Chapter 12 #2
Blood. Oh. Gytha was glad she was sitting down.
Haakon walked over to the table and nodded at the cloth she had used this morning to wash her face. It was still damp. “Can I use this?”
“Yes.”
He dipped it in the basin of water and wrung it dry. Then he walked back to her and took the needle she was still holding. The tip was tinged red, she suddenly saw. Haakon took it, swiftly wiped it clean and bent down on one knee on her right side, the one she had not pierced yet.
“I will do my best not to hurt you but I fear I will.”
“I know.” But at least then it would be over.
She swallowed and turned her head, indicating her readiness.
When his fingers closed on her ear and she felt the lightest caress from the knuckles at her throat, Gytha closed her eyes.
Could he not stroke her instead of poking a hole through her?
Wrap the fingers of his left hand, the one with the ring, around her nape, and pull her into a kiss? She would—
The pain was sudden and just as bad as the first had been. This time she did cry out.
“I’m sorry.”
Haakon sounded distraught. When another tear escaped her eye, he was the one wiping it down, lingering over the gesture, making sure to stroke her cheek at the same time, as if to erase the last traces of the bruise inflicted by Oswald.
Then he took the piece of linen and held it in place at her earlobe while she waited for the throbbing to subside.
The coolness of the water was wonderfully soothing.
How had she not thought to do that with the other one?
“There. All done. All you need to do now is put the earrings on. Shall I help you?”
“Yes.”
It would be better, as he could see what he was doing. The last thing she wanted was fumble around to find the holes and hurt herself further in the process. She reached to the earrings, admiring them one last time, before handing them to him.
He was so quick and gentle that she didn’t even feel the metal going through the still stinging holes. Finally, it was done.
“How do I look?” she asked feeling rather shy.
The gleam in Haakon’s eyes was the best answer he could have given her but he spoke nonetheless. “Beautiful.”
And in that moment she knew she wasn’t imagining things.
He wanted to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him too.
But she didn’t lean in, didn’t do anything to provoke him further.
One kiss, in the wake of a fright, brought on by gratitude and confusion might be excusable.
A second one motivated by tenderness and desire would not be.
He stood back up and Gytha followed. The earrings fluttered against her neck when she moved, an odd but very pleasant sensation. She had finally done it.
“I will have to thank your father for the earrings the next time I go to the village,” she said, brushing them with a light finger. Or… A thought suddenly crossed her mind. Perhaps he didn’t know. “Did you tell him who they were for?”
The earrings could not have been for himself, they were evidently a gift for a woman.
What had the goldsmith thought when he’d been asked to make them?
That his son had a sweetheart? Did he? She had mistaken Rowena for his lover and she knew that Edita, despite her efforts, had never shared his bed, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have anyone special in his life and in his heart, someone she had not yet met.
“I told him they were for someone in town.”
Vague, if not a lie. Had Caedmon been satisfied by that answer? She was not. “What will he think if he sees me wearing them?” she persisted, replacing the needle in the sewing box, a neat way of avoiding having to look at him.
“He will think that you were that someone in town, I guess.”
Yes. But again, that didn’t quite answer her question.
She wanted to insist but wasn’t sure how to formulate what she wanted to ask.
Did you tell him the earrings were a present for me, the reeve’s daughter, and did you explain to him why you wanted to give me such a gift? Could you now explain it to me?
“Do you always caress inanimate objects?” Haakon asked before she could open her mouth.
“I b-beg your pardon?”
“You stroked the lid of the sewing box as if it could feel the caress when you took the needle out earlier. You did the same thing just now, when you put it back.”
She had probably had, even if she hadn’t really paid attention.
It had become an automatic gesture. But to have noticed that, Haakon had to have observed her closely, as closely as she was observing him.
He also had to be interested in her reasons.
In her. Her heart began to thump wildly and she placed her hand on the smooth, carved wood as if to draw strength from it.
“That box belonged to my grandmother. I was very close to her. We used to spend hours sewing and talking together when I was young. The box always held a special appeal to me, I used to think it was magical, that I created exceptional work thanks to it and the tools it contained.”
He cocked his head, amused. “You mean you were good at embroidering from the moment you started to learn?”
“No.” She laughed. “Not at all. I should have seen that the logic was flawed, but you know…”
“I do know. But sometimes objects do have a special magic.”
Did they? Now that she was grown, she wasn’t sure she believed in such things. But she was starting to think that people could very well hold magic. Like the man standing in front of her, looking, once again, as if he was battling the need to kiss her. Was he even aware of it?
“I’ve been thinking about Osberga,” she told him. It was not just a distraction aimed at steering herself away from a situation that was becoming dangerous. She had thought about the little girl a lot over the last few days and an idea had occurred to her.
“Yes?”
“Well… After she escaped her new owner, wouldn’t she have tried to go home to her mother?
After all, she has no reason to think Matilda has left her husband.
She probably imagines she still lives in the village, in which case she would have wanted to try and find her, even if it is rather far away. ”
Haakon stilled. “Of course. So obvious. How did we not think of this before? The poor girl could be even now making her way back home to her mother, who has no idea, and a man who wants her gone.”
“Yes. Though, of course, she is aware of that. After all, he was the one who took her to the farm, so she will know to stay away from him. But I really believe she will try to contact her mother. That’s what I would do in her place.”
She and Haakon looked at one another, obviously thinking the same thing. Such a journey would be fraught with danger for a little girl on her own. Had Osberga risked it?
“Have you told your father?”
“No. I meant to tell him today. Let’s go now.” She made to go to the door then thought the better of it. While they were alone, there was something she needed to say. “Thank you for coming here today, Haakon. I love the earrings.”
His eyes glittered.
“It was my pleasure. They are perfect for you.”
They found the reeve at his desk in the little room at the other end of the great hall, working, as could have been predicted.
Haakon thought he looked preoccupied but watched as his face lit up when his daughter entered the room.
No surprises there. The little Saxon was a ray of sunshine and would have that effect on everyone.
And he, fool that he was, was falling under her spell a little bit more every time they met.
It was not just that she sent his senses on fire, even if she did, it was also that she made his soul hum and his heart beat faster.
But how could he tell her as much? Was he not making the same mistake he had been making all his life?
Being attracted to a Saxon woman who wanted his body but would never want more?
He knew she would not consider any man’s suit as serious at the moment, he’d been told as much only the other day.
So should he wait for the winter, and a new reeve to be elected before he acted on his feelings?
Should he even act on them? He had sworn he would forget about Saxons.
Yes… But he had not met Gytha then, had he?
By an odd twist of fate he had met her moments after making the decision to stop pursuing a dream that had brought him only disillusion.
You decided to stop considering Saxons as potential wives, but there’s nothing preventing you from bedding them, is there, you fool?
No. And he did want to. What was worse, he had the feeling that she shared in his desire. Little Gytha had sworn not to let men into her heart. But she didn’t seem adverse to letting them enjoy her body. Hadn’t she told him she was not ashamed of who she bedded?
So, why shouldn’t he be the next one?
Except that he suspected he would never be able to leave it at that. If he did bed her, he would want to bed her again. And again.
He had almost kissed her at least five times this morning, wasn’t that proof that the appeal she exerted over him was more than sexual?
Alone in her room with her, kneeling at her feet while he wiped tears from her cheeks, he still had no idea how he had resisted the temptation.
She looked so beautiful with the earrings at her ears, catching the sun every time she moved, matching the sparkle in her eyes.
The dog roses had been the perfect idea and he had known that, with her coloring, she would favor gold, not silver.
It pleased him to know that she would wear something of him. It was his way to stake his claim on her the only way he could, the only way she would accept, the only way that was safe for him.
He wished he had been able to do the earrings himself. Alas, he had never inherited his father’s dexterity or patience to be a good or even adequate goldsmith. He was more at home with wood than precious gems.
With some effort, he brought his mind back to the present.
“Father,” Gytha was saying, “we have an idea to submit to you. It’s about Osberga.”
Haakon arched a brow. Why was she giving him half the credit for the idea when it was all hers?
The reeve nodded slowly when she had shared her thinking. “Of course. You’re right. I don’t know why we all assumed she would hide or try to find a protector where she was when she was finally free to go back to her mother.”
“It is a dangerous, arduous journey, that’s why. But I think the little girl will be brave enough to attempt it if there is the slightest chance she can be reunited with her mother.”
A look of understanding passed between father and daughter. Haakon knew they were both thinking of the woman who had recently died. Gytha would no doubt have walked to the ends of the earth to be with her again. It was fair to suppose Osberga would have done the same.
Elstan stood up with decision. “Let’s go to the village, see what Matilda thinks.”