Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

The next couple of days were spent in a blur. Sitting together on the cart's driver's seat, Dunne and Bj?rn got the opportunity to get to know each other better. There was little choice anyway, as there was nothing else to do but talk from morn till dusk. She found out more about his parents, what he had done during his trip to Denmark, she talked about Dawn and her antics, making him laugh.

It was perfect, but it was over all too soon.

When they reached the crossroads where they were to part ways, Dunne stared at the road ahead with a sense of foreboding. The farmer they had asked earlier had told her she had a two days' walk left before she arrived. It would be long, but if she just followed the road, she would eventually reach her sister's village.

Yes, easy enough. But suddenly the prospect was impossibly daunting. A heavy mist had stolen across the land that afternoon, preventing her from seeing what lay ahead in the distance, friends, or most pointedly, foes.

"Safe journey, dear," the miller's wife told her, hugging her tight.

Dunne nodded, hoping that would be the case. Now that everything had been resolved between her and Bj?rn, she wondered what she was doing here in strange surroundings. She had left the village to avoid him but now she would have liked nothing more than to spend another day the way she had spent the last three, sitting next to him.

Instead, she had to go into the unknown alone.

Once the miller's wife had released her, Harald planted himself in front of her. For a moment it looked as if he was going to draw her into his arms as well. She steeled herself for it, but he merely leaned in to speak into her ear. "Goodbye, Dunne, I hope we'll see more of each other when we get back to the village. You'll want a man your own age in your life, not someone who needs a mother figu?—"

"Come, Dunne," Bj?rn said gruffly, interrupting the man's diatribe. "I want to make the most of whatever daylight there is left before we stop for the night."

We?

"You're going with her, then?"

Harald visibly recoiled at the news, but Dunne felt her chest expand. Bj?rn wanted to accompany her? Please, let her not have misunderstood! His answer was unequivocal and caused her legs to go weak as gruel.

"Of course, I'm going with her. Who in their right mind would leave a woman on her own on the road for days on end? I know I won't have that on my conscience."

"But what about the fair?" the chandler asked, scratching the boil on his neck. "It's in Lincoln."

Bj?rn sighed at the pointless reminder. "I know, and I'll join you there later, once I've seen Dunne safe with her sister."

"It's no small detour. What if you arrive too late?"

"Then I guess I'll miss it!" he snapped. "It doesn't matter, it's hardly a matter of life and death, but the way it's going, you'll all miss the fair! I said I wanted to make the most of the rest of the day to travel. I suggest you do the same."

With those words, he held his hand out to Dunne, who took it gratefully. She was not going to disappear into the mist alone. With Bj?rn by her side she could face anything. Friends—and foes.

As they progressed, the mist became denser and denser, and silence descended upon the land like a shroud. Dunne could not imagine how she would have felt if she had been alone, wrapped in the shadows swirling around her. Terrified, probably.

"Thank you for coming with me," she told Bj?rn, her voice barely above a whisper. It felt odd to speak out loud in such suffocating silence. "It is a great comfort to me."

He glanced at her briefly. "You didn't really think I would allow you to spend two days and one night on your own in such conditions, did you?"

"You could not have anticipated the fog."

"This has got nothing to do with the fog. It could be bright and sunny and I would still be here with you."

So he had planned it all from the start, even when she had been awful to him. Warmth spread through her. "Well, I'm grateful."

He only nodded and fell silent, focusing on guiding the horse through treacherous terrain. Dark shapes with fuzzy edges were looming overhead, looking more like skeletons than the trees she knew them to be. The moon was trying to pierce the thick gray fog surrounding it, creating an unhealthy halo in the milky sky. The whole world had turned eerie. All around them leaves were dripping their moisture to the ground with a sinister sound. Dunne shivered.

"It's too wet. We will have to sleep in the back of the cart," Bj?rn declared when they finally came to a halt. "Fortunately, it's empty so we should fare well enough."

She nodded, unable to make any decisions right now. The oppressive landscape was numbing her senses and slowing her brain.

A moment later, after a light supper of bread and cheese, they settled under the covers on the hard wooden floor of the cart. It was not ideal but marginally better than the sodden, mossy ground. At least tomorrow they would wake up dry.

They were close enough that Bj?rn could feel Dunne trembling and hear what he thought might be sniffles.

"Are you all right?" he asked, concerned. She had been awfully silent since they had left the convoy, not her usual self. Surely she wasn't afraid of being on her own with him, worried he might pounce on her now the others were gone? "What's the matter?"

"I'm cold, I'm scared, I miss Dawn."

That was three reasons, two more than he needed to take her into his arms. Bj?rn didn't hesitate. He turned to his side and drew her against him.

As soon as they touched, she started sobbing against his chest. Damnation, it had been bad enough to see her cry after they had made love, but this was nothing like it. This time it was not brought on by an excess of pleasure but by despair. It was unbearable.

"What's wrong?"

He felt her shake her head against his chest. "I told you, I miss my daughter. We've never been apart for more than a day since the day she was born. And this fog makes me?—"

"No, there's something else," he cut in. "Something you're not telling me. No more misunderstandings, no more lies, remember?"

Although she didn't answer straight away, he knew she would not avoid the question, she was only trying to find the right words. "I'm not sure how to handle what happened between us," she said eventually.

"No. I noticed that."

She had preferred to flee hundreds of miles and risk placing herself in danger rather than face him after their night together. If that didn't prove she was ill-at-ease, nothing would.

"It wasn't meant to happen and I'm not sure it happened for the right reasons. Now I don't know what to think or what to do next."

He knew she was only trying to be honest, but her words were a dagger to his heart all the same. As far as he was concerned, it had been inevitable that they should end up making love, and it had happened for exactly the right reasons. He also had no problem deciding what to do next.

Bed each other again. And again.

And then marry.

But it was clear that Dunne was even more confused than he had feared. He sighed and drew her closer to him, understanding he would have to keep his intentions to wed her to himself for a little while longer. He'd thought to make the most of them being on their own to finally tell her about his hopes, but he could see she still wasn't ready for such a momentous step. For now, he would take what he could. There was no sense in scaring her away by making demands on her too early. There was no rush anyway. They would be spending the next fortnight together, away from prying eyes. In that context, she would have time to reflect on what she wanted and perhaps by the time they got back home to the village, she would have come to see him as an integral part of her life.

Nestled against Bj?rn's body Dunne could feel her anxiety melt away. As the cold receded and the tightening in her chest began to ease, she became conscious of a different emotion invading her body. Desire.

Inevitably, the contact of a man's strong, virile body was creating havoc within hers.

Could they?—

No.

She had just told Bj?rn she had no idea how to handle what had happened the other night and that was the truth. Doing the same thing again now would only make her twice as confused in the morning. As if that was not reason enough not to surrender to her urges, just like the other day, she was afraid she would only give in to desire because Bj?rn happened to hold her tight against his perfect body and she was grateful to him for having accompanied her. That wasn't why people slept together. They decided to share such intimacy because they loved each other or, failing that, because they knew that they would end up spending their lives together, and she wasn't in such a situation.

Wasn't she?

Right now, bathing in Bj?rn's heat and wonderful scent, she wasn't sure of anything anymore.

"If we don't encounter any problems, we should reach the village late tomorrow afternoon," he said, cutting though the haze of lust. Apparently he was determined to be sensible tonight. There would be no lovemaking, no kissing either.

"Yes," she said, pushing her disappointment to the back of her mind. Damn, she was not supposed to be disappointed, she was supposed to be relieved! "Let's try to sleep, so we can set off early."

Despite this excellent idea, it was a long time before Dunne could fall asleep.