She opened her eyes. “You will?”
He nodded. “Anything you wish if you will just try to make me something to eat. We can have bread and butter, but I was thinking—”
“Eggs and bacon.” She looked around. “And we’ll see what’s in the cabinets, eh, cupboards,” she corrected, looking around again.
Did she smile at him? Why did it make his belly tighten and his heart feel weightless? He’d seen men who had fallen in love, Odger Ragnarsen, one of his men, and Rune Aethlesen a chief from East Anglia. They became mindless, thoughtless, senseless, everything helpless there was. He would not become that over any woman.
Or so he’d always thought.
But Camelee was different. He wasn’t sure he even liked her. He knew beautiful women. None of them had ever affected him the way she did. He tried to stop it. He had to. He was a warrior. He would likely die young. Though he wished for more in his life, he didn’t want to leave his woman and his children behind, unprotected.
“Fine.” He gave her a stiff smile and rose from his seat. “I heard a rooster. I will go check for chickens and eggs.”
“Okay,” she mumbled while she rummaged through jars of jam and spices.
He left the cottage with a slight smirk on his face and then followed his ears to the henhouse. He liked this feeling of waking up with someone…her and preparing to eat with her. He was thinking how foolish and pitiful he must appear. He had to exercise more control. He—
He looked up. What was that? He didn’t wait to find out but ran back toward the cottage. He paused to take his knives out of his boots and flip them in his hands before he listened at the door. He heard men’s voices. Camelee’s muffled cries.
“Are you here alone?” one of them demanded to know.
Saxons! Wolf was going to kill them! He opened the door as slowly and as quietly as he could. He could see one of them holding her, one dirty hand over her mouth and the other caressing her bosom!
Wolf felt his blood boil. In less than a breath, he noted three other men standing around the kitchen, and positioned his knives. He aimed and let one fly. It flew into her assailant’s temple. He let her go and sank to the floor. Camelee turned to look at her latest captor, dead and bleeding around her.
She cried out.
He felt his eyes go wide. They hurt her. He was going to destroy them! But no, he couldn’t lose control now.
“Camelee! Get behind me,” he commanded as he sent the second knife into another man’s neck.
He released the two axes from his belt before the second man’s body hit the floor.
With Camelee at his back, he hacked at the last two men, swerving and pulling her down to duck. He groaned and swiped at them with all his might. Their meager blows could not keep his axes away until he left them both dead.
He moved with the strength and purpose of a feline predator despite her clumsy steps and her fingernails digging into his back and shoulders. They moved through the cottage, with Wolf ready to kill at a moment’s notice. They checked outside for more men but found none.
When he deemed it safe, he put away his axes and turned, but she didn’t let go of him, so that he was in her arms.
“It is over. It is over,” he assured softly. “You are safe.”
She let him hold her for a while. He could feel her heart beating hard and fast, like his.
“This is horrible,” she said, finally breaking away. “I cannot live like this. I’m trying to act brave, but this place is breaking me down. It’s breaking me down.”
“Will you just give up then?”
“No.”
He liked how quickly she answered. It was instinctual. She would not give up. But what did she meanactingbrave? “You will make it through whatever it is you are suffering. I will protect you. You see that I can.”
What was he doing? This was marriage talk! He was not offering himself to her. He wanted to laugh. He would admit, he was drawn to her, but it was nothing serious.
He took a step back. The danger was over. “We need to go. We will eat some of the food the men have collected from here.”
“Wolf,” she said softly. It was the first time she’d said his name. “Please let me go. Take me back to the city, and I’ll take it from there.”
“Travel with me, and if you find a place you wish to stay, I will see to it.”
