Chapter 3 #2
She blinked when the rest of the thought refused to take form, as if her mind was physically preventing her from thinking ill of the man because it knew he didn’t deserve it.
Only the day before she would have been uncompromising, called him a tormentor and meant it.
But everything seemed to have changed since then.
Maybe she had truly started to believe that he was not just her captor…
True to his promise, he had not hurt her.
He was not even holding her captive. She was free to come in and out of the hut, leave if she wanted.
He had not tied her up, or threatened to come after her.
Her stomach sank because, as reassuring as that thought was, it was not a comforting one. If even the man who had spent an extravagant sum of money for her did not care if she stayed with him or disappeared into thin air, then she truly did not matter to anyone.
“Anything you can tell me?” she asked, pushing the uncomfortable notion to the side.
“It seemed to me that you had been given a sleeping draught,” Wolf said, indicating he was at least willing to help her.
She realized he had moved only when he lifted her chin with his finger, forcing her to meet his gaze.
Heavens, but he really had the most incredible eyes, clear but deep, intense, mysterious, intimidating all at once.
And the most entrancing smell. From where she was she could not miss it.
“What gave you that impression?” she croaked, suddenly unable to breathe properly. She had reached the same conclusion but she did not recall having shared her thoughts with him.
“There was this odd gleam in your eyes and your words were slurred,” Wolf explained, not releasing his hold on the girl. She seemed utterly entranced by his proximity—as much as he was by hers. “You also don’t seem to remember all that happened on that first day.”
That first night, he should perhaps say. She had no recollection of telling him she wanted him before shoving her breast into his mouth in clear invitation or how she had opened her legs for him and begged him to bring her relief.
A growl started to build at the back of his throat at the memory. He clenched his teeth to stop it from erupting.
“You don’t remember anything from the night at the pig sty, do you?” he forced himself to ask. He would certainly remember it as long as he lived.
It seemed to him that she flushed slightly but she shook her head. “No.”
Wolf didn’t know whether to be reassured or put out by the admission. Even if it was probably for the best she didn’t remember, it had been the most entrancing moment of his life. It was galling to see that she did not even seem to know it had taken place!
Tilting her head up to him he looked deep into the abyss of her incredible eyes.
They were of a color never seen in his native country and drew him in with their sheer magnetism.
From such close proximity he saw that her irises were not just black, as he had first thought.
A dark swirl of gray made the outer rim appear about to dissolve into smoke.
The effect was captivating, like peering into wisps of fog for some elusive form to appear and seeing nothing.
Even more satisfying, she seemed to enjoy looking at him as much as he was enjoying looking at her.
They stared at each other in that manner for a long time.
After while the girl frowned at his forwardness but made no move to slap his hand away or even draw back.
This was encouraging, for he knew she was not above spitting on men if she felt the need to.
She would not hesitate in pushing him away if she felt threatened.
Perhaps this odd compliance was due to the fact that she thought he was only trying to ascertain whether he could still detect the effect of the sleeping draught in her eyes.
Well, it mattered not what she thought as long as she allowed him to touch her.
He wondered briefly if he should not take advantage of her unusual stillness to kiss her before deciding it was best not to.
If he kissed her, he might not be able to stop at that and they were in the middle of a conversation that was clearly important to her.
She would not thank him for distracting her, even if he had no doubt she would respond to his touch.
Besides, he did want to get to the bottom of what had happened.
How could a woman like her have ended up at the hands of a slave trader?
Her safety might well depend on the answer to that question and he was determined to protect her.
Buying her to prevent her from ending up in the hands of a lecher had only been the first step.
“It did feel like I had been given a sleeping potion,” she agreed eventually. “Presumably so that I could be abducted more easily.”
“Yes.” He had no doubt she would have fought tooth and nail had she been able to, and her attacker had known it.
This was perhaps a clue, pointing to someone who knew her fiery nature well enough to take precautions beforehand.
“And mayhap your abductor would have wanted to make sure you did not recognize him.”
Her eyes widened as if she had not thought of that before. He hated himself for showing her just how dire her situation was but Wolf was of the opinion that being forearmed was always preferable. The person who had sold her into slavery was no doubt someone she knew.
“What else can you tell me?” she asked, recovering with commendable swiftness. “Was I with others, were they all women? Which direction did we arrive from?”
He shook his head, regretting that he could not help her more.
“I don’t know. I have only been to that town once before, and it was purely by chance that I ended up seeing you.
I am not wont to wander around slave markets, if you must know.
I only went to the port to see a ship just come from Iceland. ”
A silence. Then she took another walnut and asked again.
“So you have no idea who the slave trader is or where he came from? I had never seen him before and he was not at my brother’s funeral, of that I am certain.”
This raised Wolf’s hair on end. “Funeral?”
There was a pause during which she cracked a nut open. Wolf could tell she was buying time. He waited patiently. This would be a difficult discussion.
“The last thing I remember before waking up on that platform is attending my brother Leofric’s funeral,” she admitted eventually, looking as if she would have preferred not to tell him anything about her life. “He… He had died in my arms the day before.”
Wolf saw her bite her bottom lip as if to try and keep tears at bay.
Suddenly there was a bitter taste in his mouth.
He had not realized just how traumatic the whole thing would have been for her.
Not only had she been sold into slavery but the last thing she had done before that was deal with a terrible loss…
No wonder she had been confused and angry when he had taken her.
“Were you and your brother close?” he asked quietly, bracing himself for a rebuke. No doubt he would be told that it was not his place to ask such a personal question.
“Yes,” the girl answered unexpectedly. “Leofric was six years younger than me and I had been the one looking after him after our father’s death.
He had always suffered from ill health but lately I had started to hope he was getting better, to think that perhaps he would live to see his twentieth summer. I was wrong, of course, for he…”
Her voice broke, betraying a depth of emotion she had hitherto managed to keep under a tight leash.
This first glimpse of vulnerability took Wolf by surprise.
He had come to think of her as a strong, defiant woman who faced her enemies and her problems head on.
This unexpected side of her made her even more irresistible, for now all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and offer her the comfort she clearly needed.
But he knew she would only push him away if he tried anything, not because she didn’t need it, but because she would be mortified to know he had seen her helplessness.
The girl had just as much pride as he had and he ought to respect her feelings.
He bunched his fists and kept very still, waiting for the rest of her explanation.
“Anyway,” she carried on once she had herself under control.
“During the meal that night I started to feel odd. I assumed it was the grief and the lack of sleep getting to me but now I understand that the potion was starting to take effect. Someone would have poured it in my drink, I imagine, so that they could hand me over to the slave trader with no questions asked. After that I do not remember a thing until I woke up tied up to the pole where you found me.”
There was the usual note of accusation in her voice but Wolf merely smiled. She had said ‘found’, not ‘bought’ this time. It was a progress of sorts. When she looked at him her eyes held no rancor, only questions.
Yes, they were definitely making progress. She did not see him as her captor anymore. It was a first step. In time, she would come to see that she was lucky to have ended up with him rather than one of the scoundrels leering after her naked body.
“Being sold into slavery is an extreme situation for someone to find themselves in,” he told her, refusing to dwell on the image that was already branded in his mind.
“The men present at the sale were all Danes returning home on a merchant ship that same afternoon. If I hadn’t bought you, you would, in all likelihood, have ended up leaving the country with your new owner, as a slave with no name or past. In other words, you would have disappeared off the face of the earth, no one would have been able to trace your whereabouts.
Do you have any enemies that would wish you out of the way? ”
“None than I can think of. I told you, I am all alone, no one cares what happens to me.”
Merewen fought back a sob at the depressing situation.
But Wolf was right. She must have an enemy she didn’t know about.
It was the only explanation for what had happened to her.
How had she not thought of that before? This had not been an accident but done to her on purpose, and premeditated. The sleeping potion proved it.
As a young girl she had thought herself well-loved and happy.
Now all the members of her family were dead and she was finding out that someone wanted her dead, or at least hated her enough to hand her over to a man who would sell her into slavery, who wished for her never to be seen again.
How was she supposed to accept the frightening notion, or feel safe again?
For the first time, the full horror of what her fate could have been hit her.
No matter how much she had ranted against him at first, Wolf had not hurt her, raped her, taken her away on a ship to a foreign land or even asked her to do anything in the hut.
Instead he was talking to her as he would to a guest, he had clothed and fed her, offered his protection and was now trying to understand who could want to harm her.
It was more than she had a right to expect and she had no idea how to react. What did he expect from her if not to be his slave?
She took another nut from the bowl. The pile of shells by her elbow was getting impressively big.
When she reached out to the nutcracker her hand brushed against Wolf’s.
Warm. Hard. So much bigger than her own.
His fingers were long and elegant, his nails neatly trimmed.
These strong, beautiful hands had been at her core only the night before, coaxing indescribable pleasure out of her.
No, she reminded herself, they hadn’t, not really, only in her dream!
Still, her body responded as if it had all been real.
Under the table she squeezed her thighs together and clenched her teeth at the same time to prevent a moan from escaping her lips.
Heavens, was she going to think of the eruption of pleasure in her body every time they touched, every time her eyes landed on his hands? It would be torture!
“What is your name?” Wolf asked, holding her gaze.
Mercifully he didn’t seem aware of the lewd direction her thoughts had taken. Still, confusion made her bristle. “Why do you want to know?”
A faint smile curled Wolf’s lips. How had he ever imagined that the stubborn woman would answer him without first making him feel the sting of her venom? And why did he like it so much?
“Do I need a reason other than common politeness to want to know your name?”
She glared at him, as he knew she would.
His smile widened. Teasing her was quickly becoming his favorite pastime, and smiling felt good.
Perhaps living with someone was not so bad—as long as feelings and responsibility did not get in the way, of course.
But although he did not want to get married again, being with the girl had brought home how alone he had been for the last two years.
He had missed the comfort of having someone to talk to.
It seemed that with the Saxon he would get the advantages of a life companion without having to deal with the inconvenience. He would also get the excitement that had been cruelly lacking in his marriage.
All in all he could not regret the money he had spent on her. It seemed he’d purchased much more than a slave. He’d found what had been missing in his life.
“Let us say I have no desire to call you ‘woman’ when I address you,” Wolf told her, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You need not call me anything. I will be gone before the end of the week.”
The smile was instantly wiped off his face.
Imagining her on her own in the wild made his insides contract in anguish.
No, she was not going anywhere until they knew who was after her and why.
He would not fail another woman and endure being told she had died because of him.
The burden he was carrying was already too heavy for one man.
This little captive would not come to any harm, not while she was under his roof.
“You’re not going anywhere if I have anything to say about it,” he growled.