“Have I stirred memories?” the woman asked.
“Perhaps.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. Now she could see clearly… the glass of wine Lauga served her on the night of the feast. It didn’t take a scholar to figure out the rest.
This confirmed all her suspicions. Her efforts at peace had all been in vain.
She closed her eyes. “It seems I am an unfortunate victim of something greater than I would have ever imagined.”
“Aye.”
Noelle drummed her fingers on the tabletop.Wine from her private stock… She faced the woman again. “If I commanded you to drink this, would you?”
“No, though I dare not admit it publicly.”
Noelle rose slowly from the table. “I shall not forget this kindness.”
She picked up the evidence, careful not to spill a drop. Randvior must be told. If he expected her to stay here, his mothermustbe sent away immediately.
Noelle pounded angrily on Randvior’s bedchamber door. It finally opened and she shoved the glass of wine in his face.
“If you doubted your mother, as I have always doubted her, why did you withhold the cause of my sickness for all these weeks?”
His eyes surveyed her. “Baseless accusations are worth nothing, but if I catch her in the act…”
“Hah!” Noelle’s lips twitched. “See this witch’s brew?” She shook her hand and some of the wine spilled out. “A special concoction your mother offered me today. The same poisoned draught she fed me weeks ago when I nearly died.”
She wanted to provoke him. Randvior resented anything that cast doubt on his sterling honor. At least he still had a reputation to protect! All she possessed was her life, and that had almost been taken away. Twice.
“Perhaps this is a family conspiracy,” she accused.
His indifference infuriated her. But her words must have insulted him because he came to life instantly. He knocked the glass of wine out of her hand and dragged her inside his room, slammed the heavy door, and chased her to the foot of his bed. Without a word, he mashed her body into the mattress and climbed atop her, digging his knees into her hips.
“How can you accuse me of conspiracy? Did I not swear to Allfather to love you?”
She grabbed fistfuls of the cover as his brooding stare pinned her to the bed. She squirmed and glowered, but Randvior wouldn’t let her up.
“I will punish you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hate you,” she said.
“I know.”
This conflict had brought her closer to Randvior than she’d been in weeks. It gave her an odd sense of comfort. Something twisted inside and she grinded her hips in frantic invitation. She’d pay him full measure for his negligence. Weeks of involuntary abstinence caught up with her in a single, torturous moment. She raked her nails across his back.
He snared her hands. “If you don’t stop, I’ll seek companionship in another woman’s bed.”
Companionship is an arm’s length away, you stupid man!
“I’ll do the same!”
Absolutely the most asinine thing she could have suggested. He ripped her gown open from breast to thigh and crushed her with the weight of his chest while groping her between the legs.
“Is this your goal?” he croaked. “Do you want another man between your thighs?”
She opened up for him and he thrust inside her, meaning to elicit a measure of pain. She cried out—speared as helplessly as a seal.
