Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“ I s it true that you almost wed Eyja?”

Moon lifted his head from the basket he was weaving and arched a brow. His cousin Rorik had appeared out of nowhere and was leaning against the side of the hut, a smile floating on his lips. Something about that smile caused Moon’s heart to start beating faster in his chest. What did the man know that he didn’t?

“Why do you ask?”

He’d assumed no one knew about what had been decided by Wolf and his father with regards to him and Eyja. Had he been wrong? Did the whole village know? The idea sat ill with him.

“I heard your mother tell mine today,” Rorik explained. Ah, that made sense, the two sisters shared everything. It was only a question of time before Dunne was told about the proposed match. “I could scarce believe my ears.”

“Why?” For a reason he could not fathom, the idea that someone who knew him and Eyja could not believe in a union between them displeased him. Surely there would be worse matches?

A shrug answered him. “I don’t know. I suppose I’ve so often heard you complain about her being where you didn’t want her to be that I never thought you would bear to see even more of her. It would be like me saying I’m considering marrying Liv.”

Yes. Everyone knew Rorik and the carpenter’s daughter didn’t get on. Which was why it was not the same thing at all. He and Eyja not only got on well, they liked and respected each other. They could easily have found contentment as husband and wife. Instead of pointing it out, Moon resumed the weaving of the basket.

“In any case, what would it be to you if we married and I was unhappy?” he couldn’t help but ask.

But... Would he really be unhappy married to Eyja, he wondered? He was not so sure.

Rorik’s smile widened. “Oh, what you two do is nothing to me. But I bet you didn’t know I have kissed her.”

The twig in Moon’s hand snapped and he almost let out a curse. Thorfinn, now his own cousin... Would the whole male population come to him to reveal they had once kissed the brazen imp? To think he had taken her for an innocent! Virgin she might be, but she was clearly not untouched. Well, he should have known.

“When did that happen?” he asked, doing his best to sound uninterested. He was not entirely sure he succeeded but he had to know.

“The day she turned seventeen, she asked me to kiss her. I agreed. She looked so adorable with all those flowers in her hair, I could not resist.”

As it happened, Moon remembered very well the way she had looked that day, and “those flowers” had been gathered and woven into her hair by none other than his own sisters. It had been their present for her special day. They had worked all morning to get her ready. He remembered his surprise when he had seen her emerge from the hut looking clean and feminine for once, in a long white dress and elaborate hairstyle. Not that she was dirty or masculine exactly, but thus far he had only ever seen her with her hair loose and in a serviceable, plain dress. More often than not, the long tresses had been tangled and the dress had borne traces of her recent run through the woods.

That day he had seen for the first time that she was different from her burly brothers, and not a child anymore, but a young woman. The flowers in her hair had made him see her for the beauty she had become.

If he had known they had served to attract that wretched Rorik, he would have crushed them to dust before they could go anywhere near her head.

“Well, we both know she’s always been after thrills. Don’t feel too special. It didn’t mean anything. The following day she probably asked your brother Ralph to bury her up to her neck in mud, just to see how it felt like. Or are you telling me you did more than kiss her?” he added with narrowed eyes.

Fortunately for his sanity, Rorik laughed. Ah. So he had not. “No. We kissed a few times but we both knew it would never lead anywhere. It is as you say, she was only after a first kiss from a handsome man skilled in the art of seduction and, as I happen to fit the description, she chose me.”

Relief mingled with irritation swept through Moon. The arrogant bastard was too good looking for his own good. Fortunately, he was also too personable for anyone to take exception to him.

“Be off with you,” he grunted. “I’m sure there are plenty of females hankering after kisses around here. You shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

“There are. Never fear, I shall find them.”

Once Rorik had gone, Moon put the basket to one side. Finishing it would have to wait. He would only break all his twigs if he carried on, and create a poor product. His father, who had taught him the skill, would not be impressed if he handed him a creel that would let fish through like a sieve. Right now he was incapable of focusing on the task. He just wanted to see Eyja. The day before they had made peace and he wanted to make the most of it.

He found her by the geese pen, feeding the animals. She was talking to them as she threw the seeds, asking all sorts of questions they had no hope of answering before allowing them their portion of food. Amused, he watched her a moment. Did she ever do things the way they were supposed to be done? Whoever demanded that their geese performed some trick to earn their food?

“I’m curious. What happens if they cannot tell you how many eggs they have laid so far this month?” he asked, causing her to jump. “Do you let them starve?”

“Moon.” She turned to face him. “You made me jump.”

“I saw. That’s what comes of being too focused on honking animals.”

She smiled at him. He stilled, stunned by the beauty of this smile. Had she always smiled thus? If she had, he had never reacted to it thus.

He cleared his throat while she threw the last of the seed without asking anything. The geese, no doubt relieved to be fed without having to prove themselves first, ran to the pile.

“Was there anything you wanted?” Eyja asked, shaking her apron free of dust.

Yes, as a matter of fact there was. He was about to ask her about Rorik, Thorfinn, and demand to know just how many men she had kissed, when he spotted Sigrid walking out of the forge. Earlier that year he had shared a few wild nights with Bee’s widowed friend. That summer it had been a woman in town. It suddenly occurred to him that he would hate if Eyja asked him how many women he had been intimate with, as she was sure to, because the number would be uncomfortably high. And he had done a lot more than just kiss them.

Better to come back to his senses and let her lead the conversation. One of the things he loved about her was that he could never quite predict the direction her mind would take. They could be talking about her brothers and she would suddenly wonder if the baby tits in the oak by the village hall had left their nest yet. It made for fascinating, if disjointed conversations.

As if to prove they had better follow her lead, she asked, quite out of the blue, “Do you remember the time I came back home with a black eye?”

A smile tugged at his lips and he didn’t try to fight it. “Which time?”

Eyja swatted Moon on the arm at the cheeky question. The wretched man! His grin was far too wide, he was enjoying himself far too much remembering just how wild she had been as a child for her to allow the comment to pass unnoticed.

“Silly!” She should have known he would tease her.

“I’m not being silly. You were as reckless as any boy and got yourself in all sorts of scrapes. You still do.”

There was no point arguing the point. She did. Hadn’t she proved it by going to war? Besides, he didn’t seem to mind. He’d even made it sound like a compliment, and Eyja preferred to be praised for her spirit rather than the color of her eyes, or anything else she had no control over. It was much more meaningful to be appreciated for one’s achievements than for one’s physique. Her appearance was something she owed to her parents, not to her own merit. Thorfinn had complimented her curves, enthused about the pertness of her breasts, no doubt thinking she would be pleased. She had not. After all, if he had thought her scrawny and her breasts sagging, she would have been unable to do anything about it. But with a different shape to her hips or a fuller bosom, she would still be the same intrepid imp Moon appreciated. It was what mattered.

Rather than finding her lacking, he admired her for what many people might have found off-putting.

“Anyway. The reason I was hurt was, that day I’d been practicing with a sling. Yours,” she added, feeling herself redden. Why was she confiding this now? She had no idea. Perhaps because after having had to endure his absence for days, she relished his presence. People who had food at their disposal without having to hunt or forage for it never knew what hunger was. Then the day they had to go without, it was a shock. The depravation hit them all the harder.

It had been the same with her and Moon. He’d always been a part of her life and she’d never questioned the fact that they saw each other every day, or very nearly. And then suddenly she’d had to go a whole week without exchanging a single word with him. It had been hard to deal with.

Now they were talking again and she wanted to make the most it.

Except... except she had angered him.

Again.

“You! You were the one who stole my sling?” he roared. “I knew I hadn’t lost it! Damn it, Imp, it took me days to make another one! And then I had to adapt my technique as it was not as pliable and soft as the first one had been.”

“I’m sorry, I had intended to return it, of course, but I broke it during my experiments and I never found the courage to tell you.” She bit her bottom lip, feeling ridiculous. Why did she have to mention this? They had only just started to talk again, now was not the time to infuriate him anew. That damn tongue of hers. Her inability to hold it seemed to get worse by the day. “Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve always wanted to know how to use a sling. You made it look so easy, so satisfying.”

There was a silence. Was he about to storm away? No, to her surprise, he sighed and brushed the corner of her left eye, where the stone had hit her all those years ago. So he remembered which side had been bruised. She was stupidly moved.

“I could show you how to use a sling if you wanted. It would save you from injuring yourself the next time you try to do it on your own. Better that than having to make yet another sling when you help yourself to mine.”

Eyja’s whole body sagged in relief. He wasn’t mad. He was even teasing her.

Then excitement shot through her veins at the prospect of finally being able to use the deadly instrument. Moon probably had no idea, but she had spent many hours watching him practice the skill by the river. There was something intensely satisfying in seeing objects topple over or explode when you hadn’t even seen the stone fly in the air toward it. It was almost supernatural.

“Could we start now?”

He laughed. “Trust you to be so impatient, Imp! No, not now. Eirik is waiting for me, I agreed to go into town with him this afternoon.” She forced herself not to let her disappointment show. The twinkle in Moon’s eye told her she did not quite succeed. He leaned in toward her. “But tomorrow perhaps?”

The promise of spending a day together with Moon, just like in the old days, was irresistible. A wide grin split her mouth.

“Yes, tomorrow. Meet me at the well shortly after dawn with your sling. I know the perfect place.”

“Do you intend to lead me all the way back to York? I should have guessed you had an evil design in mind.”

Moon was surprised. Eyja had taken him a lot farther from the village than he had expected. They could have practiced with the sling pretty much anywhere but she had elected to take him to a part of the forest they rarely explored as it was a lot wilder than the ones surrounding the village. What on earth did she have in mind?

“Of course not, silly. Have patience,” she answered, not even glancing his way. He could not help a snort. She was exhorting him to patience? Really, the imp had some gall.

He followed her, admiring the way she navigated between bushes and avoided rocks without ever faltering or slowing down. She was as nimble and sure-footed as a goat. She was also, now that he thought of it, as independent and stubborn as one. What would she do if he told her she reminded him of the animal? Probably charge at him—just like a wild goat. He smiled to himself. Better to keep quiet.

After a while she came to a halt. It was obvious she knew why she had chosen this place, even if it looked rather unremarkable to him.

“Do you remember the time I came back home with bleeding knuckles?” she asked, throwing him a sideways glance.

Moon recognized a challenge when he saw one and he raised to it without hesitation.

“Which time?” Judging from her grin, that was just the answer she’d been hoping for. This renewed companionship between them was enjoyable, he had to admit. It was like it had been before, only... different. Like the subtle difference between sunset and sunrise. Similar and yet not quite the same.

“When I was about sixteen,” she specified. “Well, this is why my hand was damaged, because I carved this.”

She nodded to the oak behind him. Moon peered at it and saw a pale shape in the bark, level with his chest. Time had blurred its edges somewhat but it was still recognizable as a moon. It was exactly the same shape as the mark on his wrist. He brushed his finger along it wonderingly.

“Why did you do that?”

She shrugged, as if she wasn’t sure herself. “I was infatuated with you at the time, and I’d just seen you kiss another girl. Instead of slashing at her, I stormed out of the village and took my frustration out on the poor tree. I guess I wanted to carve into something the memory of the feelings I had for you. Silly, I know, but that’s what it was.”

He stilled, as stunned as if she had just used his sling to send a stone to his temple and hit her mark. “You... were infatuated with me?”

This was new information, information he was not sure what to make of.

“Don’t feel special,” the imp had the audacity to answer, the exact words he had told Rorik only the day before. “At that time I was infatuated with nearly all the men close to me in age. You know I was always reckless and in search of new experiences.”

Yes, he did know. Again, this was exactly what he had told Rorik. She had always been after thrills, that was why she had asked his cousin to kiss her aged seventeen, no other reason! He’d been right. Relief washed through him.

“And just how many of these men did you actually kiss?” he asked, doing his best to appear calm when the idea of her in another man’s arms set his blood to boil.

“A few. I had to get familiar with how it works, you understand.” Her answer, along with the glance she threw him, was mischief personified.

“Was Rorik one of them?” Surely the man hadn’t lied?

She made a dismissive gesture of the hand. “Oh, that one was years ago. It hardly counts.”

“And Thorfinn?” The man had been quite clear, their tryst had happened very recently and they had done a lot more than kissing.

This time she blinked. “How do you even?—”

“Never mind how. Answer me.”

“No.” The contrary minx crossed her arms and planted herself in front of him. “You answer me first. How do you know about him and me?”

Moon forced himself not to let his admiration show. With her eyes ablaze, her chin lifted and her proud stance, she was magnificent, every inch the indomitable warrior she had tried to be in the army, even if she barely reached to his shoulder. He briefly wondered if he would be attracted to a woman who did not display such beguiling self-confidence in the future. Suddenly a fiery nature seemed to be the only thing guaranteed to catch his attention. This was a problem, because there were not many who could match the imp in sheer brazenness. But after having known her, he feared that any other attitude would fail to rouse his interest, perhaps even his blood. The thought made him shiver. What would he do if he stopped feeling desire? He was only twenty-eight, damn it all, he could not lead a chaste life!

Pushing thoughts of elusive future conquests—or lack thereof—out of his mind, he answered Eyja’s question.

“Thorfinn told me you’d been seeing him before we left.” She blanched, as well she might. The man had no business going around discussing her private life with other people. “He said that you’d given each other pleasure. Or at least, that you gave him pleasure. I’m not sure he reciprocated the favor.”

“He did not.”

The way she lowered her eyes sent blood shooting straight to his groin. Moon knew with absolute certainty she was thinking of the way he had licked her in that forest and made her explode in release. His mouth started to water at the memory. They had better change the subject before he tumbled her to the ground and did it again, this time unhampered by braies. Perhaps talking about her and the men she’d had in her arms was not the best idea.

There was one last question he needed to ask, however. “Were you ever interested in my brothers?”

“Well.” She looked at him again and made a grimace. “Elwyn was already married to Bee by then, so, of course, he was not one of the men I considered. But Eirik, now, that’s different. He’s rather...”

The imp let the words hang, as if to tease him. Moon clenched his jaw, because it worked, damn it all. The idea of her lusting after all the boys in the village, his own brother included, was not one to please him. And what was Eirik, exactly, except a big oaf?

“What did you carve for him, I wonder? He doesn’t have any marks on his body, at least not that I can see. But perhaps you had access to parts of him I would shudder to see, so we will never know.”

“No, we’ll never know, because I never had access to those parts either.”

When she let out a pearly laugh, he made a show of looking at the forest around him. “Did you find enough trees here to record all your conquests?”

She shook her head slowly when he had expected her to laugh again. “You were the only one I carved something for, Moon.”

His heart tripped in his chest at the confession and the throaty way she’d said his name. Now that had to mean something, as had the fact that she’d decided to admit it to him so easily. But what?

She stared at him, and all the air was sucked out of his lungs. The bewildering impulse to kiss her seized him again. He knew why he’d wanted to do it when he’d handed her into the barrel on the river Dent. They had been about to be separated and in mortal danger, so it was understandable. He’d almost reached out to her yesterday because Rorik had mentioned having kissed her and he’d somehow wanted to settle a score with his insufferable cousin. But now?

Now he had no reason to want to kiss her, not when she’d just told him she’d been lusting after all the men in the village!

“We came here so I could show you how to use a sling, remember? So shall we start?” he suggested. “After all, we didn’t come here to discuss events that took place some ten years ago.”

To indicate this conversation was over, he got his sling out and set about looking for suitable stones to throw. Eyja helped and soon they had assembled a sizeable heap.

“Now. Watch me.”

Moon threaded his middle finger inside the loop at one end of the sling and placed one of the biggest stones in the center of it before closing his fingers around the other end of the rope. He started to rotate his wrist, then his shoulder, showing her what he was doing, breaking down his movements, making sure to go slowly so she could understand every step. Eyja found herself watching avidly, not just because she wanted to learn, but because it was fascinating. His every move was effortless, his body like a weapon itself, honed to perfection. She could have watched him all day. To think when she had spied on him as a child she had kept her eyes on the target, not on him, paying him hardly any attention, instead focusing on checking if he hit the objects he intended to hit... Now she didn’t care about the result. It was the skill and beauty of the thrower that fascinated her.

Without warning he let loose of the first stone. It hit a dead branch in the tree some forty paces away. A loud crack split the air. For a moment the branch seemed to want to hang on but then it fell to the ground, defeated.

Eyja could not help a gasp. “You...”

He laughed. “What? Did you really expect me to miss such an easy target?”

“Well, no. But...” She frowned. Why was she so shocked? She had no idea. Only, the demonstration of strength and precision had somehow turned her blood to fire. “I never before realized how powerful a sling could be.”

“No? Not even when you nearly took your own eye out?”

She scowled. Did he really have to remind her of her failings? “Stop talking and do that again,” she said instead of answering the provocation.

Moon arched a brow and Eyja knew he was about to say he took orders from no one, much less impatient women. But then, to her surprise, he smiled—or rather smirked. “Very well. I’m yours to command, lady.”

The fire in her veins raced straight to the place between her legs. If only he were hers to command... She had a few ideas of what she would ask him to do. As she could not, however, lie down on the ground and order him to lick her to ease the burn his demonstration had created within her, she nodded toward the sling pointedly.

They were here to shoot stones after all, not to indulge in scandalous acts.

After having decapitated a few plants, he handed her the sling.

“Your turn,” he said, looking toward the edge of the clearing. “Try to hit that boulder over there.”

The boulder in question was the size of an ox. She huffed. Was he mocking her? He’d just been using targets that were the size of her eye. “Anyone could hit that without even trying. Shouldn’t we at least start with?—”

“I’ll decide how best it is to be done, thank you very much,” he said sternly. “You asked to be shown. If we are to do this, we’ll do it properly.”

She surrendered. After all, she had no reason to question his ability as an instructor. He seemed to know what he was doing well enough. And indeed, to her shock, though she did her best to reproduce his movements, she missed the boulder completely. The stone sailed straight past it, scaring a bird as it disappeared into the trees.

“Mm,” Moon said, not even trying to hide his amusement. “Perhaps we should have started with one the size of a house. An ox is evidently too small.”

“Let me try again.” She would not be defeated so easily.

After three more tries she managed to hit the center of the boulder. By the time the sun had reached its zenith, she was able to hit targets as small as a goat. Beaming, she turned to Moon.

“What do you say to that?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I say ‘Well done.’ You are a quick study. Not that I’m overly surprised, I must say.”

Heat suffused her chest at the praise. “Thank you. But the merit is not all mine. You always know how to explain things in a way I can understand. I feel like I could ask you anything and you would know the answer.”

It was then that she thought of something that had bothered her for days. Perhaps he had the answer. It was worth a try. After all, considering how well he knew her and what they had done together, nothing she could say would shock him.

She started hesitantly. “Moon...”