“Okay,” she agreed and turned away.
His smile faded. He didn’t want her to choose to go. Would he let her? She was his, after all.
They went to his horse and rode it together back to the town to gather the rest of the men.
“You took a chance sleeping alone so far from help,” she told him, riding uncomfortably in his lap.
“Did I?” he said over her head.
“What if there were ten men?”
“I would have fought differently, but I would have saved you,” he promised her.
She dipped her head and laughed softly. “Okay, I believe you.”
He didn’t seek out another horse so she could ride separately. It was Fin’s suggestion that she ride a horse of her own to keep Wolf’s horse alive.
“I’ve never ridden a horse before,” she told Wolf. “But I’ll give it my best shot.”
He looked at her with curiosity, not war, in his eyes.
“I’ll try to ride,” she explained.
It took nearly an hour to get all the men outside and at their proper stations. No one had eaten, so they all partook of some bread and sweet butter. There was also dried meat and semi-fresh berries.
Fin kept his massive warhorse on the other side of Camelee. Wolf didn’t like it. He needed to watch Fin around her. Fin possessed something cold and savage. Wolf didn’t want it set loose on Camelee. He might have to make it clearer to Fin that Camelee was his.
He thought nothing of the way he saw her, as his. He felt protective of her, amused by her, curious about her. He thought about hercoffeeand the other things she’d told him about her home. It was all quite magnificent.
“May I come with you, Chief?”
Wolf flicked his gaze to Akkar’s. The chief clenched his teeth. “I would not keep you from helping your father.”
“He does not care if I go. It would be an honor on my family name to fight at your side.”
“Well, I do not know about fighting yet,” Wolf told him.
“Then I may come?” Akkar’s dark eyes opened wider, his smile did, as well.
“You may come,” he allowed and ignored the young man’s happy grin. He wasn’t a friend. He was their commander. If they didn’t obey him, they could die or cause the rest of them to die. Akkar’s duty was to do whatever menial task Wolf needed of him.
They set out, bringing with them some of the widows and their children. A few men to work fields.
Camelee rode close to Wolf, clenching her jaw with every bounce of her horse. “What’s going to happen to them?”
“They will be coming to Denmark in the spring,” he answered, keeping his gaze steady on the road.
She waited and watched him to see if he would look at her. He wouldn’t.
“How many of them?” she asked.
“As many as the longboats can carry.”
She gave him a horrified look. “How do you know how many that is? You have many different weights here.”
“If the boat does not sink, we can set sail.”
“Wolf!” she snapped her mouth shut and then corrected herself, as they weren’t alone. “I mean, Chief! What if you take on water and begin to sink?”
