She smiled. ‘I was thinking we could ask your wrangler?’
Alarik went still.
‘I hear she sings to the beasts all the time. Nanna tells me sometimes the soldiers even sneak into the forest to listen to her. Apparently, she’s magnificent.’
He drew a slow, steadying breath, trying to quell the sudden fire raging in his chest. It was the worst suggestion he’d ever heard, asking the woman he loved to sing his bride down the aisle. Asking Greta Iversen to bless his union with the perfect spell of her voice. Askinghimto listen to her sing without running to her.
‘Alarik?’ His mother pitched forward in her chair, waving her hand in front of his face. ‘Did you hear me?’
‘I heard you,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘My answer is no.’
‘But you haven’t even heard her sing,’ she protested. ‘We could wake her right now and ask her to—’
‘I have heard her sing,’ he said, curtly. ‘Nanna is right. She is magnificent.’
‘Oh.’ She beamed. ‘Then you can—’
‘No,’ he interrupted. ‘I will not ask her to sing for us.’
Her smile faltered. ‘Why not?’
‘Because I don’t want to,’ he snapped.
‘Then I’ll do it.’
‘No,’ he said, in a half growl. ‘I don’t want her to sing for me.’
‘Don’t be so unreasonable, Alarik.’
He stood up. ‘Just forget it. All right?’
She stood, too. ‘Not until you explain yourself.’
He brushed past her and went to the windows, where the night wind spun silvered snow in great, glittering whorls. He wished he could hurl himself into one.
His mother stalked after him. ‘Why are you so angry all of a sudden?’
‘Just leave it,’ he said, with a huff.
He glimpsed her reflection in the window, her scowling face appearing ghoulish through the glass. ‘I’m sure the wrangler would be happy to oblige. We can certainly pay her handsomely for the trouble.’
Alarik’s jaw twitched. What part ofnodid his mother not understand? Andwhywas she insisting on prodding him about it? ‘She’s not doing it.’
She threw her hands up. ‘For goodness’ sake,why not?’
He spun around, all that fire bursting from him before he could help it. ‘Because I’m in love with her!’
Silence came swiftly, those six words commanding all the space in the room.
His mother stilled, her mouth agape.
‘Because I love her too much to humiliate her like that! Because if I ask Greta to stand there and sing for me, I’ll never be able to go through with marrying Elva!’ He scraped his hands through his hair.‘And that’s what you want, isn’t it? That’s whateveryonewants.’
His mother barely blinked as she absorbed his words. He slumped on to the windowsill, suddenly feeling the bone-deep exhaustion he had been craving. He wished now he had never bothered to come to the library.
‘You’re in love with your wrangler?’ Her voice was soft as a whisper.
He nodded glumly.
