Her plan to forget about him was destined to fail. She was going to spend the next few days at the village, in constant danger of running into the very man she had hoped to avoid.
9
Motivated by the substantial price offered to him, Bo, the cobbler, worked diligently and Sven was able to present Eahlswith with the new boots when she came to find him the following evening.
“I’m embarrassed,” she said, taking them with obvious reluctance. But he hadn’t missed the light in her eyes at the sight of the beautiful pair. She loved them. Something in his chest warmed. It felt good to bring her joy.
“Don’t be. There is snow everywhere, you needed new boots.” She didn’t contradict him, as that was undeniable. “If you really want to thank me, make sure that when my brother comes back he finds his wife looking her usual self.”
Eahlswith nodded, as if relieved to have been given a way to repay his generosity. “She does look tired. But I’m here now.” She nodded and clutched the boots to her chest. “I’d better go. I left all three girls sleeping in the hut and the pottage bubbling. I don’t want it to spoil. Thank you. I do love the boots.”
With those words, she hurried back to his brother’s hut.
Sven took to wandering around the village in the hope he would walk into her by carefully contrived accident but it wasanother three days before he saw her again. In the end it was pure chance that he met with her.
He was gathering wood in the forest when he happened upon her.
Delight was instantly replaced by confusion. What in the name of Odin was the woman doing?
Basket in hand, Sven came to a halt at the edge of the clearing, making sure to stay hidden from view so as to observe her. Eahlswith was standing under a snow-covered beech, her face raised to the skies. He watched, bemused, as she reached for the branch above her head and gave two tugs in quick succession. A shower of glimmering powder fell over her, dissolving like dust into the air. She laughed, the sound as crystalline as the flakes whirling around her, adorning her cloak with their diamond-like brilliance. It was a perfect vision of beauty and innocence, like her. His Alva. Never had she deserved the name more.
Before he knew it, he’d walked over to the beech.
At the sound of his crunching footsteps, she turned around, the laughter getting stuck in her throat when she saw that she was not alone. Or perhaps because she had recognized him, the man she was going out of her way to avoid.
“Sven.” She sounded slightly out of breath, like someone caught doing something illicit—or a lover recovering from an intense release.
He stopped in front of her, utterly entranced, and put his basket down on the ground. She was breathtakingly beautiful and wet all over. Her inky black hair was sprinkled with rapidly melting snowflakes that glittered in the pale morning light. Her skin was damp, her eyelashes dotted with tiny droplets of water that clung to their silken ends.
“What are you doing here at this hour?” he asked, his voice raw with desire. If he kissed her now her lips would feel cool andtaste as sharp as freshly fallen snow. The temptation was hard to resist. Perhaps he should have left her to her games and carried on gathering kindling for the fire.
“I was up for the best part of the night with little Liv and I found it hard to go back to sleep. So I didn’t and went for a walk instead, leaving everyone to rest.”
“I hope you are getting enough sleep?”
It wouldn’t do for her to sport the dark circles that had started to disappear from beneath Cwenthryth’s eyes. That had not been the plan. But she did look like a picture of health that morning.
“I’m fine, don’t worry. It won’t be too long before Steinar is back anyway.”
No, unfortunately not.
He nodded at the boots peeking under her skirt. “How do they fit?”
“They’re perfect,” she answered, pleasure making her cheeks go the color of a wild rose again. So lovely. “With them, I didn’t hesitate to come into the forest.”
“So that you could shake snow all over you?” he teased, nodding at the branch she had just shaken.
The color on her cheeks deepened. “I couldn’t resist. We used to love walking in the forest and getting drenched in powdery snow. It is a wonderful feeling.”
Who was this mysterious person with whom she loved to get lost in the forest? “Who’s we?” he asked, doing his best not to let his jealousy peak through.
Eahlswith winced, like someone regretting her words. Evidently, she hadn’t meant to mention someone else, which only increased his curiosity further. Edwin. The name flashed through his mind and he knew he would have to ask her about him. She had told him she was not involved with anyone but it was clear that she had been at some point.
“My…friends and I. As girls we used to roam the woods. In the winter we liked to get covered in snow. I haven’t done this for more than ten years.” Her eyes sparkled again. “I’ll tell you what I haven’t done in years either. Eat some freshly fallen snow. In town, it is best avoided.”
Yes, in towns snow landed on all manners of filth you wouldn’t want anywhere near your mouth. But out here in the forest it was as pure as it could be, white and unspoiled. In fact people often melted it to drink, a much safer source of water than ponds and even rivers.
“I did that too, as a child,” he admitted. Feeling like a boy of ten again, Sven bent down and gathered a handful of immaculate snow from the padding covering the boulder by his side. “Shall we? Feel young and innocent again? I dare you.”
