He waited, knowing she would eventually calm down. Once she had herself under control, she dabbed at her face self-consciously. “Forgive me. I must look hideous.”
Hideous? He barely repressed a scoff. Did she have no idea how dazzling she was? He wiped at her cheek slowly. “Believe me, you couldn’t be hideous if you tried. You’ve been crying, which is not the same thing at all.”
“Thank you, Sven.”
Here she was, thanking him again, for doing nothing more than what anyone of sense would have done. He gave her a tight smile. “What are you thanking me for now?”
“For listening to me. For being here. For being you.”
Oh. No one had thanked him for being him before. Perhaps he could make his peace with her endless gratitude if she were praising his character.
“It’s no problem. Shall we?”
Their talk had taken them further from the village than he’d thought and he wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t start snowing soon. They had better start going back.
They walked in silence for a while, then suddenly Eahlswith came to a stop.
“Look, someone’s carved a moon, a sun and two stars in the tree,” she told him, placing a hand on a mighty oak.
Upon closer inspection Sven saw that the moon appeared much older than the other three images, the layer revealed by the cut on the bark a different color.
“Ah, so this is it…” he said, delighted to have found it at last.
“What is what?”
“My sister Eyja told me a few years ago that she and her husband, Halfdan, whom everyone calls Moon, had carved a tree with such images but she refused to tell me where it was. Though I was curious to see it, as you can imagine, I didn’t even try to find it.”
In the middle of the forest, so far from the village, it would have taken him forever. He and Eahlswith had only seen it because their walk—and their talk—had taken them further than villagers went on a normal day. He was grateful to her for allowing him to see it.
“’Tis beautiful,” Eahlswith said, stroking the radiant sun with a light finger.
“Yes. Apparently, they add a star for each of their children,” he explained, showing the two stars flanking the moon. One for Emma, one for Frida. Mayhap more would follow. It wouldn’t surprise him. The two of them were deliriously happy together, like every couple in his family. It struck him then that he was the only one without anyone special in his life.
Or at least, not someone he’d acknowledged publicly.
“What a wonderful idea,” Eahlswith murmured. “A testimony of their love that will stand the test of time.”
It was exactly that. Which gave him an idea. Reaching down to his boot, Sven extracted the dagger he always carried and held it out to Eahlswith.
“Do the same,” he instructed her when she looked at him with an arched brow. “Choose a tree, and carve something like your father once carved the door frame for you, something that will stand the test of time and serve as a reminder of your love for Edwin.”
For the longest moment she didn’t move, didn’t say anything. He thought that she might refuse, or even throw the knife in his face. Then slowly, she extended her hand and allowed him to place the dagger hilt in her palm.
He nodded and showed her a clump of bushes to his left.
“Take your time. I’ll wait for you behind there. I promise I won’t look. This is between you and Edwin only.”
While he waited, Sven reflected on what Eahlswith had told him that day. Now he understood better where her reluctance to accept what was between them came from. Deep down, she was still in love with Edwin, the man she had wanted to marry and she didn’t feel she had the right to betray his memory, didn’t feel she deserved happiness. Something in his chest tightened. If that were the case, then wooing her would be even more difficult than he had feared.
It didn’t take her long to join him. It was obvious she had cried again, but she seemed at peace, as if it had helped her to leave a trace of what she and Edwin had once felt for one another.
Without a word, she handed him the dagger back. He replaced it in his boot and nodded toward the village. They didn’t exchange a single word while they walked, but when he left her in front of Steinar’s hut, he could have sworn something had changed within her.
Hope swelled within Sven.
Perhaps wooing her was not such an impossibility after all.
11
