Her remark hadn’t quite registered when she faced him again. Before her brother could respond, Randvior struck as deadly as a rabid wolf.
“You’ve gone too far.” Randvior wrapped his hands around her brother’s throat and slammed him to the ground. “I left your home unharmed and allowed you to keep half your wealth. What could have possibly enticed you to risk your life by coming here?”
Brian coughed and struggled to speak. Randvior relaxed his grip.
Noelle knew the answer… There was no other reasonable explanation.
“To kill her.”
With his bare hands, Randvior slammed her brother’s head against the jagged stones that littered the ground. Heaving for air, Randvior let go of Brian’s body and turned. “I heard your fearless words—say nothing—leave his corpse to rot.”
But there was something she needed, someone she wanted. “One thing, my husband.”
He nodded.
“Bring my sister home, I beg you.” She shouldn’t regret begging mercy for her sister’s life.Please my love…
Randvior came to her and took her hand. “If there is a way, I swear I will reunite you with Margaret.”
Tears filled her eyes. Together, they walked back to the horses.
Randvior rode ahead of the guards as they made their way toward home. It took a long while for her husband to speak to her again. When he did, he explained everything.
“Three cabins were burned to the ground last night,” he said ominously. “Four families perished.”
She turned in the saddle. A great sadness made his shoulders sag like an old man’s. Her heart rolled over in her chest. “Why?”
He dropped the reins and fanned his hands across his knees. The stallion kept moving. “It seems my mother, your brother, and other men of opportunity wish to destroy me. They want to force me back to my sire’s home so I have no voice in matters of importance. As long as I am ajarl, I will protect those who worship Odin.”
Her pulse raced as she shook her head in disbelief. Who was foolish enough to try to take power from Randvior? Brandon had warned of war. Although she didn’t know all the details of Norwegian politics, Randvior’s viewpoint differed from many of the men who ruled here—he refused to convert. He gripped the reins again and they broke into a gallop.
“I haven’t a bloody clue whom we killed back at the cabin yet, but rest assured I’ll find out.”
There was a scary confidence in his voice. She trembled at the thought of him going to war, destroying everything in his path. “I don’t want you to leave me…” she mumbled under her breath, never intending him to hear her private thoughts.
“What did you say?” he asked.
Suddenly, she blamed herself for the unfortunate circumstances they had faced over the last weeks. Even the deaths of his tenants were her fault. If she had stayed in the woods with Margaret and escaped, she would never have been brought here and Randvior would have never married her or been caught naked in the creek back at the cabin.
“What did you say?” he asked again.
“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
An uncomfortable silence followed, then he broke into violent laughter that shook her body. She gave him her best scowl.
“Leave it to my witty bride to navigate through the canon of Christian scriptures and find the words to chastise me for bathing in a creek. I confess my sins—I am a fool. And yes, caught with my pants down.”
“You misinterpreted my intentions.”
“No, my sweet.” he disagreed. “I fully appreciate the wisdom you show in times of danger. Be careful, the Virgin Mother may be replaced if you keep espousing such words on behalf of your Church.Intended or not.”
They reached the cabins located along the northern side of his property and Noelle’s heart sank at the sight of the burning cross. Randvior wrapped his arm around her to keep her in the saddle. This was not the way the Church intended for the most sacred symbol of her faith to be used.
She covered her eyes to keep herself from staring. “Wicked mockery—sacrilegious representation of Christ’s divine mercy, this is not the work of Christians.”
“No?”
“No,” she assured him. “It’s obviously a trick to mislead you. But what kind of man would do something so outrageous?”
