“I suspected as much. Why did you speak in Norse for such an important declaration?”
“I didn’t realize I was doing it. I don’t always choose the language that comes out of my mouth.”
“I envy you. It must be wonderful.” She smiled. “Cwenthryth is learning Norse, with Steinar. Will you teach me also? And our child?”
“Anything you want,ást mín. My love,” he specified when she tilted her head. “Our children will be like me, part Saxon, part Norse.”
Children. The word sent a shot of delight up his spine. Yes. If he had his way, there would be many in the years to come, the family he’d always wanted.
Eahlswith sighed. “Sven. Please. Take me out of here.”
She was back in his arms before she had time to blink, where she belonged. “Yes. I’ll do better than take you out of here. I’ll take you home.”
22
They reached the village just after the sun had been swallowed by the horizon. The huts wrapped in their blankets of snow, the fields stretching as far as the eye could see, everything glowed blue in the rapidly fading light. Everything except the thinnest branches at the top of the trees, stark black against the purplish sky. Sven took in a deep inhale of crisp air scented with smoke and headed straight to his hut, Gulltoppr’s hooves crunching the fresh layer of snow underneath.
When he closed the door behind him, he knew a familiar moment of panic. Eahlswith was here for now, but what of tomorrow? She was carrying his child and she’d said she loved him, but they had not exchanged any promises, not really talked of the future. Would she ask to leave in the morning? Worse, would she disappear during the night?
In spite of everything, he still felt that she could flee at any moment, like she had many times. They had already been there, in a place he thought safe, only to have to watch her walk away. What could he do to persuade her to stay?
Will you marry me, Alva?
The question was burning his lips but asking it might frighten her away. He knew all too well that he had to proceed with caution with her.
“Please say you will stay here with me, with our child. Please.” He placed his forehead against hers, seized by sudden inspiration. “If you agree, I swear I will only ever call you Eahlswith, not Alva.”
She chuckled, far from impressed by this promise. “It is no more than what you should have done from the moment I asked you to.”
“I will look after our child.”
“I know you will. You love children. It makes no doubt that you would look after your own.”
Damnation, this was not going well. How could he prove to her that he wanted her?
“All right, then I… I promise I will never fuck you ever again!” he erupted.
She stilled. This she had definitely not seen coming. In truth, neither had he. Where had that come from? Would he even be able to hold on to that promise? Did he want to? No, and most decidedly no.
“This has to be the most ridiculous of all the promises you’ve ever made. Why would I ever agree to such terms?” she said before he could ask her to forget what he’d said.
“So you can see that I want you, not your body. You, not the pleasure I can get on my own or with others. You. Only you. Forever you.”
“Listen, Sven, I know you want me. You said you loved me and I believe you, so I will stay with you.” She threw him what he could only describe as a naughty look, one who set fire to his brain, his heart and his loins. “And I don’t think I want a life in which you never fuck me. I don’t think I would survive the frustration.”
No. He wouldn’t either. “So tell me, how can I convince you to make you stay this time? What do you want?”
“Marry me. Raise this child with me. Give me others, in time.”
Relief almost brought him to his knees. She was not leaving. She would finally be his.
“I will marry you,” he growled. “Tomorrow if you like.”
“No. Tomorrow we’ll go into town and tell Osbert about our wedding and this child I’m carrying. Then we’ll go to my house to get the comb you gave me the other day. I cannot be parted from it.” She smiled. “But there is one thing I’d like you to do before all that. Right now in fact.”
“What is it?” Anything. He would do anything for her.
She lifted herself onto her toes and brought her lips to his ear. Then she said the most scandalous, arousing, delicious words he had ever heard in his life. “Fuck me, Heimdallr.”
