Chapter 13
The bed was empty and Wolf was nowhere to be seen.
Merewen stretched. To her surprise, she had fallen asleep mere moments after joining him on the pallet last night. In the end, comfort had won over desire. It had felt so good to be in his arms, to be so warm, to know no one could get to her.
She looked around. The sun was already high in the sky and she could hear the villagers going about their business outside. It would be mid-morning at least. No wonder Wolf was already gone. On the table she saw three reasonably-sized logs and smiled. As usual he had seen to her needs.
Just as she was throwing the wood into the fire, the door opened. Without turning around Merewen knew it wasn’t Wolf and her body immediately tensed.
“I’m glad to see you up and about,” a voice said, cutting through the tension. Relieved, she turned to face a smiling Sigurd. He was limping slightly, she noticed. Had he been hurt during his fight with her attacker? She didn’t dare ask.
“Thank you. So am I.”
She purposefully allowed a strand of hair to fall over her temple and cheek, hoping to hide her bruises from view.
Something passed in Sigurd’s blue eyes, something she had seen in Wolf’s eyes, too.
He did not seem to think any less of her for not having been able to defend herself, or even to pity her.
Rather, he seemed full of admiration for her fortitude.
Comforted, she lifted her chin and met his gaze square on.
After all, she had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I never got the chance to thank you for coming to my rescue the other day.”
“Please. What else did you want me to do?” Sigurd shook his head. “I only wish I had not let the bastard escape.”
“It matters not. You stopped him before he had time to…” Her voice wavered. “It’s the important thing.”
“Mm.” The grunt made it clear Sigurd didn’t agree with her but he did not comment. For all his smiles, he seemed more intense than Wolf.
“I was in that alley because Wolf and I had an argument on the day of our wedding and I left,” she blurted out, surprised by the urge to confide in him.
The expression on his face was unreadable.
Then he gave a sigh. “I know all about the circumstances of your meeting and can easily guess what your argument was about. You must resent me for bringing you back here, if you were attempting to flee this marriage, but I thought I was acting for the best.” He made a grimace.
She hastily corrected his mistake. He’d done exactly what she would have asked him to do had she been conscious at the time.
“No, I’m grateful you did.” She touched her lip gingerly.
It was still tender and all of a sudden she felt absurdly close to tears.
If Sigurd hadn’t gone to town that day, if he had not heard her, if he had been less strong and honorable, she would have been raped, perhaps even killed afterwards.
And all because, for a moment, she had doubted Wolf.
“I wasn’t fleeing my marriage… In any case, I was punished for my folly. If I had not—”
“No.” The word was said with implacable certainty.
“That man had no right to attack you, regardless of who you were or the reasons for your presence in town. Do not even think of blaming yourself for what happened. I will not hear of it. Do you think Frigyth is to blame in any way for what happened to her?”
Frigyth. The Saxon Wolf had rescued. “No, of course not!” she cried out.
“Well, then, neither are you. The only one who deserved what he got is that bastard Olaf. I’m not sure he will ever be able to walk properly after the pounding he received from Wolf, but I still think he got away too lightly.
” A flash of fury made his eyes glint. Yes.
Definitely more intense than Wolf. Was Olaf his personal enemy, she wondered?
“I only wish I had done the same for the man in the alley. I repeat, you did nothing wrong.”
The words were spoken with such feeling that Merewen suddenly went limp, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“Thank you.” How had Sigurd guessed she needed to hear that?
Silence stretched between them. Then he came to face her.
“I have never seen Wolf behave as he did when I brought you in,” he told her softly.
“Of course, I have only known him for two years but in that length of time I have never seen him react half as strongly to anything. He was beside himself with worry and guilt. Perhaps… perhaps it is something worth thinking about.”
Merewen watched Sigurd limp away pensively.
Yes. It was definitely worth thinking about…
When Wolf came back later, her whole body expanded at the sight of him, so strong, so dependable, so willing to protect her without expecting anything in return.
“I’m sorry I took so long, but one of the men in the village is in a frenzy,” he told her, taking his cloak off.
“His son has been accused of molesting a Saxon girl a few nights ago. The father and his friends are now demanding retribution. It is a common problem I’m afraid.
” He gave a sigh. “It might even be that the girl was not attacked and the men are looking for an excuse to stir up trouble with us Norsemen. After all, why would the father wait so long to confront his daughter’s supposed aggressor? ”
“That’s terrible!” Merewen was appalled.
“You don’t know the half of it. As you can imagine, many people in East Anglia are not too happy to be living so near a Norse settlement. I had to go and see the Saxons, assure them the boy could not have committed the crime he is accused of for he was with me drinking that night.”
“Why would you lie and expose yourself to danger thus?”
Wolf smiled wryly. “I’m not. In this instance I am telling the truth, though I have on occasion provided someone I trusted with an alibi. I cannot stand to have anyone accused of something they didn’t do.”
Of course… Merewen nodded. It wasn’t hard to guess that the need to help and defend people stemmed from the accusation he had suffered from.
Now she knew why he never turned anyone down, why he always responded to the many solicitations from the villagers, even when it was obvious he would rather have been doing something else.
He was trying to repair the wrong caused to him by ensuring no one suffered from the same injustice.
It was a noble endeavor, but she couldn’t help but wonder, who took care of him?
It wasn’t fair that he should be forever helping people and have no one to value him for himself, and not for the comfort and protection he gave.
Merewen realized that she wanted to be that person. Would he let her look after him? She was his wife now. She should be the one to do it.
“What’s wrong?” Wolf asked when he saw her eyes fill with tears. He was at her side instantly, his face creased in concern. “Did something happen to you while I was gone?”
“Nothing. I’m fine,” she assured him. Evidently he thought she had been attacked again in his absence.
This further proof of his regard warmed her to the bottom of her soul.
How wonderful to be cherished, if nothing more.
When Leofric had died she had feared so much never to feel she mattered to someone again!
Her whole body sagged when a wave of emotion overwhelmed her and, had two strong arms not encircled her, she might have collapsed to the floor.
“You’re lying to me, little one. Something happened to you today,” Wolf cried out, appalled and frightened all at once.
Merewen had gone limp and pale. His heart almost stopped.
Had she been attacked again? Why had he left her alone?
Couldn’t he have stayed with her? Nothing or no one should have taken precedence over her!
“No, nothing happened,” she murmured, her voice thick with unshed tears. “I was thinking of my brother, that’s all. He was the only person who loved me, who wanted me to be happy.”
He placed a hand on her hair, barely resisting the impulse to stroke her. She had washed and changed into the fresh gown he had found her and, but for the purplish bruise on her cheek, was the most flawless beauty he had ever seen. He wanted to scoop her into his arms and cradle her.
“Your brother would have been proud of you for being so strong,” he whispered in her ear. “As am I. And I want you to be happy.”
She burrowed further into his chest. Then she spoke, her mouth against his pectoral, causing shivers of need to course all over him.
“Can I sleep with you tonight again?”
The quiet, tentative voice, the very intimate question made his heart go faster. Pressed as she was next to him she probably felt it but he cared not. Let her know how much her proximity affected him. He was not ashamed of his feelings.
“I fear that you will have no other choice,” he answered softly. “If you do not come to me, I will come to you.”
Wolf smiled faintly. Why was he putting himself in such an impossible situation?
Too fired up by the unexpected intimacy, he had hardly slept the previous night.
Because he hadn’t been sure whether she was awake or not, he had not dared stroke himself to relieve the desire boiling in his veins and simply waited, hard as a poker, with his arms wrapped tight around her.
In the end, he had collapsed out of sheer exhaustion when dawn had started to gray the horizon.
In all likelihood, it would be the same tonight. Yet if it was a choice between staying awake because Merewen’s body against his was making him mad with desire or not sleeping because he ached to join her in bed, he knew which one he would choose.
“Come to me whenever you need me. I’ll be there.”
Could he dare to hope that once she was in his arms she would overcome her fears of lovemaking? Last night he’d briefly thought she was responding to the intimacy of their embrace. But she had fallen asleep before he could be sure.