Chapter Six #2
His smile warmed her all the way down to her toes. ‘And here I like to think of myself as unique. Consider me told. Will you be able to resist me when the time comes for our wedding night?’
She made a brief curtsey. ‘We both know the why behind the marriage. Best to be honest about such things.’
‘But will you be honest about your attraction to me?’
‘Best that we keep this as pleasant as possible.’ She was vaguely proud of the answer.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ‘As pleasant as possible? What exactly are you offering?’
‘A marriage without expectations,’ she said quickly. ‘We will forge a working partnership. I’ve seen it happen. Against the odds, Astrid and her second husband made it work.’
He grasped her hand and brought her knuckles to his mouth.
The light touch sent a fresh tremor coursing through her.
She knew her body wanted far more than simply platonic, but she also knew she’d require more than two bodies meeting in the night.
And she wasn’t entirely certain she wanted to give any man, particularly Rand, whose heart belonged to his late wife, that sort of power over her.
‘Here I leave you, lovely lady,’ Rand said, turning her palm over and brushing it with his lips. ‘Until our wedding day tomorrow. I await with anticipation all that follows. You’re right. It can be pleasant for both of us, provided we take the time to enjoy it.’
He let her hand go and strode away. She pressed her hand to her mouth, hating that suddenly she was looking forward to the wedding night.
* * *
‘Do you think this will be enough to keep the high king’s anger at bay—’ Rand’s helmsman asked ‘—you marrying Lady Svanna? She isn’t even from Islay proper.’
‘Máel Sechnaill must accept it. The possibilities are far beyond what he hoped for. Agthir has power in the North.’ Rand concentrated on polishing his sword and the other little tasks he needed to have done before the ceremony later that day.
He kept telling himself that it was the obvious solution, not only to save his cousin but also to provide security for Birdie.
With each task complete, his thoughts circled anew to Svanna and his unexpected attraction towards her.
After nearly four years of denying his physical needs, his body screamed for the release her body would bring, but he also wanted to make sure she participated with enthusiasm and didn’t fear him.
Someone somewhere had made her nervous about the physical act.
He silently cursed that unknown lover for what he’d done to her.
And even though his seduction skills were rusty, he suspected that, given time, he could show her how pleasant joining with him could be.
‘The lady in question is easy on the eye.’
‘Keep a civil tongue in your head,’ Rand said, dropping the sword with a loud clang. He hated how a surge of jealousy went through him. ‘Some things are best kept private.’
From the assembled multitude’s catcalls, he knew they expected him to perform his duty, possibly in public or at least providing physical proof such as bloodstains on the sheets.
He intended to enjoy his pursuit of Svanna, but he needed to ensure they all had the impression that the marriage had been consummated, vigorously and completely.
Stabbing his thigh for the sheets, something his late wife had done as they had anticipated the marriage night before they were married, was a possibility.
Máel Sechnaill had seemed none the wiser, and it would be the same thing here.
‘No need to bite my head off. We are happy for you.’
‘Funny way of showing it.’
His helmsman gulped hard. ‘We all know what you were like in the first days and weeks after your wife’s death. Máel Sechnaill remarked on it. I wondered if he’d sent his daughter to tempt you. She resembles Bridget.’
Rand scrunched up his nose. It did sound like something Máel Sechnaill would do—he knew Rand objected to forced marriages, particularly of young brides to men old enough to be their grandfathers.
‘Rhiannon never tempted me to do anything. Only brotherly affection exists between us. Svanna made the offer. Because of political necessity, I accepted.’
The man’s mouth dropped open. ‘You rushed into a hall to save her.’
Rand shook his head. The rumour mill typically had it backwards. ‘Lady Svanna and I agreed a strategic marriage, forced by necessity to benefit our countries. Nothing more.’
‘If you say so, my lord.’
‘A difference exists between the sudden all-consuming passion Bridget and I experienced and the strategic blood alliance the Lady Svanna and I must share.’
He didn’t want to think about their fights over the smallest things, Bridget’s sulks at the time he’d spent away on her father’s business, or how they’d grown apart during her pregnancy.
The guilt at his staying away because it had been easier occasionally clogged his throat and made it hard for him to sleep, even after all this time.
As a reminder of his failings, he kept a tafl board set to the last game they had played beside his bed at Donaghmoyne.
He’d been called away to attend some minor matter for her father, much to her disgust. She’d overturned the board in her fury but must have set it back to where they were as he’d found the game in their special place after her death.
‘Keep your face forward, my love. You will require another woman in your life. Promise you will take one. If not for my sake, then for our child’s,’ she’d whispered with life ebbing from her eyes.
He’d agreed but then he’d discovered that game in progress and knew he wasn’t ready, and never would be.
‘You keep saying that and maybe you will start believing it,’ his helmsman said, bringing him back to the present with a start.
Rand sheathed the sword and stood. ‘You speak boldly to your lord.’
The man rolled his eyes. ‘When did you last pluck the strings of your harp?’
Rand picked up a brooch and started polishing it. He’d learned to play an Irish harp at Bridget’s request, but it had gathered dust since her death. ‘When I need advice, I ask for it.’
‘You were wrong about Lady Svanna. That one is not carved from ice. Not from the way she rushed into the burning building.’
Rand tried not to think about how Svanna’s lips had softly parted in the pale moonlight, how he’d nearly drawn her to him, and kissed her until they were both overcome with desire.
He knew deep down that his late wife would have found another, possibly with indecent haste.
He’d always known that. She had told him as much.
Not a betrayal but a moving on, she had called it.
‘You know nothing.’
The man laughed. ‘You know even less. That brooch could hardly be any brighter. What are you trying to be—a shining example?’
‘A political marriage suits both of us.’ He winced, knowing that once he’d argued against such things, convincing Bridget to take a chance on him, rather than being locked in a loveless marriage to an elderly man who had already buried three wives.
‘I’ve learned not to question the minds of ladies, particularly when their desires chime with my needs. ’
* * *
‘Will you not wait until I’ve recovered?
’ Astrid said from her bed. Earlier she’d moved back into the chamber that Svanna and she had shared, stating that others required that sort of care more, not her.
To Svanna’s relief, her cheeks had regained some colour, and she had managed to walk a few steps.
Svanna captured Astrid’s hand. ‘If I am to be of any use, I must go to Tara as quickly as possible and prevent Turgeis from gaining more power and threatening Agthir.’
Astrid tightened her cool hand about Svanna’s. ‘You do Agthir proud.’
Svanna brushed Astrid’s cheek. ‘The timing was deliberate. They knew you’d most likely be in the hall and not in the church. Lord Randolfr was right—it was too easy to chase them from these lands. No hostages taken—unprecedented.’
Astrid plucked restlessly at the furs. ‘I’d feel safer if I understood what Turgeis wants. You’re good at solving riddles. Can you guess?’
‘Beyond power? It makes little sense,’ she said, closing her mind firmly on Turgeis’s assault and subsequent torments.
They were in the past and had no bearing on her future with Rand.
Astrid had never known the true extent of what had happened and there was no need for her to know now.
‘The salute unnerved me. He seeks revenge on Agthir for the banishment was my interpretation.’
Svanna sat back on her haunches and waited, completely still. She’d always found waiting the hardest part, but it was necessary.
Finally, when Svanna’s nerves were stretched to breaking-point, Astrid sighed and closed her eyes in resignation.
‘You may be headstrong and inclined to recklessness, but you are also politically astute. You will uncover what Turgeis plots and stop him. Remember, if you are truly unhappy, divorce is permissible in Agthir.’
‘High praise indeed from you.’
Astrid laughed. ‘Our way of marriage or a Christian one?’
‘I believe ours will be preferable in the interests of time. If a Christian form is required, it can be done at Tara. After I convert. I am not na?ve enough to think the high king will countenance someone like me within his inner circle unless I do.’ Svanna silently prayed she was right, because otherwise there would be a lengthy delay while she took instruction.
The priest had been quite clear that it could take months.
‘I wish to go to my wedding a Northern bride.’
Astrid’s lips turned up. ‘Then we must make you the appropriate bride.’
Astrid sent one of the servants for her iron-bound chest which Halfr had stored with the other valuables.
‘There is no need for anything fancy.’