Chapter 13 #2
He turned and made for the door. Everything in Ylva rebelled. He could not leave, not so fast, not like this! She had decided not to go to him, and she was furious at Judith for having brought him here, but now that he was here, she could not bear to watch him go.
Before she could think, she stood up and ran to him. “No, wait!”
Ulf turned around—and his gaze instantly fastened on her stomach. Thunder seemed to fall at his feet. She stilled as his demeanor changed from bitterness to shock and then something she could not identify. Worry? Jealousy? Horror?
“You’re with child,” he whispered after what felt like an eternity.
“I am.”
It would be impossible to deny it, considering the very noticeable bulge hiding under her dress. This was it, the moment she had dreaded.
She wavered and had to place a hand on the table to steady herself. This seemed to shake Ulf out of his immobility.
“Sit,” he ordered, leading her to the nearest stool. “You look as pale as death.”
Ylva swallowed, tears welling in her eyes.
Trust him to worry about her well-being before anything else.
But, of course, with a midwife as a mother, he would be very attuned to the need of mothers-to-be.
Perhaps he was even familiar with all the ways a woman could get with child, no matter how odd or—
Stop! she chided herself. You cannot tell him the truth, not yet.
“I’m all right,” she rasped.
And she was. Until tomorrow morning, that was, when she would cast up the contents of her stomach into a wooden bowl as soon as she got up. But for now she was all right. Except for one little detail—Ulf had just found out what she had been desperate to hide from him.
Ylva was with child.
Ulf had to sit down as well. This had to be why Judith had come to get him.
She needed help to convince the father to do the right thing by her friend, force the bastard who didn’t want to acknowledge the babe to face his responsibilities.
Could he do it? Could he willingly send Ylva to someone who had been so callous?
He wasn’t sure. Maybe there was another, better solution?
Fuck, but this was a nightmare.
He poured Ylva a drink from the jug on the table and used the second cup to have one himself.
Now he knew why she had not come back to the village or sent word of her whereabouts.
Because she had found someone else in the place where she had settled and forgotten all about the Norsemen she barely knew.
Of course, she had found a lover. She was now free to live her life the normal way and she was the most alluring woman he had ever met. What man would not want her in his bed?
He clenched his fists into balls. Had the man she had chosen been careful with her during their first time? Had she told him about her fears, or had she just allowed him to take her, hoping he would not notice she was untouched? Had she been willing?
That was the most important question of all.
“Were you forced?” The mere idea that she might have been made him want to howl like the wolf he was, but he had to know the truth.
Judith had come to him for help, he should remember.
So, did she want him to exert vengeance on a bastard who had assaulted her friend?
The gods help him, if Ylva told him she’d been raped, he would rip the bastard inside out.
She made a face, as if puzzled by his question, then went red to the roots of her hair.
“No.”
Some air finally reached his lungs. Not much, but enough to allow him to ask the next question. He didn’t want to think about her with another man but he had to know.
“Where is the father? Here?”
She shook her head. “No. And he…doesn’t know.”
“Doesn’t know or doesn’t want to know?”
Unfortunately, this would not surprise him.
Too many men were quick to wash their hands of a woman once they had found pleasure in her arms, and ignore the consequences.
He, of all people, should know that. His grandfather had spent the best part of his life finding those men and making them face their responsibility.
For his part, he had always known that he would do what his father, Steinar, had done at twenty, when a woman with whom he had spent one night had been afraid to be with child.
That woman had been his first wife, Astrid.
It turned out that she had not fallen with child from that passionate meeting, but still Ulf had been born within their first year of marriage.
Thankfully, his disappointing encounters with Revna had not borne fruit but if they had, Ulf would have done the right thing by her, regardless of his reservations.
And if Ylva had come back to him a few weeks after leaving, worried she might be carrying his child, as had happened to his father, he would have…
Heat invaded his chest at the thought. He would have been the happiest man on earth.
But, of course, such a thing was impossible. The two of them had not slept together, only shared astounding pleasure and memories to last a lifetime. So it was better to put that thought out of his mind and concentrate on the matter at hand.
The father of this babe.
“He doesn’t know,” Ylva answered. “I haven’t told him, because he will never believe me.”
Ulf shook his head. “How convenient!”
“No. Not convenient at all,” Ylva murmured. “Please. This is too much. I can’t talk about it. I need a moment alone.”
“Very well. But this is not over.”
The man would be found, and dragged by the skin of his sorry ass to do whatever Ylva wanted him to do.