“I’m not completely sure yet,” she forced herself to say. She didn’t want him to be too disappointed if she turned out not to be with child after all. But why else would she be sick in the morning and feel fine the rest of the day? This was no illness, she felt it in her bones. And of course there was the fact that she had missed her courses. They should have arrived two weeks ago.
“No, I know ’tis not always easy to know for sure. But we’ll find out together.”
“Yes.”
“And…” He made a face. “I’m sorry for that night in your house. I didn’t mean to trap you into anything. Only you felt too… It was too… I could not stop myself?—”
Eahlswith cut him with a quick kiss on the lips. She had never thought he’d done that on purpose, to force a decision out of her. “I don’t feel trapped. I know exactly how it was that night, as it was the same for me. And I’m not sorry.” Quite the opposite, she loved this child already. “All I felt when I started to suspect I might carry your babe was joy.”
He kissed her in much the same way she had done earlier. “Thank you for saying that.” He placed a loving hand over her stomach. “Still, I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. You should not have faced such a discovery alone.”
No, perhaps not. But what was done was done, and he was now back.
“What was the delay?” She knew he would have done everything as fast as he could.
“Ealawynne had traveled further than I thought, so I had to chase her all the way to the village where she had taken refuge and then ride all the way back.”
“I’m sorry, it cannot have been pleasant to travel with her.”
The tight smile he gave her was an answer in itself. “No,” he said tersely.
Had Ealawynne tried her wiles on him, Eahlswith wondered? She wouldn’t be surprised if the woman had thought to sway him from his purpose that way. Surely he hadn’t been tempted? Then she remembered Godstan’s fascination for the fact that the two of them looked so much alike. Wiglaf too had told her as he’d pounced on her that the idea of bedding twin sisters intrigued men. Did Sven agree? Had he been intrigued also? Should she ask him what had happened during their travel?
No. After what he’d done, after the trust he’d just shown her, she decided that trusting him back was the least she could do.Her sister might well have done her best to tempt him, but that didn’t mean he’d succumbed. She had made a fool of herself once already, with Freydis, assuming the worst, she would not do the same mistake twice.
“It was even more trying than you can imagine but it isn’t all bad news,” Sven told her with a gleam in his eyes she could not account for. “Because we actually rode past your native place on the way back. And we made a small detour.”
“Oh?”
He stood back up to deposit her on the stool and knelt at her feet. Then he extracted a piece of wood from the purse at his belt. It was more or less square, a little bigger than her palm. One side was carved with a familiar image she had thought never to see again. Her heart stopped at the sight.
“I take it that’s the one?” Sven asked, looking full of hope.
“You…It is. But how…?” Though he was handing the piece of wood to her, she didn’t dare take it.
But it was indeed her father’s carving, the one he had done on the door frame of their hut, the one Edwin had wanted to get for her. The carving that had cost him his life. Seeing it brought her so much joy and so much pain that Eahlswith couldn’t handle it.
She started crying. She couldn’t help it. Whether the child she was carrying was responsible for this sudden flooding of emotion or the memory of Edwin’s death or the realization of what Sven had done, she couldn’t say. Probably a bit of everything. She hid her face into her hands and dissolved into tears.
“Don’t cry, please Alva. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Sven sounded almost panicked.
“I’m not crying,” she said through her tears. “Not really. It’s only… I love you.”
He stilled and then buried his head into her lap, holding her tightly by the waist. “Oh, I love you too. Both of you.”
Eahlswith placed a hand over his head, feeling blessed and indescribably happy to have finally put her doubts and fears at rest. It had been high time.
“I love you, Sven.”
Sven already knew he would never tire of hearing those words. Finally, he had overcome Eahlswith’s scruples and won her heart. And now he was holding her and their child in his arms. His chest felt fit to burst with happiness and gratitude. Finally he had found the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. And he knew it would not be anything like between Steinar and Astrid. Even if it had started in lust, their union would never turn sour.
“You asked me to tell you what I’d said that night when you’d tied me to the wall,” he said, sitting back on his heels.
“Yes,” Eahlswith breathed. There was such hope in her eyes that he felt his own burn.
“Well, that was what I told you, that I was in love with you.”
At the time he’d been less definite, but she didn’t need to know that. She didn’t need to be told of any doubts he’d once had, because now he was certain. He didn’tthinkhe was falling in love with her, hewasin love with her. Would be for the rest of his life. He’d just told her as much. And even better, she returned his feelings.
