Chapter Fourteen #2
Noelle watched as she poured a glass of wine and nearly fainted when Lauga offered it to her. This was a stunning change of attitude and she accepted it without hesitation.
“Randvior will be very proud of your work,” Lauga said.
“This is the first opportunity I’ve had to contribute.” Noelle was wild with excitement. Had something so simple opened a door of possibility?
Lauga returned to her table.
Before Noelle took a drink, the woman sitting at her right tapped her fingers against her teeth. She leaned close and whispered in Noelle’s ear. “Never accept refreshment from her hand.”
Noelle swirled the dark liquid and set the glass aside. “Why?”
“I will only speak of this once.” The woman looked around paranoid someone would overhear the conversation. “Lauga will stop at nothing to destroy you.”
Noelle gaped at her. She knew Lauga thought Randvior had betrayed her.
Realized she didn’t want her here. But this tidbit of warning represented something much more sinister.
How could she trust this stranger? Only three people besides her fiancé had made her feel welcome—Brandon, Unnr, and Aud.
One woman. Noelle cursed her own naivety.
Across the room, Lauga continued to mentor a young girl on one of the looms, seemingly unaware of the present conversation.
Noelle’s heart sank in her chest. Something seemed eerily familiar.
Another night … weeks ago. There were serious gaps in her memory.
But she clearly recalled a set of gray eyes and a brute of a man ready to commit murder.
More memories came in small spurts. Terrible pain and her insides were mangled. She had vomited a dozen times … seen the leathery face of a wise woman who attended her. And then, the world went completely dark.
“Have I stirred memories?” the woman asked.
“Perhaps.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. Now she could see clearly … the glass of wine Lauga served her on the night of the feast. It didn’t take a scholar to figure out the rest.
This confirmed all her suspicions. Her efforts at peace had all been in vain.
She closed her eyes. “It seems I am an unfortunate victim of something greater than I would have ever imagined.”
“Aye.”
Noelle drummed her fingers on the tabletop. Wine from her private stock … She faced the woman again. “If I commanded you to drink this, would you?”
“No, though I dare not admit it publicly.”
Noelle rose slowly from the table. “I shall not forget this kindness.”
She picked up the evidence, careful not to spill a drop. Randvior must be told. If he expected her to stay here, his mother must be sent away immediately.
Noelle pounded angrily on Randvior’s bedchamber door. It finally opened and she shoved the glass of wine in his face.
“If you doubted your mother, as I have always doubted her, why did you withhold the cause of my sickness for all these weeks?”
His eyes surveyed her. “Baseless accusations are worth nothing, but if I catch her in the act …”
“Hah!” Noelle’s lips twitched. “See this witch’s brew?” She shook her hand and some of the wine spilled out. “A special concoction your mother offered me today. The same poisoned draught she fed me weeks ago when I nearly died.”
She wanted to provoke him. Randvior resented anything that cast doubt on his sterling honor. At least he still had a reputation to protect! All she possessed was her life, and that had almost been taken away. Twice.
“Perhaps this is a family conspiracy,” she accused.
His indifference infuriated her. But her words must have insulted him because he came to life instantly.
He knocked the glass of wine out of her hand and dragged her inside his room, slammed the heavy door, and chased her to the foot of his bed.
Without a word, he mashed her body into the mattress and climbed atop her, digging his knees into her hips.
“How can you accuse me of conspiracy? Did I not swear to Allfather to love you?”
She grabbed fistfuls of the cover as his brooding stare pinned her to the bed. She squirmed and glowered, but Randvior wouldn’t let her up.
“I will punish you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hate you,” she said.
“I know.”
This conflict had brought her closer to Randvior than she’d been in weeks.
It gave her an odd sense of comfort. Something twisted inside and she grinded her hips in frantic invitation.
She’d pay him full measure for his negligence.
Weeks of involuntary abstinence caught up with her in a single, torturous moment. She raked her nails across his back.
He snared her hands. “If you don’t stop, I’ll seek companionship in another woman’s bed.”
Companionship is an arm’s length away, you stupid man!
“I’ll do the same!”
Absolutely the most asinine thing she could have suggested. He ripped her gown open from breast to thigh and crushed her with the weight of his chest while groping her between the legs.
“Is this your goal?” he croaked. “Do you want another man between your thighs?”
She opened up for him and he thrust inside her, meaning to elicit a measure of pain. She cried out—speared as helplessly as a seal.
She’d take this unusually rough punishment over loneliness, and surrendered as he crippled her body with unrelenting momentum. Within minutes, relief thrummed through her.
“You’ve pushed me too far this time.” He complained as he climbed out of bed.
“Blame yourself.”
“There’s no pity for a woman who cannot control herself or demonstrate patience and obedience … serve as a role model for the women under her roof.”
“As you did for your men on your ship for ten days?”
He snorted and muttered. “Not the same.”
“Aye, it is. You’ve met your match for stubbornness, Randvior.”
He huffed and sat on the edge of the bed. Noelle rubbed his back soothingly.
“Who told you?” he asked suddenly.
She assumed he was referring to his mother’s treachery. “No one,” she lied. She needed to protect the identity of the woman who revealed the secret. “I pieced it together after Lauga gave me the wine today.”
“Unfortunately, ’tis true.” he uttered gloomily. “Lauga has resorted to these tactics before. Norse women are overly protective of their children.”
“So are the English, but we’re not driven to murder.”
Another sigh.
She knew his heart struggled with the truth. Any son loves his mother unconditionally. But she’d say whatever was necessary to protect her own life.
“I’ll make no demands. Whatever you choose I will accept without complaint. But for the sake of my own life, I must ask one thing. Either send Lauga away or send me home.”
“Vengeance fever is in my blood.” His face was a mask now. “I could choke the life out of her with my own hands the way I feel right now.”
She was suddenly sorry for bringing this to his attention in such a confrontational manner.
“Or,” she offered gently. “There is my solution to consider.”
He nodded absently, willing to listen.
“End this unnecessary standoff, send me away. My family is no threat—my father would never send his ships to Norway. My king wouldn’t risk his fleet. I’ll marry whomever my father wishes and we can put this behind us.”
She had come to know the extent of his willingness to keep her. She could beg and plead, but Randvior would never let her go.
“It is out of the question.”
She breathed hard—realizing her hope of ever getting home was gone. It had ended weeks ago, but he need never know that.
“I’m a man of my word, Noelle. Once I pledged to become your husband, I shed my former life as easily as an old shirt.
There is no room for compromise. An attempt on your life is a direct assault on mine.
” He gripped her shoulders. “Woman, I’m inspired to love you more than anything on this earth.
Trust me when I say no one will harm you. ”
But someone already had, and she told him so. In answer, he kissed her. That silky tongue might convince her of anything now. What a fantastically foolish suggestion she had made.
“I …” She desperately wanted to confide in him, but one last pathetic attempt to hold on to her pride shut her up. She cursed the gnawing pain in her heart.
He saw through her emotional disguise. “Say it.”
“I love you.” Those cherished words slipped out of her mouth more hesitantly than a lie.
Her eyes flitted back and forth nervously, heartbeat pounding faster and faster.
“Come here.” He pulled her onto his lap.
“I can’t stand the way I feel,” she sobbed.
“Promise me,” he said as he loosened the lacings on his breeches. “Swear you’ll never leave me for another man.” He eased her back on the bed. “Say it, little one.” His knee urged her legs apart.
“I promise …”