Lighting a fire.
He came up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders and turning her towards the small blaze that he had managed to start in the rough fireplace.
This was not a place of comfort, merely a shelter from the elements. There was nothing but a chair and a cupboard on the dusty clay floor.
Alaric drew her cloak from her shoulders, hanging it over the chair to dry. It was hopeless, but a thoughtful gesture nonetheless.
He rubbed his hands down her arms briskly, seemingly in an attempt to warm her as Hanna dragged the breath in and out of her lungs and held herself perfectly still.
She had not been touched by a man since… Well. She didn’t like the direction her thoughts were wandering. This wasnothing like that night. This time, this man… she realised that despite the circumstances, she did not feel unsafe, for some inexplicable reason.
Now that she thought about it, maybe it was the way Alaric had stood up for her to her father, or perhaps there was something strangely magnetic about his person.
Despite their chase through the woods… His eyes now, the way they lingered on her, not judging.
No,observing. Almost as if he was memorising her.
Hanna did not have the urge to flee anymore. Perhaps the very opposite.
She watched Alaric Wolff as he threw his hat and neckcloth to the chair and stomped his boots, pacing restlessly around the small hut. Damp dark hair curled down past his shoulders, tied back with a rough cord, his neck exposed by the gaping collar of his shirt.
Alaric circled her and abruptly wrapped his arms around hers, where she hugged herself. Pulling her tight back against his chest before she could protest and holding her close as they stood huddled before the fire.
Hanna tensed, taken by surprise at the unexpected intimacy of the movement.
Alaric said nothing, only held her while standing perfectly still, his breath rasping gently against her ear, as her rigid body slowly, incrementally relaxed.
As she did, so did he, she realised, as his arms softened around her. No longer holding her tight, but rather scooping her closer, bracing her comfortably against a hard chest as his chin rested against the back of her head.
The heat from his body warmed her back, chasing away the chill in her limbs, the exertion from earlier making itself known in the strangely pleasant smell of man and leather.
Hanna sighed softly, the heat and the efforts of her day making themselves known as she allowed herself to be held by this strange man.
“Hanna.” His voice was low, soothing. Like he thought she might run out into the rain if he broke the spell that had been woven between them in this small room.
“Will you have me then?” he asked, finally, after what felt like an eternity.
“You… want to take me to wife?” she asked uncertainly, turning her head slightly towards him, her heart beating loud and fast as his question rang in her mind.
Hanna’s face scrunched up in confusion, but his arms tightened, refusing to let her go.
“You must know what I am, my reputation is worthless,” she managed to utter, shame burning hot at the back of her throat.
But she refused to hide from the truth, she needed to hear his reasoning.
A growling hiss of breath escaped his chest as he sighed behind her. “You are far from worthless, and I will never hear those words from your lips again, do you hear me?”
“But-”
“Hush. Listen. Do you want your babe back? I will get him for you, bring him into our home, and damn what anyone has to say about it. I will give you and your child my name, proudly, if you will be my wife.”
Hanna felt her stomach drop down into her boots, the implications of such an arrangement running through her mind.He knew her exact situation then.
She wanted her babe so desperately, but she hardly knew this man. Knew not what he wanted out of this unthinkable bargain he had set before her, knowing she would never refuse.
How high would be the price?
“I would be your wife, and you would raise my boy in your house?” Hanna asked softly, needing to be sure.
