“I wanted to. It wouldn’t have been wise. I have no say in his longhouse and I must remember that.”
“I don’t want to stay here.”
“I have been thinking of that as well.”
She waited, but he said no more. Laren said, with some reluctance, “I’m sorry I wanted to pull her hair from her silly head, but she enraged me and I lost my temper.”
“One would think that after two years of retaliation and punishment, you would have learned to keep your tongue behind your teeth.”
“Aye, one would think that would have happened.”
“But it didn’t. I remember too clearly your back after Thrasco had beaten you for your lack of wisdom.”
“Aye, ’tis a fault that will probably kill me.”
“What did she say to you?”
“She said that she would walk with you and perhaps let you kiss her so you would know what it was like to kiss an innocent virgin.”
“I see. I don’t suppose you said anything back to her to make her slap you?”
Laren shrugged, not looking at him, but at the waving barley in the field. “Naught much of anything really, just something about her letting you practice on her. It made her very angry.”
He laughed. “Aye, that was naught of anything. You mocked her apurpose. ’Twas not well done of you, Laren.” He shook his head at her. He looked away from her then, and gazed upward where the fir trees were thick and full-leafed. “I had never heard of a unicorn before.”
“As I told everyone, they’re mythical creatures, magical.”
“With horns on their foreheads of pure gold.”
“Aye.”
He paused a moment then said as he stroked his hand over a barley stalk, “Your tale interested me. I don’t suppose by any chance it was a test?”
“Aye,” she said, looking at him steadily. “I know you won’t sell Taby back to me, no matter the amount of silver I have.”
“You are finally right about something. I am pleased that finally you understand I will never let him go.”
“And when you marry Letta? Merrik, please think. She would hate him just because he is my brother.”
“You will not worry about that.”
Laren said nothing more. When they reached the center of the barley field where others were working, he set her to looking closely at the birds flying overhead. “Keep them away from the crop.” He said nothing more to her. She found herself staring at him, not wanting to really, but still she stared, watching him bend over, then straighten and stretch, his body strong and powerful, the sweat gleaming off his flesh beneath the afternoon sun. She wanted him. She knew a sharp feeling of hunger and knew it was him she wanted. But she held her peace. She had to hold herself away from him.
