Chapter 10 Hanna
HANNA
The rain poured down relentlessly outside the small shelter Alaric had led her to, and Hanna stood in the doorway, hugging herself nervously as the gamekeeper rummaged around in the shadows behind her.
After a minute or two, she smelled the sharp tang of wet woodsmoke, and she realised what he was doing.
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 was nothing 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.
“Yes.” His nose dragged through her hair, which had come loose during the wild run, tangling over her shoulders. “And you would be my woman, Hanna.”
Oh. Of course.
“You want me to be your wife in full.”
“Yes, and I will be your man. Your husband. And you would be the only woman for me. It’s that simple.”
There was absolutely nothing simple about this matter. This question. This moment.
Hanna bit her lip, although she already knew what she should answer. There was nothing else to do.
The risk would be worth it.
She would have her little James, even if nothing else was as promised. Hanna would be a fool to even consider passing up the smallest chance that might happen.
Alaric’s hands tightened over hers, his body still heating her from behind. Asking her again with his touch.
He would have needs…
“Do you doubt me?” Alaric asked, perhaps sensing her inner turmoil, gripping her chin and turning her towards him, forcing her eyes up to meet his burnished golden gaze, which pierced her to the core.
Hanna frowned, but forced herself not to look away, examining the stubborn set of his jaw, the glint of grey in the rough stubble of his evening beard, the lines that creased the corners of his eyes that flared under her inspection.
His mouth, lips pressed tight as he awaited her answer.
She remembered how he had looked as he loped effortlessly after her through the woods, the sharp, white flash of teeth when he finally caught her.
She shook her head slightly.
This was a man who knew what he wanted. A man who meant every word that he uttered. Good or bad.
“Good,” Alaric said, his mouth softening, as he watched her expression change. His hands moved along her arms as he turned her even more.
“Will you let me kiss you, before you give your answer?”
Hanna blinked in confusion, but already he was cupping her head, bowing closer, his breath warm against her lips.
“At least let me have this one thing before you deny me…”
“Very well.” The words slipped free before she could consider anything else, something urgent fluttering inside at the way he was looking at her.
Alaric closed the gap, pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth, dragging lightly across her lips in the smallest of touches that was somehow more devastating than a full assault.
He brushed against her again, his mouth questioning, his hand warm as his thumb stroked lightly over her cheek.
Hanna remembered kisses then. Innocent things that she had shared with the stablehand she had once thought so handsome, years ago now.
She opened her mouth a little, allowing Alaric a sip of her lips, a small taste of something dangerously close to wanting.
He sighed, wrapping his arms around her, pressing close, lightly nipping her lower lip before sweeping into her mouth in full, stealing her breath as he tasted her slowly, deepening the kiss one breathless moment at a time.
Then, he pulled away. Setting her from him, holding her at arm’s length as her head spun.
“I want to know you, Hanna. Will you let me?”