“Then you plan to grovel so quickly?”
“’Tis not what I meant.”
“I know. You think to deny me my revenge, but I will have it despite your efforts. By Odin do I swear it.”
That his eyes had dropped to her lips as hespoke made her stiffen again. He saw it and laughed. The laughter sounded forced.
“You do not have that to fear—from me,” he said. “I am in high enough demand to not have to stoop to the likes of you.”
She hoped he meant what she thought, that rape was not in his list of tortures for her. Then again, with his devious mental games, it could be a hope he wanted her to have just so he could crush it.
Chapter 16
BRENNAHAARDRAD LAYback on the grassy bank, letting the sun and warm breeze dry her raven locks and ease the worry from her brow. It was still a smooth brow for a woman of two score and five years. As active as she had always been and still was, her body was as firm as a much younger woman’s. Four pregnancies had left only a few marks on it.
A splash drew her attention back to the small lake where her husband still swam. Her warm gray eyes watched Garrick shake his golden head, sending sparkling drops of water in every direction. He had aged well himself, this Viking of hers. He still wielded a sword in practice, though he rarely found the opportunity for its use anymore. The few streaks of gray in his hair that he had attained lately took nothing from his strength or his handsomeness. The man could still make her sigh most pleasantly—and often.
As usual, he was loath to leave the cool water. Brenna sympathized. She had been raised in Wales, not so far north of here, but she had spent more than half her life in Norway, andthe heat of southern Wessex took getting used to. But they never stayed long enough to adjust to it, and she knew the heat bothered Garrick much more than it did her. Which was why she never objected when he brought her to the lake so near to Wyndhurst.
Half the time they would find Royce and Kristen there first, or Selig and whichever woman he currently favored, or both, for their children likewise still complained of the hottest part of Wessex summers, though they lived here now. Hell, Brenna still complained of the coldest part of Norway’s winters, so she understood perfectly.
She called out to Garrick. “You have been in there so long, you are going to melt.”
He looked toward the sun, still high, before he started toward the bank, grumbling. “I do not know why I let you drag me here.”
She was aware that he meant Wessex, not the cool lake he so enjoyed. “You were the one so eager to see your grandchildren this summer,” she pointed out, as if she hadn’t been just as eager.
“And I needs must suffer for it in this god’s-cursed heat. I am of a mind to take them back to Norway with us.”
“I doubt me Royce will agree to that.”
“I was not thinking of asking him.”
She laughed. He liked his son-in-law, he truly did, but there was still that part of him that would never admitanyman was good enough for his only daughter. And it had not really helped that he and Royce began theirrelationship with a fight to the death. Fortunately, it had not come down to actual killing, and a wedding had quickly followed. But Garrick still, on occasion, gave Royce a hard time. Brenna suspected he did it apurpose, on general principle. She also suspected he enjoyed doing so.
Just now, though, he was seriously annoyed with Royce for allowing Selig to get involved in something that had led to his capture and imprisonment, and allowing Kristen to ride off alone to gain his release. As if the Saxon could have prevented either occurrence.
Brenna had tried to point that out, but Garrick had been too upset to listen. He would have ridden off immediately to go after them if there had been enough horses left at Wyndhurst for him and his men. He was going to go anyway if they did not return by the morrow.
Brenna had kept her own worry to herself. She did not fear so much for Kristen. The girl had a small army with her, a husband fast on her heels, and Brenna had taught her all she knew of weapons, which was considerable. But Selig, imprisoned, helpless among strangers—that caused her a definite mother’s dread.
Everyone knew how women reacted to her oldest son, but not everyone noticed how men reacted, men who did not know him, how he frequently stirred sour emotions in them in one form or another. It was a manly thing, she supposed, comprised mainly of jealousyand envy because of his extreme handsomeness, something strangers tried hard not to show. And it rarely amounted to anything, because Selig was, after all, foremost a warrior, with the strength and skill to give most men a healthy caution. But it was something that could turn ugly if Selig was at the mercy of such unrestrained emotions.
If her children did not return by the morrow, she would be riding with her husband to see what was keeping them, whether he liked it or not, and heaven help anyone who got in her way of finding them. But for the moment, with the warm breezes caressing sensually and the man she loved standing beside her in no more than his braies, and those plastered to him, she put her worry aside.
Her eyes ran appreciatively up and down the length of him. Her Viking was all chest, deep, wide; how often she lost herself beneath that chest. He noted her perusal, and the change in her expression, now sultry. The light appeared in. his aqua eyes, the one she could always ignite.
“Now that you have cooled off, do you hope to stay that way?” she asked.
It was a provoking question that got her the answer she wanted. He dropped to his knees, and further, stretching out to half cover her body with his. She started to laugh, because he was still wet, his hair dripping on her, but her laughter was cut off by his kiss, and a moan soon followed. It amazed her sometimes that the passion that had started their livestogether had never lessened. It could flare just as fiercely as it had in their youth, or smolder to savor, but it was always there, and always shared.
They both heard Garrick’s name shouted, and both reacted the same, with worry recalled, passion forgotten for the nonce. Garrick thrust himself instantly to his feet to see over the bank, easily done with his height. Brenna had to scramble up the same bank to see who had disturbed them, in time to hear the news she had prayed for.
“They sent word ahead. They arrive within the hour.”
“My son?” Garrick called back.
“With them.”
