“Last summer, he told me he’d been visiting the fifteenth century, where for the first time he met another traveler. Kestral was her name. He described her so well I could see her in my thoughts.”
“And you believe these tales of his?” asked Wolf.
Alric’s only response was a flash of his white, toothy smile.
Wolf nodded, accepting it. “The Roman’s calendar says we are in the twelfth month. We will not be speaking to him for some time. Maybe there is someone else.”
“What’s the name of your dentist?” Camelee asked. “Perhaps I’ve heard of him.”
“Roldan Simeon.”
“No. That’s a name I would remember.” She sighed. “We’re right back where we started from. Wolf, you still look annoyed at me. Why would you be? Because I want to go home?” she answered before he could. “Do you think yourself so precious that I should be happy to be stranded in your presence?”
“There are worse places to be,” he answered in seriousness, but with a slight smile. “With worse people.”
“Leofric,” Alric supplied. “Aethelwold’s brother.” He looked up at Wolf with a dark, pitiful gaze. “He will come for you.”
“Did he attack my camp?”
When the boy nodded, Wolf snarled. “I hope he does come for me. He killed many of my men.” When the boy said nothing else, Wolf set his gaze on Camelee again.
“You really do think I should be grateful?” she asked him.
He nodded. “The chances of me being someone favorable were slim. Most strangers are not to be trusted.”
“Some things never change.”
“Even you admit then that I am not half-bad.”
She smiled and he felt lightheaded. Was this something ordinary that happened to men when a breathtaking woman was in his presence? He’d never felt anything like it. She made him forget his worst days and the worst things, like was Fin dead?
When he had seen that Saxon bastard’s hands on her, he’d thought he would go mad with rage. Part of him didn’t like what she made him feel. Another part wanted to explore deeper. He wanted to touch her, kiss her, and make certain no other man ever did.
“I never said you were half-bad.”
He laughed softly and unwittingly kissed the top of Hild’s head.
“What are your plans for me?” Alric questioned, probably thinking this a good time to ask.
“For now, I would like you to watch over Hild when we stop. I wish to share words alone with Camelee.”
“Aye, Chief,” Alric replied. “Hild can use as many friends as she can get.”
“We shall see about friends,” Wolf said, letting him know that he, himself, would decide who Hild’s friends were.
“I have heard much about you, Chief,” Alric told him. “Most Saxons have.”
“Oh?” Wolf glanced at him. “What have you heard, Boy?”
“You speak our native tongue well.”
“I have been fighting here for a long time.” How long had it been, he thought? Thirteen years? He’d left Denmark the first time when he was sixteen. He went back five years later and began building his longhouse. He became chieftain after defeating three Norwegian raiding parties. King Cnut I had heard about him and drafted him into his army. Danish forces, already used to the bitter cold and wet weather, swept across England like a plague, devasting Mercia and northern England.
He was almost thirty years old now. He wanted to go home. Soon. He hadn’t been scouting the land this morning. He was supposed to be meeting Cnut and his men, but Cnut had never left Wessex. Wolf met with the king’s emissary, who claimed Cnut was home with his sick wife, Queen Emma. Emma was the widow of Aethelred, the Saxon king before Cnut. Perhaps she was sick of the man who murdered her husband. Still, Cnut had spared her sons with Aethelred. She was grateful.
The king could not travel but would await Wolf at home for Christmas in Wessex. Nothing had changed, save that Wolf was bone weary. He needed sleep, not a woman and a child, and now a boy in his care. Why was he allowing this? It was his fault. He was taken with a slave! Hild was easy to take under his care. He didn’t even have to think about it. But why Alric? Why another soul in need of a happy home life?
He glanced at Camelee and then tilted his head to see her more fully. She was speaking, telling the men a humorous story. Her expressions were full of amusement and the others around her laughed. He looked down and even Hild was watching her from his lap.
