Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Quick footsteps echoed behind Halvard as he walked down the hallway with Elsie, the two of them heading to supper. He recognized them instantly, and he turned around to see Sten there, approaching them, grey-faced and grim.
“Halvard.” His voice was low, clipped. “We’ve spotted more foreigners near the northern cliffs. Too many tae be travelers. An’ still nae word from the king.”
Halvard stilled. Every instinct sharpened to a blade’s edge, his heart thudding painfully as he considered the implications of it. Harcourt was not going to give up, it seemed.
How many English could he have at his doorstep before the threat as too real, too palpable to ignore?
How long before they began to attack the villages, even if that wasn’t their target?
It was likely that they would try to hit Halvard in as many ways as they could, and that included his territories, his people.
Elsie paused beside him, her fingers curling around the folds of her skirt. “More troops?” she asked.
Sten nodded. “Aye. An’ they’re armed. English tongues, from what our scouts could catch afore they slipped away.”
Halvard cursed under his breath. The walls of Brochel Castle felt smaller suddenly, as though the entire keep was exhaling uneasily around them.
The bodies from Bowen Harcourt’s failed attack were barely cold. The fire in the borderlands—another of the man’s little gifts—still left the country smelling of smoke. And now more men? More shadows with English accents and Harcourt’s stink all over them?
Elsie swallowed. Halvard heard it, barely; a soft, fragile sound which she hid quickly.
“So nay news from the Crown, ye say?” Halvard asked.
Sten shook his head. “Naethin’. Redfern rode out days ago, yet nay messenger has returned. England is silent.” His eyes flicked briefly to Elsie. “Too silent, if ye ask me.”
Halvard felt her stiffen at his side. He wanted to reassure her, to give her something which she could hold on to—a promise that everything would be alright, that it would all work out in the end. But how could he promise her something like that?
He gave Sten a sharp look before turning to her. “We expected delays. Snowstorms have blocked the lower passes. The king’s messenger might be—”
But Elsie stepped away from him, just enough for him to feel the space like a blow.
“Do not insult me with gentling words,” she said softly. “Something is wrong. I feel it.”
Her voice wasn’t panicked but rather controlled. Still the tremble in her breath betrayed her. Halvard had always admired strength, but Elsie’s pierced him differently. It made him want to stand with his shield raised and his blade drawn until the world dared come for her.
For her, he would fight them all to his last breath. For her, he would not hold back. He wanted to protect the fragile peace that had formed between them.
If only peace were ever allowed to last.
“We go tae the great hall first,” Halvard said. “I want tae hear the full report.”
Elsie didn’t argue. She simply nodded, though her jaw tightened as if in irritation.
They continued walking, Sten falling into step behind them like a silent shadow.
But two turns later, just before the great hall doors, Elsie stopped again.
She faced Halvard fully now, her eyes blazing with the kind of fury born from fear.
“I was supposed to be on my way back by now,” she said, her voice a low whisper as she shot a glance over her shoulder, as if fearing someone would hear—and it was more likely than Halvard would have liked, considering that they were standing in the middle of the hallway.
“This was supposed to be temporary, until Harcourt and the rest of the envoys left. Well, they’re gone now and I’m still still here!
I’m still stuck here and there doesn’t seem to be a way back for me.
No way back home, no way back to my sister. ”
Her voice cracked on that last word, her emotions getting the better of her. It was not the first time Elsie had expressed her disappointment about not being with her sister, but this time, there was something else behind her gaze, something fiercer, something that gave Halvard pause.
She had tried to hide it, but she couldn’t help herself.
He tried to reach for her hand, but she pulled back before he could.
“Elsie,” he began carefully, “there is strategy tae consider. Timin’. It’s nae only the weather that is stoppin’ us now. With the English at the borders, securing passage willnae be easy, even if they claim tae have nay plans tae attack.”
Despite what Harcourt and his people might claim, Halvard knew he was behind it all, and he wouldn’t risk crossing the sea with him there, nor would he risk leaving his clan in the middle of what could very well turn out to be war.
Besides, there was another thing—something he didn’t want to discuss in front of Sten.
Something he didn’t even want to admit to himself.
How is it so easy fer her tae go?
Each time she brought up the conversation, a knot rose in Halvard’s throat, one that threatened to choke him with every labored, painful breath he took.
Elsie wanted to see her sister more than anything, and it was true that this had been their agreement all along—she would pretend to be his wife, and he would take her back to England at the end of it all.
Well, the end of it all had already come.
“I’ll be in the great hall,” Sten said with a polite cough, before his footsteps disappeared. Suddenly, he and Elsie were alone, and the truth threatened to slip past Halvard’s lips, to fall to her feet, tender and bleeding.
For a moment, they only stared at each other in silence, Halvard’s chest heaving as if he had run for miles.
He wondered if there was something vulnerable in his expression; he wondered if he was showing more than he meant to, and from the way Elsie was looking at him, it was more likely than he wanted to think.
“I thought—”
He cut himself short. An exhale tore through him, sharp and cutting.
“What did you think?” Elsie asked, flat and expressionless, as if wary to lean either way—towards sympathy or towards anger.
Halvard shook his head with a sigh. “It daesnae matter.”
But Elsie wasn’t so quick to drop the subject. “Halvard, what did you think?”
He lifted his gaze, his eyes meeting hers. Perhaps it was time for the truth.
“I thought, after everythin’, ye might want tae stay.”
It was Elsie’s turn to let out a breath, sudden and trembling, weighed by an emotion he could not yet identify. He didn’t want to be so optimistic as to consider it anything akin to longing.
“It… it is not my desire to leave you,” she said in the end, after a long pause that tore Halvard’s breath from his lungs.
“But my sister… Selene is very important to me, Halvard. You must understand that. And I’m very important to her.
She must be worried sick now that I’m away from her, in a strange land, surrounded by strangers.
You won’t even allow me to send a letter. ”
“Because it can very easily be intercepted,” Halvard interrupted.
“Yes,” said Elsie. “But my sister might already think me dead. Did you ever consider that? Did you ever think that maybe there is someone out there who cares for me and can’t bear the absence? The silence?”
Halvard had never seen Elsie so fierce before. Her eyes shone with the kind of challenge he had only seen before in battle—as if she was daring him to minimize her sister’s importance.
But Halvard would never do such a thing. If there was one thing he knew, it was how important her sister was to Elsie.
“I understand,” said Halvard, because he did.
He could imagine how he would feel if he was the one who had no news of Elsie, if he was the one kept away from her because of something out of his control.
He would have torn the world apart to get back to her, and so he understood how Selene must be feeling.
But her sister could do little other than pray and hope. It was up to him to do the right thing.
“What if ye bring Selene here?” He said. “Then ye can be with yer sister … an’ I promise ye, I’ll keep ye both safe.”
Elsie froze, her eyes widening for a moment. “You would do that?”
“Aye,” said Halvard. “Fer ye? O’ course. As soon as the situation in the borderlands is resolved.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Halvard immediately saw it in the way Elsie’s shoulders stiffened, the way her lips thinned into a line when she pursed them tightly.
“And when will that be?” she snapped. “Halvard, you don’t know when this ordeal with Harcourt will come to an end.
You can’t promise me you’ll bring my sister here and then tell me it will happen when and if all your troubles are resolved.
How long will that take? No one knows! No one knows how long before Harcourt leaves! ”
Halvard reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. As much as he wanted to make Elsie happy, and bring her sister there for her, he was reluctant to risk it now, when he didn’t know what it was that Harcourt would do.
“All I’m askin’ is fer some patience,” he said. “That’s all.”
“I ran out of patience a long time ago,” said Elsie. “I want my sister.”
For a few moments, the two of them stared at each other again, silence stretching between them. Elsie didn’t seem willing to back down, but Halvard was reluctant to give in. What if something happened to her?
“I cannae promise yer safety or hers if ye go find her,” Halvard said. “Dae ye want tae put yerself in this much danger? Tae put yer sister in danger?”
“There’s no safer place than with you,” Elsie said. “I trust you, Halvard. I trust you to keep us both safe. You said you would. You promised you would protect us both.”
“I didnae think I’d have tae protect ye from this! Ye are makin’ things impossible fer me!” Halvard said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
“But you can,” Elsie said. “And I’m asking you to.”