Chapter 18
The next three days were the most trying of Haakon’s life.
He spent long moments bathing Gytha’s limp form to try and bring her temperature down and helping her sip the willow bark tea.
It was relentless work, and more than once he felt like giving up to despair.
Was it normal that the fever had still not broken?
Would she survive the ordeal? He had suffered from high fever himself on occasions, and though it was never pleasant, he had never feared he would die from it.
Now he did fear it. She was so much more fragile than he was…
Every time he lifted a delicate, naked arm, or uncovered a shapely thigh, he wondered what Gytha would have thought of the fact that he was seeing more of her body than anyone else likely had, before concluding that she wouldn’t mind.
He was only trying to make her feel better and, after all, they had slept together already.
That night on the shepherd’s furs, he had done much more than touch her.
He had caressed her. He had filled her body.
He had covered her with his seed. He had moaned in her ear and heard her moan in answer, he had given her pleasure and thought to die in turn.
Washing her brow and making sure her skin was cool was nothing compared to that.
Besides, he’d surprised himself by not thinking of anything other than her well-being while he took care of her.
This had not been a sensual exploration, he just wanted her to get better, so he could hear her waspish comments again, see the thunder in her eyes when something upset her and the hunger when she looked at him.
Finally, one morning, he got his heart’s desire.
Gytha woke up and looked at him with eyes as clear as usual.
The green in them was shining bright, as if lit up by an inner fire that had been restored.
He let out a sigh of relief. Now that the fever had broken, the worst was over.
She would be all right, thank the gods. Another few days and she would be back on her feet.
Yes, and then she would leave, go back home.
The thought brought a lump to his throat.
The morning after she’d taken ill, Haakon had sent Torsten to town to inform her father about her illness.
But the reeve hadn’t been home. A message had been left, but he was still to come visit his daughter.
Apparently, he had taken advantage of her absence to go on a mission of his own and he had been detained for longer than expected.
Perhaps it was for the best. At least when Elstan did come to village, he would have the pleasure and relief of seeing his daughter up and well again.
“How do you feel?” Haakon asked Gytha, kneeling by the pallet. Only the day before he would have touched her brow to make sure it was cool, but now that she was fully aware of what he was doing, he felt strangely intimidated.
She made a grimace. “I’m thirsty, even though I feel I’ve done little else than drink willow bark tea in the last few days. It was willow bark tea, was it not? You didn’t try to poison me? I felt so wretched I sometimes wondered.”
Her question brought a smile to his lips. “Definitely not poison,” he breathed, relieved to see her restored to her teasing self. “If I wanted to get rid of you, I would choose a more expeditious method, don’t you think?”
“Yes. You are, after all, a filthy Norseman.”
Oh, yes, the impudent woman was definitely over the worst. Relief exploded out of him in a bark of laughter. “A filthy, despicable, dangerous Norseman. You had better beware, puny Saxon.”
“I will,” she murmured, closing her eyes again.
Feeling a hundred times lighter after this exchange, Haakon brought her a cup of fresh goat milk, thinking that, with her throat so dry, she would prefer its soothing smoothness to the piquancy of ale. She drank in one gulp, proving his intuition right.
“Are you hungry as well?” She had barely eaten in the last few days, only managing to swallow a bit of sweetened gruel every now and then.
“No, not yet.”
Gytha lay back on the furs, feeling drained of energy but finally able to think. She had been writhing and sweating on that pallet for what felt like months, and it was good to be able to open her eyes without wincing and move without feeling her skull throb.
Haakon had been by her side all this time, bringing her drink and wiping her brow as tenderly as any mother would.
Though she had been delirious with fever, she still remembered his care of her.
His gestures had been careful and he had done his best to respect her modesty.
Though he had bathed her regularly, he had never uncovered more of her body than was necessary.
Another man, especially one who had bedded her already, might have made the most of the opportunity to bare her breasts and maybe even fondle her. Haakon had not.
“Thank you for looking after me,” she said, keeping her gaze on her hands.
She felt both grateful and intimidated in front of this Haakon. It was as if they barely knew one another.
“Please,” he answered, looking almost offended. “Of course I looked after you. What else would you have me do?”
She had no answer so she simply smiled.
Later than afternoon, feeling stronger, she insisted on getting up. “After so long lying down, my back needs it.”
To her relief, Haakon didn’t insist she remain in bed.
While she put some order to her clothes, he went out and came back a moment later, carrying an enormous wooden chair. “I only have stools, as you can see,” he said by way of an explanation. “I borrowed this from Sven, who makes the sturdiest furniture I know.”
“Sturdy? How heavy do you think I am?”
“As heavy as a sparrow. That’s not the issue.” He waved her mock outrage away. He would not be provoked today, it seemed. “You need something to lean against. You’re still too weak.”
“I could have put one of the stools against the wall.” This time he made a face and Gytha berated herself for sounding so ungrateful when she was actually touched he had gone to all this trouble for her.
“But thank you. It is very kind of you. Ignore me. I’m rather waspish when I’m ill at ease,” she added in a rare moment of honesty.
Yes, it was time she stopped trying to impress him at every turn.
From the moment they had met, she had tried to be something she wasn’t with him, experienced, self-assured.
It was exhausting and today she just didn’t have the energy.
She would simply have to be herself and hope it was enough to hold his interest. If the gleam in his eye was any indication, it was.
“You, waspish?” he purred. “I never noticed.”
Reassured the spark between them had not died, she sat in the sturdy—and very comfortable chair. Yes. Just what she needed. She smiled at him.
“I think I could eat something now.”
A bowl and some bread were placed on the table before she could decide what she fancied. Perfect, she thought, as she took a sip of the fragrant broth, just what she needed again. How did Haakon always anticipate her needs thus?
“I never asked you,” she said once the bowl was empty. She had postposed the difficult discussion for as long as she dared, but she could not shy away any longer. “What did Wolf and Matilda say when you explained what had happened at the village?”
Though not through her fault, she had left him to deal with it all on his own. It couldn’t have been pretty.
He sighed, confirming her suspicions. “I wish I never have to do something like this ever again. Poor Matilda tried to be brave but…”
Yes. But she would have felt their last hope had gone up in smoke and Gytha could only agree. What next? She had no idea.
The following morning Gytha was pleased to see she was steady on her feet when she got up. Haakon asked if she would be all right alone for a while.
“I need to go see Magnus at the forge.”
“Of course.” How could she refuse? After days cooped up in the hut with her, he likely had many things to do. Besides, there was something she wanted to do, and him being gone would give her the opportunity to do it in secret.
Eadhild spent the morning with her, and Cwenthryth came to visit as well. After assuring her that she felt fine, Gytha asked if she could borrow what she needed for the surprise she had planned for Haakon.
He came back in the middle of the afternoon, earlier than she had anticipated, before she was ready. The door opened before she had time to hide what she was doing. Though it was probably too late to preserve the surprise, she tried to hide the bulky cloak behind her back anyway.
Haakon crossed his arms over his chest when he saw the sewing equipment on the table.
“Here I am, finding you with a needle in your hands again. Why am not surprised?” He looked, and sounded, highly amused. “What is it today? Were you about to pierce another part of your lovely body?”
Lovely body? Had he really said that? She felt heat rush all the way to the roots of her hair. “N-no.”
“Well, what are you doing, if I may ask?”
“If you must know… I thought I would repair the hole in your cloak,” she finally admitted. There was no point in lying. He would have spotted the fur spilling all around her. “And I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“My cloak?” He sounded as bewildered as if he’d had no idea what a cloak was.
“You told me once you always remember too late that it has a hole in it. I thought the same thing would happen in the winter, when you put it on for the first time. So I stitched it. And I’m glad I did. It was quite a big hole, in danger of becoming even bigger.”
He stared at her a long moment, so long that Gytha wondered if she had not inadvertently blurted out something inappropriate. Such as that she had thought of him as she’d stitched the heavy garment, and hoped he would think of her every time he wore it.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Haakon said eventually. Apparently, her surprise has pleased him, so much so that he wasn’t sure what to say.