Paying the Viking's Price by Michelle Styles

Author:Michelle Styles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

To Edith’s surprise, Brand stood in the middle of the stable yard. He wore fresh clothes, far richer and more ostentatious than the ones he’d worn earlier to exercise in. The red cape trimmed with fur and gold arm rings screamed that he was a nobleman. Water sparkled off his hair like diamonds.

Edith smiled. He had obviously bathed in the lake again. Her heart gave an odd little thump.

He stood with one hand on her mare’s bridle and the other holding a much larger stallion. She pinched the bridge of her nose and ruthlessly suppressed the sudden leaping of her heart. Simply because Meera was saddled, it did not mean that she was about to be invited for a ride. There were so many possibilities, far more sensible reasons why he had Meera ready.

‘Is there some problem? Hilda and I are hard at work with the spinning. It needs to be done.’ She clenched her hands. She was not going to apologise for earlier either. She’d been right to confront him about Owen the Plough’s fears. ‘Are you leaving for parts unknown immediately? And you intend on using my mare as a packhorse? I will have you know that she is high spirited and needs care when handling.’

‘Not in the slightest. Your mare sounds like her mistress.’

‘What is wrong, then?’ Edith rubbed her hands up and down her arms. She wished now that she had grabbed a shawl. She wasn’t going to think about his linking her to Meera’s high spiritedness.

‘I want to put your knowledge to work, rather than have you do something you dislike such as spinning. Since you appear to know so much about the planting of corn, I require your assistance this afternoon.’ His eyes turned harder than flint. ‘We can visit the farmers together and you can explain to them why it is in their best interests to obey my orders.’

A spark of hope shot through her. He wanted to go for a ride with her. True, she’d have to explain why various farmers and tenants should obey Brand, but it was nothing when set against the sheer joy of being on a horse again. ‘You mean now?’

‘I would have hardly ordered your mare to be saddled if I meant tomorrow morning. Show me the estate.’ A faint smile tugged at his mouth. ‘That is...if you do ride.’

‘Much to my late husband’s disgust.’ Edith gave a small laugh, but it was impossible to know Brand’s feelings about this. ‘He felt no true lady should ride like a man. My dear mother would have agreed with him. She used to despair at my ways, but my father encouraged me. A good leader knows everything that happens in his territory, he used to say, and some day I would have to look after this land as if it were my first-born child.’

‘But you do ride.’

‘How else would I be able to visit all the parts of the estate in a single day?’ Edith glanced down at her gown.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.