A Heart of Fire (30 page)

Stieg
took a step forward, shaking his head as he came off the step. "I doubt
we've any fear of that happening, though she did force me to sample her
cooking." He hooked his thumbs in his belt, looking satisfied.
"Methinks she isn’t so bad at that."

Valdrik
scowled at him. "What is it she has made?"

Stieg
shrugged. "Some kind of stew with meat and vegetables." He rubbed at
his dark beard around his mouth, suggesting he had not only sampled the stew,
but devoured a bowl or two.

Valdrik
glowered at him. "Hold the horses for me whilst I fetch my wife. I shall
be but a moment and then you may take your leave for the day, for I plan to be
at my wife's side."

Stieg's
eyes glimmered with amusement, but he took the reins as Valdrik handed them
over. "'Tis a side you rarely leave, my friend. I'd no idea you'd become
so besotted by that vixen."

Valdrik
paused on the step and turned back to Stieg to flash him a set of bared teeth,
as to say, he might take better care with his words, playful or not.
"Believe me, my friend, I know your feelings for Aldar's warriors, as I
share them. But Finna does not deserve your antipathy. She was not there."

"Are
you so sure of that?" Stieg asked, devoid of any humor now.

Valdrik
paused. "Aye, I am sure. She'd not yet begun raiding with Aldar's men when
our people…" He stopped there, not wishing to revisit those memories.
"Tell me now, are you the man I should have protecting my wife?"

Stieg's
eyes hardened, and he stepped forward. "I trust you more than any other
man alive. You will be my Jarl one day. Aye, I am the man to protect her, for
if she is yours and you claim she is innocent, then I believe you." He
glanced quickly away. "I will not deny that it is hard to look upon her
and not think of Aldar, though."

Valdrik
sighed at his friend’s reluctance to warm to Finna and clapped a hand to
Stieg's shoulder. He wished the man could let go some of his pain, as he had
since Finna had become his wife. Until then, he'd not known how heavy the
burden had been.

Stieg
grunted, shoving aside his pain and a glimmer returned to his eye. "Mayhap
with a few more bowls of that stew she might convince me to like her."

Valdrik's
brows rose. "Only a
few
more?" He laughed at that as he went up the steps and turned to shake the
snow from his shoulders. He stomped his feet before he entered his dwelling.

Finna
had been quite upset the last time he came into their home with snow melting
down him, as she had just cleaned—something that surprised him greatly for he'd
not thought her the type to keep a tidy home.

Although
she came up short in a few regards as to women's work, she was not entirely
lost. He preferred if she stayed and did her duties as wife, yet he needed to
replenish their stocks already, and Finna sorely needed time out of their
dwelling.

Aldar's
men had not shown any signs of being near for several days now, since they had
brought Fang home, and he scarce saw the harm in taking her with him so long as
she was under his protection.

Valdrik
let himself in and paused at the door. Gods, Finna was a sight to behold,
always. No matter what his wife was about, she lit up his world. He watched her
a moment—as she took a shirt from a basket and hung the garment to dry by the
fire—before clearing his throat to garner her attention. When she turned to
him, he lifted her cloak from the peg by the door and waggled it at her.

She
frowned at him and set down the laundry she had been hanging up to dry.
"What?" she asked, wiping her sleeve across her brow.

"Come
with me. I've a surprise for you," Valdrik said.

She
narrowed her eyes on him and picked up one last piece of her laundry. Finna
tossed it over the back of a chair before she dragged the seat nearer the fire
and then dusted her hands on her dress. Her lips crooked upward at the corner
in an impish smile as she came to him, turning and lifting her plait to allow
him to cover her shoulders with the cloak. She dropped her hair and caught the
front to fasten it herself as she turned to him.

Fang
glided from his perch to her shoulder, sensing their departure, and Valdrik
turned a glower on the nuisance of an owl. He'd hardly been able to touch his
wife in the last few days without the creature coming between them.

"Where
do we go?" Finna asked.

"You
shall see," he said, pressing his hand to her back and leading her
outside.

Finna
stopped under the overhang at the sight of the horses Stieg held firmly, one
tethered in each hand. His horse pranced and tossed his head, while the smaller
gray standing beside him stood still and obedient. Her coat was long for
winter, and a gentle wind tossed the gray's hair around the smaller horse.

"'Tis
your mother's horse she has lent you," Valdrik explained.

Finna
smiled. "I've not ridden a horse on my own in a long time." She
lifted Fang from her shoulder and gave him a boost into the air where he glided
away to a rooftop to wait.

Something
twisted in the region of his heart at her giddy excitement as Finna left the
step and went to run her hand along the horse's nose. The creature did not
start at her touch, instead bending lower to receive more attention. He smiled
at the simple pleasure his wife enjoyed, but Stieg distracted him, shifting
from foot to foot, and he remembered how long his man had been standing guard.

Valdrik
gave him a nod, dismissing him, and reached for the reins Stieg held.

As
the other man left them, Valdrik crossed behind Finna to mount his destrier and
she moved toward the gray. Finna slipped the toe of her boot into the loop for
her foot and began to pull herself up with the high pommel, but to his
surprise, she struggled. She hopped to and fro on one foot, still trying to
pull herself up well after he had mounted.

"Do
you need assistance?" he asked a moment later, when she still had not
succeeded in mounting by herself and the gray began a slow circle each time
Finna hopped.

"Nay,"
she wheezed, pulling harder and swinging her knee over, her body in full
contact with the horse's back until she righted herself atop the animal.

She
panted when she straightened and took the reins in hand. She held her head high
as though she'd had no difficulty.

Valdrik
eyed her a moment, started to ask if aught was amiss, but decided against it.
His wife's winded struggles were perhaps from the lack of exercise she had been
accustomed to. Perhaps her body was adjusting to the more sedentary work of a
woman.

He
made a clicking sound at his horse and nudged him with his heels. Finna rode at
his side as they left the wall, and Valdrik reached behind to pull a bow from
the side of his horse and handed it toward his wife.

"I've
had this made for you," he called over the steady hoof-beats of their
horses. Although the snow muted much of the noise, the soft flakes that drifted
between them also muted his voice.

Finna
eyes rounded on the bow, and her pink lips parted. She looked to him as her
fingers touched the curved wooden limb above the leather wound grip, and
Valdrik clearly surprised her by pulling it back and leaning toward her.
"For hunting only," he said.

The
corner of his wife's mouth quirked up, and she grabbed it from him. "
If
you say so," she said.

As
they rode on, Valdrik glanced her direction several times. She seemed
uncomfortable, and after her earlier troubles, his concern ran deeply.
"Are you as skilled at riding as you are at other manly things?"

Finna
cut her eyes at him from the side. "I am plenty skilled."

Valdrik
pulled up, and Finna's horse stopped, too. "Are you all right?" he
asked outright. "You don’t seem yourself."

Finna
tilted her chin at him, looking at him bemused and urged her mount on. "I
am fine. Come, before all the game nestles into their dens for the day. 'Tis so
cold I doubt we will find anything at all."

At
the edge of the wood, they left the horses and drew their bows, silently
stalking into the deeper parts of the wood. Snow crunched lightly under their
boots, and flakes fell in uneven intervals now. It was so quiet, all he could
hear was their breaths. They moved apart from one another, to span a larger
area, yet he kept Finna in his sight at all times.

Just
when Valdrik was beginning to think Finna would be right, that this day was too
cold for any game to be about, he spotted a white rabbit as it hopped from
beneath the snow-laden undergrowth of a tree. Both he and Finna drew back at
the same moment and loosed arrows, but it was hers to strike their target
whilst his stuck in the packed, gnarled branches.

Valdrik
tsk'd
at himself, then looked to his
wife, and a slow smile spread at her joy. "Well done," he said, and
rose from his crouched position.

Finna's
smile was full of returned confidence, and in that moment, he realized he would
have to bring her with him more often. It was not right of him to force her to
do things that did not make her happy,
but
she was his wife. Mayhap he could bargain with her, he thought, as he started
toward her.

When
he met Finna, he cupped her cheek and smoothed the pad of his thumb over her
soft skin. He kissed her deeply, the feel of his wife in his arms too much for
him. She was soft and supple now, not hard and defiant. He wasn’t sure if he
was a fool to believe he had tamed the vixen or not, if he had yet succeeded in
breaking down the shield she held over her heart.

Oh,
but when she melted into him, he wanted to believe just that.

Valdrik
dropped his bow and ran both hands down her sides, to her buttocks, and gave
her a squeeze.

Finna
giggled against his lips as she arched into him, the front of her belly
pressing into his cock. Valdrik growled as he took her mouth again, kissing her
ravenously, digging his fingers into her plaited hair until she gasped, her
sharp intake of breath stealing his. He pushed her back against an old oak with
a wide trunk and tore her bow from her hand, tossing it to the side.

She
made him wild as no other woman ever had.

Finna
tore at his leggings to free him as he hiked her dress to her waist and grasped
her thighs. He drew her legs up his sides as he pressed her into the tree,
driving into her with a hard thrust. Finna cried out, her fingers digging into
his shoulders. He drove against her relentlessly as she clutched onto him ever
harder.

Her
slick sheath was intensely hot against the cold around them, and Valdrik was
not proud at how quickly he spilled his seed, the hard throbs flexing his cock,
straining and tightening his scrotum.

Valdrik
thrust into her once more, causing Finna to whimper. He watched as she found
her pleasure, too, her expression going languid after. Gods, she was beautiful
like this, so sensual. So soft. So lost in a sea of beautiful lassitude.

Gently,
he eased her from his hips and set her to her feet, her dress falling into
place.

"You
are stunning," Valdrik murmured, kissing her temple as he tied the laces
of his pants.

Finna
smiled up at him, her crystal blue eyes bright from their loving.

Valdrik
left her to collect their kill and their bows before they started from the
forest together.

"'Tis
a good thing you make your stews so well with rabbit, for 'tis only rabbit we
can find," he said to her as they found their horses awaiting them on the
edge of the forest. But, as if to defy what he'd said, Fang swooped down then
and landed on the snowy ground with a fat squirrel hooked in his talons, the
small creature nearly half the size of its feathered executioner.

With
a smear of blood on his beak, Fang squawked at his mistress for praise.

Valdrik
eyed Fang. "
And
squirrel,"
he added in a grumble.

Finna
chuckled and went to her pet. She smoothed a finger over his feathers and then
took the squirrel from him before stepping back to hand it to Valdrik. He took
both kills and secured them to his saddle with a long, thin piece of leather.

When
he looked back to his wife, he found her sighing as she looked at the smaller
horse.

Valdrik
mounted and waited.

"I
wish to ride with you," she said, looking over her shoulder at him.

Valdrik's
brows shot up, and he stared at her for a moment before he leaned over the
pommel. "I begin to think you are afraid of horses."

"'Tisn't
that," she grumbled, tromping forward, thrusting her hand up for him to
take.

Valdrik
leaned down and pulled her into his lap. Once she situated herself comfortably,
he nibbled at her ear. "Or shall I think you only wish to be close to
me?"

Finna
turned and kissed him. "Think what you like."

Valdrik
shook his head at her evasive answer, completely puzzled by his wife. But when
had he not been puzzled since Finna had come into his life?