Harlequin Historical May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Elizabeth Rolls

Author:Elizabeth Rolls [Rolls, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Blind byþ bam eagum se þe breostum ne starat.

He is blind in both eyes who does not look with the heart.

—The Durham Proverbs

Aelfwynn expected a lonely cottage in a distant valley to need a great deal of work in order to do more than simply provide shelter. Or...provide whatever it was Thorbrand wished it to provide here. But she could not allow herself to think on such things overmuch. It made her far too unsettled.

She braced herself as Thorbrand opened the door and looked inside, his hand on his sword as if he expected to find bandits lurking within. He inclined his head, inviting her in, and she was thus surprised to discover that when she stepped in after him there were rushes on the floor, recently changed from the looks of it. There was a bench along one wall and a small table on another. There was a hearth in the center of the single room, and when she looked up to see why it wasn’t heaped with snow thanks to the usual hole in the roof that let out the smoke from the fire, she saw it had been covered over.

It dawned on her that they had not come upon this cottage by chance. That it had been...prepared for them.

Her heart set up a low, thudding sort of beat, making her bodice feel tight.

Yet she did naught but stand back as Thorbrand tossed his furs and pouches down, then reached up over the hearth to pull down the flat piece of wood that had kept the weather out. He eyed her as he put it on the floor, his gaze a dark foreboding, yet said nothing as he set about lighting the fire beneath the typical cauldron that sat raised above it.

Aelfwynn was happy enough with his silence. Grateful for it, come to that. He headed back outside, no doubt to tend to his horse and stable it in the small building she’d seen across what must have been a yard of some kind when there was less snow covering it. Lest the wild horses that roamed free come for him. And once the wooden door shut behind Thorbrand, she set about the tasks before her with something far too close to genuine pleasure.

Because it was much better than waiting to see what would happen now they were face-to-face. And alone.

She busied herself with the pot in the hearth first. She went to the door and pushed it open, the cold slapping at her. Cutting straight through her and making her wonder how it was she had ridden all this way in the midst of it.

But as soon as the thought was formed, she knew. Thorbrand. He was his own fire, and he had kept her warm. He had made her burn, too. And now there was nothing here but the wind and the lowering sky to watch over them should they turn to ash.

Aelfwynn shuddered at the notion, then made herself cast it aside.

She knew not where the nearest river was, though it could not be far.

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