He drew a stool by the hearth, stretching to try and relieve some of the tension in his knotted muscles. He ached badly, but it was necessary to gaining more strength.
Oda curled up at his feet, and he reached down to rub the dog’s ears. In the meantime, Katarina unpinned the brooches at her shoulders, removing her apron. She wore only a simple blue linen gown, and then she went to stand before the fire. Her body was silhouetted against the flames, and she began unbraiding her hair.
“What really happened to you in East Anglia?” she asked quietly. “I want to know. You said you would tell me.”
He wished he could tell her the truth, that he was not from this era. That he had been stolen from his place, his soul switched with another man’s. But he doubted if she would believe a word he said.
“Did Björn truly strike you down with a battle-ax?” she whispered. Slowly, she moved toward him and loosened his tunic, examining his back with her fingers.
He hesitated for a moment. “I do not remember much of the attack.” He reached back into his memories, trying to put the pieces together. Though he didn’t fully understand the images, he revealed what he saw in the visions. “I found Svala with Eyker. When I tried to kill him for touching her, his brother Björn struck me with his ax. I remember my men taking me on board the ship to die. There was a violent storm, and the moon was the color of blood.”
The two visions blurred together and became one. Arik’s fate and his own were intertwined during that same storm. “All the men were killed in the storm, except me. I do not know how I survived or why I was brought back.” She reached out to touch his shoulders. Her hands were warm against his skin, and he enjoyed the feeling of her idle caress.
“There are moments when you do not act like Arik Thorgrim,” she admitted, returning to her place by the fire. “And at other moments, I want to believe you are.”
She was treading dangerously close to the truth, but he said nothing.
“When you left for East Anglia,” she began, “I was nothing to you. Hardly more than a little sister, for all that you looked at me. You were captivated by Svala.” Her voice grew softer, and she admitted, “I wept when you sailed away, for I knew I would never see you again.”
“You were wrong.”
“Was I?” Her mouth curved in a sad smile. “Or am I simply believing what I want to believe? Arik Thorgrim would never have married me. He would have killed Leif and let me go. I never meant anything to him.” She gripped her hands together and stared at him. “Who are you, truly?”
He held her gaze for a long time, wondering if he dared tell her everything. She was his wife now, and he owed her the truth. She had shared her own secrets with him.
After another minute, he took her hands in his. “I will tell you more of what I know. But as I said before, I do not think you will believe me.”
Her expression held the burden of worry, but she tightened her grip on his hands. “Sometimes I think you are not real. That I may awaken one morning and find that this was all a dream.”
“It is not a dream. I thought it was, too. But I found that what happened to me was real, in ways I could never imagine. And you are very real to me.” He traced the outline of her face, still wondering how he could give her the truth.
She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. He’d never expected the gesture of trust, but he decided that she deserved the truth.
“My name is Eric Fielding, the Marquess of Thorgraham,” he said quietly. “When I left East Anglia, it was the year 1811, a thousand years from now. I was traveling on board my ship, when the storm struck.”
He felt the tension in her hands, but instead of disbelief, he saw a trace of fear. Quickly, he continued, “I was washed overboard, and I knew I was going to drown. I prayed for more time. I regretted many of the choices I made in my life. But just as I was about to die, I heard a woman’s voice on the wind saying,Not yet.I swam to the surface and arrived upon your shores.”
She took a step back. “Then you are not Arik Thorgrim, just as I feared.”
“No, I am not,” he agreed. “I am Eric, Lord Thorgraham. The names are similar.” He let her keep her distance and added, “When I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes upon. But I also felt another man’s memories within me. I knew your name and your brother’s name. I knew your language, though it is not my own. It was as if my life and his were switched a thousand years in time. I believe Arik Thorgrim might have been sent to 1811, just as I was brought here.”
She twisted her hands together and sat down on a stool. Her face lowered, and he said, “That is the truth, Katarina. I do not know why I was brought here, but it was nothing I did. Perhaps it was your gods or my own who used their power to twist my Fate.”
He hunched down on one knee before her. “No, I am not the man you once knew. And I do not know how long I may live or what task lies before me. But I will not let Leif touch you while I am here. I will protect you, for as long as I can.”
She would not look at him, and he gave her time to think about his words. There was no way of knowing what she believed or if she thought him to be a madman.
“I know that what I have told you may seem like a lie. I hardly believe it myself.”
“No,” she murmured. “I saw your clothing and the fastenings upon your tunic. It was like nothing I had ever seen.” She swallowed hard. “You have no scars, as he did. And you cannot fight in the way he did.”
Her words struck a blow to his pride, but he could not deny them. “Do you want me to take you to Valdr’s house and leave?”
Her expression turned vulnerable. “No. I think I have always known you were not Arik. I simply…wanted to believe.”
He tried to take her hand, but she pulled back from him. “What is it you want from me, Katarina? I know I wed you to protect you from Leif, but would you rather end our marriage? Would you rather go back to your brother?”
She stiffened and seemed to consider it. “No. It’s what Ishouldwant, though.” Her cheeks brightened, but she confessed, “Arik Thorgrim was the man I wanted to marry, even when I was a young girl. But I know that I was never the womanhewanted.”
