Timeless (9 page)

He had had no time to mourn—and less than an hour to gather necessities for this bride he did not want, return to his
vaningshus
and collect her without getting a blade in his gullet, and bring her here to the
althing
.

Hauk stared up at the towering wall of stone before him. He had not attended an
althing
, had not even set foot in this part of the forest, in years. Everyone believed his absence was due to his well-known opinion that this custom, like so many others, should be changed. That it was a waste of breath to gather here at midnight on the night of the raiders’ return, offering toasts to the gods and listening to the elders’ endless speeches about the old ways and ancestral traditions.

No one knew the true reason he stayed away.

He resisted the tightening in his throat, the ache that filled his chest. But as he listened to the men in line taking their vows, one after another, he felt something inside him tearing open. Felt the memories rising from the deep, black place inside where he kept them locked away.

Karolina
.

The thought of her name made the feelings spill through him.

How excited he had been, standing here beside his first bride. How proud and pleased with himself—just as young Svein and the others were now. Grinning like a witless fool, as eager as a stag in rut.

Utterly unaware of how soon it would all end.

He swallowed hard as the memories flashed across his mind, each one sweeter than honey and more bitter than the last dregs of spoiled wine. The gentleness of her voice. Her silhouette at the window in the mornings, her every movement so serene as she combed her long blond hair. The softness of her palm pressing his hand against her belly, so he could feel their baby kick.

The sound of her screams as she died
.

Hauk shut his eyes. She had called out his name with her last breath.

And taken their unborn son with her.

He clenched his jaw, trying to force the unwanted emotions away. In command of himself after a moment, he opened his eyes and glanced up at the waterfall.

Only to be assaulted by memories of the second time he had stood here, years later. Beside Maeve.

Maeve, whose laughter had brightened his life like the sun. She had been so entranced by the moonlit waterfall, she barely uttered a sound during the ceremony. His cheerful, Celtic lass had been happy to leave behind her life of poverty in Ireland, had quickly fallen in love with Asgard’s beauty... and with him.

And for a time, he had known hope. Had allowed himself to believe that this time, it would be different. That she could heal the emptiness inside him, the loneliness that had been with him since he was a boy.

He could still see the look on her face when she found the first gray hair in her ebony tresses, how she had made a jest over it...

And when he lost her, as well, the emptiness inside him had widened and deepened, and his life was all the darker for having known even a brief touch of the sun.

Hauk dropped his gaze to the trampled earth beneath his boots, trying to shrug off the memories as Avril had tried to shrug off his hand earlier. None of it mattered any longer. He had learned his lesson: ’Twas better to be alone than to be left alone.

Better not to hope for a life different from the one the gods had given him.

In the years since he had lost Maeve, he had allowed every feeling, every desire, every dream inside him to cool and harden into ice. Blessed, numbing ice. Until he wanted nothing, felt nothing. Most of the time it was not even a struggle anymore.

Except here, in this place.

“
Ja
,” another young groom was saying happily. “
Jeg gjor
. I will.”

Nei
, Hauk wanted to say.
Nay, I will not
. He had vowed never to allow another
utlending
woman—an outsider—into his life, his home. His heart. They were too fragile. Too rare and precious, like delicate blooms he could hold in his hands for only an instant of time. He preferred the occasional liaisons he enjoyed with Asgard women, which lasted however long he and the lady might wish.

Women like his last mistress, Nina, who had kept him company and shared his nights and asked naught more. She had shed no tears when they parted a few months ago. Mayhap because she understood that the only thing that endured in this world was time itself.

Understood that he needed to devote his attention to what mattered most: his duty. To protect this island and its people.

And its secret.

The elders came to the sixth place in line, where the red-haired English girl stood alone, and Hauk raised his head, bracing himself.

Thorolf stepped forward from the crowd.

He heard Avril’s small gasp of recognition and fear as Thorolf cast a cold look their way before shifting his attention to the elders.

“
Mine eldrer
,” he said, addressing the council in a determined, purposeful tone, “I wish to claim this female, taken by Bjarn. She will replace the woman who was to have been mine.” He pointed to Keldan’s lady. “That woman was in my possession before Keldan interfered and stole her from me.”

Exclamations of shock rippled through the crowd. Even to touch another man’s claimed female was a serious offense.

Hauk swore under his breath, but he had been expecting this. “
Nei, mine eldrer
. Thorolf does not tell the full truth.”

He was speaking out of turn, before the elders could talk to Thorolf—and his impertinence earned him an annoyed glance from his uncle.

But Hauk would not be silenced. Not even by that look, well remembered from boyhood, from this man who had raised him.

“It was Thorolf who first broke our laws,” he continued, directing his words to the full council. “He did not wait until the brunette was alone. He attacked a guard who was protecting her and killed him in the street. In full view of dozens of people.”

A louder ripple of surprise and discussion went through the crowd.

“
Stille!
Peace. Let there be peace,” one of the elders said calmly, quieting the throng. “Is this true, Thorolf? Did you use violence apurpose?”

The knave shook his head, managing to look offended at the very idea. “The guard came at me with sword drawn. I merely defended myself—”

“
Nei
, he attacked first, without warning,” Keldan corrected, stepping forward to join the fray. “And he only chose the lady out of spite, because he saw that Hauk and I had stopped to admire her and her friend.”

Hauk briefly thought to protest that he had not been admiring Avril, but decided it would be better not to dispute any part of Keldan’s explanation.

He heard knowing whispers going through the crowd behind him. All were well aware of the old animosity between himself and Thorolf. It occurred to him that he had in truth been staring at the little brunette just before Thorolf moved in to take her.

No doubt the knave had chosen her for that reason alone.

“Lies,” Thorolf insisted. “I obeyed our laws. I first saw the wench earlier in the day, long before Valbrand or Keldan ever noticed her. I waited until sunset, as we had all agreed, and I claimed her. I used violence only to defend myself against those who tried to stop me—”

“You used violence because you have a taste for it,” Hauk said in disgust. “It pleases you the way drink pleases some men. You even used violence against a female—”

This brought so many gasps and exclamations from the crowd, the noise drowned him out.

“
Stille!
” another of the elders commanded. “Let there be peace!”

“It is true,” Hauk insisted, gesturing to Avril. “When she tried to rescue her friend, Thorolf struck her so hard he broke her jaw.”

The crowd erupted in noise again. Avril, who had been glancing worriedly from one speaker to the next, seemed to realize the conversation had taken a sudden turn in her direction.

“What are you saying?” she demanded of Hauk with wide, frightened eyes. “What is going—”

“It is my word or theirs.” Thorolf spoke over her. “And Keldan has just admitted that the brunette was in my hands before he interfered. I have been wronged. I ask that either my claim to this woman be recognized”—he indicated the English girl, who stood whispering prayers and trembling—”or that Keldan be required to return the female he stole from me.”

Keldan looked thunder-struck, devastated at the possibility that his charming little brunette might be taken from him.

Hauk quickly came to his friend’s assistance. “
Mine eldrer
, you have more than
our
word. There were two other witnesses.” He nodded to Avril and her friend. “Ask the women themselves. They cannot understand what has been said, and they have no reason to lie about Thorolf’s actions.”

The elders gathered for a moment to discuss this suggestion among themselves. One of them who spoke French came over to stand before Keldan’s lady. Keldan immediately returned to hover possessively at her side.

“We have need of your help,
ma demoiselle
,” the elder said with a bow, his voice gentle and his expression warm. “Tell me, if you would be so kind, what is your name?”

The girl looked astonished to find herself suddenly addressed in her native tongue. She glanced over at Avril, seeking guidance.

Avril shook her head, clearly opposed to offering help of any kind. Hauk frowned at her.

But the brunette seemed to see no harm in revealing her name. “J-Josette.”

“
Merci
, Josette. And could you also tell me, when did you first see this man in Antwerp?” He pointed to Thorolf.

She cringed away from the black-haired giant who stared at her—only to bump into Keldan. But she did not protest the protective arm Kel draped around her shoulders.

“When... when he grabbed me.” She shuddered visibly. “At the fair.”

“You had not seen him before that?”

She shook her head. “Nay.”

“We would have noticed a man of his size,” Avril put in. “He does not blend easily into a crowd.”

“Do not interrupt,” Hauk chided, though it occurred to him that he had just done the same thing, speaking out of turn to help a friend.

“Nay, Valbrand, I would hear from her, as well,” the elder said easily. “Tell me,
ma demoiselle
, did Thorolf hurt you?”

“Aye, he...” Avril paused, lifting a hand to her cheek, her gaze on Thorolf’s massive fists. “He struck me so hard, I fell to the ground. The pain was so great that I thought my jaw was—”

“Fortunately, the injury has healed,” Hauk finished for her.

“
Merci, mes demoiselles
.” Bowing to each, the elder returned to translate the women’s answers to the other thirteen, while Thorolf stood waiting impatiently.

Avril remained very still, her fingers on her cheek. “But my jaw
was
broken,” she whispered. “I am sure of it. He hit me after I wounded him.” Blinking, she stared at Thorolf’s right arm. “With my knife.”

Hauk shifted uncomfortably, trying to think of how he was going to explain
that
away. Thorolf was close enough that she could see clearly there was no injury to his arm.

His skin was unmarred. There was no scar. No mark at all.

“The wound must not have been as serious as you thought,” Hauk said casually.

“But it was,” she insisted. “His blood was all over my gown—”

“It was twilight.” Hauk had burned the garment this morn, hoping she would forget that particular detail of the incident. “The shadows play odd tricks at that time of day.”

“But—”

“Silence. The elders have reached their decision.”

Avril quieted—more out of shock, Hauk guessed, than any newfound obedience. By all the gods, the quick-witted
demoiselle
was adding up the evidence before her eyes much too swiftly.

As the elders reclaimed their places, she even thought to look at her palm, which she had cut on a shard of glass in his
vaningshus
not an hour ago.

Already it was completely healed. There was no mark of the injury. No blood, no scar, not even a scratch.

Her mouth dropped open in a round O of disbelief.

If she thought to notice, he thought sourly, she might see that the scratches her nails had inflicted on his face were gone as well.

’Twas something she would have to grow accustomed to in her new life here on Asgard.

One of many things.

“We have reached our decision,” Erik announced. “
Stille
. Let there be peace.”

A tense hush fell over the crowd. For once, his uncle did not indulge in a long-winded oration, simply stating the judgment flatly.

“Keldan was indeed wrong to take the woman Josette when Thorolf already had her in his hold.”

Keldan uttered a strangled sound. Hauk bit back a curse.

“But Thorolf committed the more serious offense,” Erik continued, “by killing the guard instead of waiting until the girl was alone. He engaged in wanton violence, endangered the lives of others in his traveling party, and risked bringing unwanted, dangerous attention to the peaceful people of Asgard.”

Thorolf shot a simmering glare at Hauk and Avril, looking wrathful enough to kill them both for having thwarted him again.

Without even thinking, Hauk stepped in front of her, obeying an instinct to protect her.

“Keldan may keep the woman Josette,” Erik announced, “and Thorolf is also denied any right to the female that Bjarn had claimed.”

“
Nei!
” Thorolf shouted, his face awash in disbelief. “I risked as much in the voyage as the others. Am I to have naught to show for it?”

“Be grateful the punishment is so light,” one of the other elders said, his voice and his gaze cool. “And do not risk our ire further. Using violence against a female proves you unfit to be a husband. Bjarn’s woman shall be free to choose a mate from among those men of Asgard who are unmarried. She will not be given to you, Thorolf.”

Glowering at them, Thorolf started to say more, then apparently thought the better of it. With a curse, he turned on his heel and stalked away, shoving a path through the crowd.