The Viking's Highland Lass (12 page)

G
unnolf dismounted
and raised his hand to knock on Wynne's door, knowing she would be pleased to see him and overjoyed to realize he had done as she had envisioned.

Before Gunnolf had the chance to knock on the door, Wynne yanked it open. “No, no, no.” Wynne glanced in Brina's direction and frowned. “She isna the one, Gunnolf. You must head south again and search for the woman who needs your aid. ‘Twas a simple task.”

“She
was
in need of help.” Gunnolf pulled the squirming puppy from his tunic and held him against his chest for a moment, not sure how Wynne would react to the wolf. “I will take the lass to Craigly Castle then and—“

“Nay, she is my granddaughter. You will leave her here with me. But aye, you must aid the woman in need.”

“Grandmother?” Brina's eyes rounded and her lips parted in shock. “You know my name also? Brina?”

Gunnolf couldn't have been more surprised to learn of this. He couldn't believe Wynne could be correct about this.

“Aye, you knew this would come to pass. Not that this menacing Norseman would come for you, mayhap because he wasna supposed to. Or that the woman you saw in the woods was me, your grandmother. But you knew you would return to your mother's people. Give a man a task a woman should have completed and...” Wynne sighed.

“Gunnolf brought me here safely,” Brina insisted, as he set the pup down on the ground and helped Brina off her horse. “Who is the other woman?” Brina asked while Gunnolf gave his horse oats before he left again.

Wynne waved her hand at her dismissively. “I know not. Only that you are no' the one Gunnolf was to have aided.”

“How do you know this if you havena seen her in a vision?” Brina sounded perturbed.

Gunnolf was about to ask the very same question of Wynne.

“I dinna see her face, only that she isna wearing the same brown cloak as you. Hers is gray.”

As far as Gunnolf was concerned, Brina had needed help getting here. She could not have traveled that distance on foot without Seamus or his men catching up to her or freezing to death.

“Mayhap I should leave then.” Brina still sounded irked.

“Nay, you belong here with me. And I am grateful that Gunnolf brought you to me, but you must go now, Gunnolf.” Then Wynne frowned at the wolf pup. “Where do you think Beowulf will be staying?”

Gunnolf wondered if Wynne had come up with her own name for the wolf or had some insight into what it should be. Being that Beowulf was a Nordic legendary hero, Gunnolf approved of the name.

“He will stay with Brina. One day, he can be her protector.” He handed the pup to Brina. “Take care of Brina,” he said to Wynne. Then he turned his attention to Brina. “Before long, I will come back to see how you are faring.”

“Thank you for bringing me here safely.” Brina took a step toward him and kissed him on the cheek, but it didn't seem enough after all they had been through.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, and he embraced her warmly back, kissing her lips gently, but only because he knew Wynne was watching and Brina was her granddaughter. Otherwise the need roared through him to press his lips against hers much more passionately, hold her for longer, and breathe in her sweet scent to carry with him on the journey. He realized he had never taken his leave from a woman that he had wanted to warmly embrace or kiss before he parted company with her. Nor would he already be thinking about returning to see how she fared.

“Take care with the woman you were meant to aid. She will not be grateful,” Brina warned.

A chill swept up his spine, his gaze swinging to Wynne.

Wynne had her hand on his shoulder, pushing him toward the door as if she feared he'd take more of an advantage of her granddaughter. “I told you the woman wouldna.” She gave her granddaughter an annoyed look. “
This
one is
much
too grateful.” Yet he knew Wynne didn't mean it with the way her eyes glinted with a bit of dark humor.

Gunnolf glanced back at Brina, knowing Wynne would take care of her, yet he felt disquieted that she might be just like Wynne. Why did Brina not tell him she knew this would come to pass? Yet he thought she had tried to warn him earlier. Had she had a vision then? It seemed to him from what Brina had said at the last, she had only known about it right before they arrived at Wynne's shieling. It didn't really matter though. Even if she'd had a vision of this earlier, he would not have risked allowing her to make her way here on her own alone.

How was he supposed to find the right woman now, if he'd found the wrong one the first time? If she was in dire straits, would he be too late now?

He had seen no one while he'd been traveling due south, but Brina. Then again, he had gotten lost and when he had returned to Wynne's dwelling, he had travelled northwest to reach her place. Without the snowstorm to hamper his direction, he would be able to head directly south.

“Someone will have to take care of the horses until one of James's men can move them to the stables,” Gunnolf said.

Wynne was shaking her head. “You brought me a byre full of horses, a wolf, and didna aid the right lass.”

Gunnolf smiled, winked at Brina, hoping she would be all right with her grandmother—he was still shocked over that—then mounted his own horse, and headed out again, praying he would find the other lass quickly.

“
W
hat if Seamus's
men kill Gunnolf?” Brina asked Wynn, her voice angy. She didn't know her grandmother. If she was her kin, why didn't she use her visions to help save Brina's mother? Brina began to feed the rest of the horses in her grandmother's byre.

“Seamus and his men? If they run into him, they will try. Come, Brina. Bring the wolf pup.”

“Did you see me in a vision?”

“Aye.”

“And how I made it here?”

“With Gunnolf in a later vision.”

“Then it was fate that Gunnolf and I met in the way in which we did, and we didna do what you foretold.”

“The snowstorm threw him off course.”

Brina set Beowulf down, and he curled up by the fire. “Mayhap you mixed up your visions.” Brina raised a brow at her grandmother.

Her grandmother frowned at her. “I dinna…” Then she bit her lip and shook her head. “Help me serve the food.” Wynne removed the bread she'd been baking.

“Then ‘tis true you have mixed up your visions before?” Brina persisted as she cut some cheese for both of them.

“Nay.”

“No' once?”

Wynne looked sharply at her.

“Well, if you had a vision of another woman, but you also had a vision of Gunnolf bringing me here, he must have gone to help the other woman,
after
he brought me here. And you had the visions out of order.”

Wynne ate a piece of the bannock, chewing slowly, eyeing Brina warily. “What vision did you have?”

“That my da had fallen from his horse after being wounded. I thought he was dead because Seamus didna return him home.”

“He left him wounded in the glen to die, aye?”

“Aye. We met with Da at a shieling where some of his loyal people were caring for him. I worry that Seamus will learn he is there and have him murdered along with those who are protecting him.”

“If Seamus learns of it, aye. ‘Tis possible.” Wynne drank honeyed mead from her tankard.

“Should I have stayed and tried to protect my da?”

“Nay. You wouldna have been able to protect him. Seamus would have beaten you for your impudence and wed you. You need to be here. You were supposed to be here. What did you see in your vision of Gunnolf?”

“He was in my way, and then…and then he wasna.”

“He vanished?” Wynne looked shocked.

“Well, nay. I shoved him down. One of Seamus's men had loosed an arrow, and I was trying to avoid being hit until this mountain of a man stood in my way.”

“Gunnolf.” Wynne nodded sagely, as if there could be no other.

“Could you no' have saved my mother?”

“With my visions? She had them herself. She knew what was coming. We canna always change fate.”

Brina closed her gaping mouth. “But we can sometimes…” She didn't say it as a question, because she'd seen visions, and then they hadn't come to pass.

“Sometimes. Aye. I am no' sure why. ‘Tis as if some are warnings of what is to come unless we heed the warning.”

“I was warned that one of the doors would be locked at the keep, so I didna attempt to use it when I fled Anfa Castle.”

“Aye. ‘Tis true I have had such visions.”

“I couldna have avoided running into Gunnolf. He…he was in my path.”

“Aye. And you wouldna have wanted to either, from the looks of it.”

Brina's face warmed.

“Take care that you dinna fall in love with Gunnolf, Brina. Your da killed his brother Hallfred during the same battle that your da was struck down. Gunnolf doesna know his brother settled on the farmlands near your da's. ‘Tis a tale too oft told. A fight over something not worth quarreling over and one man lay dead, the other the victor.”

“Nay,” Brina gasped. “You didna tell Gunnolf?”

“I only learned of it after he was gone. He believed his brother left him for dead and returned to the Northlands. Which he did. Gunnolf made a home for himself here. That life was his past. I didna remember it until just now.”

“You had a vision of this?”

“Aye.”

“Why? I thought they only came to us if we had some involvement in the situation.”

“It does involve us. I have always felt a closeness to Gunnolf because his grandmother also had visions and we had…connected in that way. She prayed I would watch out for him like she had done. She died before Gunnolf's brother settled in the Highlands. I dinna know it either until I learned he was killed.”

Brina felt sickened by the news. “Gunnolf will have every reason to hate me then.”

“Nay, ‘tis your da who killed his brother, no' you.”

Brina didn't agree with Wynne. She believed Gunnolf would wish he had never agreed to do anything her da had asked of him, including bringing her here. She felt saddened that Gunnolf's brother was dead, and he'd never even known he was living in the Highlands.

“What was the dispute over?”

Wynne sighed. “A blood feud, stolen cattle. His grandfather killed yours. ‘Tis the way of men who canna stop their constant fighting.”

G
unnolf traveled all day long
, stopping for respites, the weather warming and the sun coming out, melting more of the snow. In all that time, he had not seen any sign of anyone, Seamus, his men, or any lass who needed his aid. He told himself that Wynne was never wrong, and yet he wondered if she truly was this time.

Early that night, he smelled smoke. When he finally reached a shieling, he knew he was on Brina's father's land. Gunnolf came through the woods and saw two horses tied up out front. Concerned they might belong to Seamus or his men, Gunnolf decided not to approach the place just yet.

Then a woman screamed from inside. He hid his horse in the woods, then ran toward the stone dwelling, the moonlight reflecting off the melting snow. He could only see the two horses. Maybe more were in the byre though.

He drew closer to the shieling, candles lighting the place and filtering through the shutters, a fire in the fireplace giving off additional light.

“Tell me where Lady Brina is!” a man growled.

Gunnolf's hackles rose and his blood heated with anger. Whoever this man was, he was after the lass.

“I dinna know. I swear it.” The woman responding sounded tearful and scared.

Was it Seamus? Or one of his men bullying the woman? How many men were there? Gunnolf moved silently to a shuttered window and tried to see through the slats.

“Why would you leave the keep unless you had come with her, or planned to meet with her here?”