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“I’m not your dead husband.”
“You are—this is.” Her voice had pitched high, loud enough to send birds scattering from the tree behind them.
“It’s not.”
“You don’t know that, Rune. You don’t. You don’t know what is going to happen.”
“I do.” He leaned down and his eyes locked onto her gaze as he set his forehead to hers, his voice low, steady. “One, I’m an excellent shot—and Sangton is an idiot who hopes his second will save him. But I’m not about to let that happen. Two, your husband didn’t love you. He wasn’t fighting for the right thing—to protect you. You and nothing else.”
“And you are?”
“I am.”
With those words he let go of her hand and turned, striding back onto the stretch of the field where the other men had gathered.
Had he just told her he loved her?
Stunned, her legs trembling, she watched him talk to the seconds in muted tones, his glare on Sangton. The men parted, stepping away from each other, and Rune stripped out of his coat and waistcoat, then bent over, near to disappearing behind the tall rushes.
He stood, a pistol in hand and he went to the middle of the flat ground, his glare skewering Sangton as he lined up behind him.
No. No, no, no, no.
This was happening too quickly. She needed more time. More time.
Paces, strides apart from each other. Four, five, six and she lost count, her breath stopping. The field blurring in front of her. Her world falling apart again. Time slowing, but so very fast.
Rune spun about, the raised pistol leading into his arm a solid line that didn’t waver. Strong. A granite god.
Crack.A shot snapped through the air and she staggered backward, blackness invading.
No. She needed to stay, needed to go to him, needed to be there.
Crack.A second shot and she was gone. Falling. Lost to the world.
~~~
She woke up with a gasp on her lips and her body jerking upward before she could even open her eyes.
Rune.
Where was he? What happened?
She scrambled, stumbling to her feet, searching the field in front of her.
Empty.
Empty of everything. Not a sign that anyone had just been there. Had she gone mad? Imagined this whole thing?
She twisted in a circle.
Her mare still tied to a tree. Only one other horse now.
Rune.
Rune sitting on the ground directly behind her, looking up at her with a half-cocked grin on his face.
Safe. Moving.
