Beguiling Her Enemy Warrior by Lucy Morris

Author:Lucy Morris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-11-02T17:37:27+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Helga stared up at the fortress as they approached.

It reminded her a little of Jorvik, with its mighty wooden palisade above a heaped earthen defence, but that’s where the similarities ended. Firstly, the air was fresher, the smoke of the workshops and homes snatched away by the brisk mountain winds.

She still rode with Rhys, which had surprised her after their argument and near-kiss the night before. But she supposed it would have seemed odd for him to suddenly no longer ride with her for the final part of their journey.

Last night, the revelation about his parents’ deaths had gone a long way in helping her to understand him. When he’d bent as if to kiss her, she had thought the wall between them had fallen. She’d been mistaken, but she had gathered the moment with all of the others, as if they were feathers she could use to line a nest for him in her heart. A secret wish that waited only for his acceptance.

Of course, she wasn’t sure if he would ever accept her, he’d turned cold, pulling away from her as he always did, his hatred of her people too strong to ignore. It had been humiliating in the extreme. Standing there, waiting in expectation for a kiss that had never come.

Was she mad to believe there was more between them? And did she really want a man who hated everything about her family and her past?

As they rode through the mighty gates, Helga saw yet another wooden wall just beyond. Two lines of defence. It was an intimidating prospect for any attacker...except...

‘So few men?’ she asked, disheartened at the lack of armed warriors walking the walls.

‘My teulu is the bulk of my force... That and the serfs.’

Helga grimaced—the serfs weren’t like her countrymen, who spent all their lives training to fight and raid. A Norse farmer used his axe for both wood and blood. She wasn’t sure the serfs of Rhys’s land could say the same.

They passed through the second set of gates and entered the very large settlement beyond. Many stone and timber roundhouses with thatched or turf roofs filled the plateau. In the distance she could see a great waterfall streaming down the mountainside, the water falling into a woodland towards the back of the fortress.

Proudly stood in the centre was a very large timber building, which looked a little like a grand longhouse, except more rectangular and topped with a golden roof. Several smoke holes were along its back, the white tendrils disappearing into the bright blue sky above.

Many smaller buildings surrounded the impressive hall and they stopped at a stable to dismount. The rest of Rhys’s teulu had already stopped at the inner wall and only a few of them had joined them through the gate, including Efa, who rode with Madoc.

Rhys helped Helga down from the horse and gestured towards the hall.

There were dark smudges beneath his eyes and the tightness of his shoulders told her he had not slept well.

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