“It matters!” Garrick said forcefully, then all anger suddenly left him. “Besides, she is too stubborn to die.”
“I pray you are right, lad,” Erin replied. “Myself, I would not give a fig for Yarmille’s opinion. There is always a chance, with God’s help.”
Brenna sat on her father’s lap, her new sword with sparkling gems clutched tightly in her tiny hand. “Did I thank you, father? Oh, I thank you again! My very own sword, made especially for me. I could not have asked for a better present!”
“Not even a pretty gown, or a fancy trinket? Your mother loved such things.”
Brenna made a face. “Those are for girls. Girls are silly and cry. I never cry!”
Alane pushed Brenna into the steaming bath. The water was scalding hot. Steam filled the room, making a white fog which hid Alane from sight.
“What would your father say if he knew you were fighting with the village boys, and in the mud no less?”
“Father would be proud of me. I won, didn’t I? Ian has a black eye, and Doyle a swollen lip.”
“They let you win only because you are Lord Angus’s daughter.”
“I am not his daughter. I am not! And I won fairly. Now let me out of this bath before I boil to death!”
“You must get clean and pretty, Lady Brenna.”
“But the water is too hot. Why does it have to be so hot?”
Brenna’s stepmother’s disembodied face came out of the foggy steam. “Brenna, you are a disgrace to your father. When will you learn to be a lady?”
“I do not have to do what you say. You are not my mother!”
Alane blew away the steam. “She is your mother now, Brenna.”
“Nay, nay, I hate the widow, Alane, and her daughter. Why did father have to marry her? Cordella is always teasing me. And the widow is a witch.”
“You must show them respect.”
“Why should I? They hate me too. They are both jealous of me.”
“Mayhaps they have no kindness in their hearts, girl, but you do. ’Tis up to you to make them welcome here.”
Brenna was duly chastened. “If I must, I must, but I won’t like it.”
Snow began to fall, heavy thick sheets of it, covering the land in a blanket of ice. Brenna ran across the frozen lake, skidding and sliding. She waved to Cordella, who stood by a tree, wrapped in a mantle of silver, her red hair like a flame against the white snow.
“For shame, Brenna. A young woman your age acting like a child. The ice will break and you will fall in. Then what will you do?”
The ice cracked with a deafening sound and Brenna tumbled into the icy black water just as Cordella had predicted. She began to shake uncontrollably. Her hands were numb with cold, and she could not crawl back onto the solid ice.
“Help me, Cordella. I am freezing.”
“Did I not say you would fall?”
“Della, please help me out. The water is so cold. It hurts, it hurts terribly.”
“’Twill hurt also when your husband first takes you. Then you will know real pain.”
“I saw an act of coupling in the village. ’Twas not so horrifying as you would have me believe, Della.”
“Wait and see. Soon your future husband will come for you. Then you will suffer.”
“I will not marry a Viking. I will marry no man. Did I not shun two score of wealthy suitors?”
