Page 34 of The Shipwreck
Avril wavered between humiliation and rage.How she’d been so gulled, she didn’t know.But now she cursed her stupid trusting heart.She’d been right from the beginning.She should never have trusted a Viking.
“Make him come back, Mama,” Kimbery pleaded as she wrapped her arms around Avril’s neck, tears streaming down her face.
Avril’s heart felt like a lump of lead.Brandr must have tricked her the entire time, making her believe he was decent, gentle, civil.It made her sick to think she’d ever imagined he was in love with her.It made her even more nauseous to remember what she’d let him do to her.
She’d believed him.Kimbery had believed him.He’d pretended that he was different from the berserkers who’d come before, that he was noble and honorable.Yet he was no less a marauder, doing his damage and running off like a coward.
The brute had broken poor Kimbery’s heart.
“I want Da!”Kimmie wailed.
Avril gave her a comforting squeeze as tears welled in her own eyes.
But as she held her weeping daughter and tried to soothe her own frayed emotions, it wasn’t long before her hurt turned into anger and her anger into action.
Damn the Viking!Who did he think he was to steal away like a thief in the night?He owed her an explanation.He owed Kimbery an explanation.He’d been a father.He knew how sensitive children were.How dared he slink off out of Kimbery’s life without so much as a word of farewell?
By God, one way or another, she’d make him answer to her.
She gently swept Kimmie’s hair back from her sad little face and used her thumbs to wipe away the tears.
“Listen, Kimmie,” she said, “I’m going to go after him.I need you to stay.Do you understand?”
She nodded.
But the moment Avril went for her sword, Kimmie panicked.“Nay, Mama, don’t hurt him!”
She frowned.“I won’t.”At least, shehopedshe wouldn’t, though at the moment, the idea of running him through had its appeal.
“You promise?”
Avril didn’t want to make a promise she couldn’t keep, but she knew Kimbery would be unmanageable if she didn’t.“I promise…if you promise not to set foot outside the cottage.”
“I promise.”Avril nodded in approval, and as she whirled to go, Kimmie added plaintively, “Bring him back home, Mama.”
Home.This wasn’t his home.But she couldn’t deny, even after so few days, she too had begun to think of Brandr as part of her little family.
Without a word, she swept out the door and raced down to the water’s edge to catch up with her quarry.
Brandr didn’t realize he’d been followed until he felt something sharp jab him in the back.
“Hold it right there.”
He froze.That was the point of her jeweled sword, no doubt.He knew he should have taken it.But how had she managed to find him?He was a good mile down the shore from her cottage.
Glancing down, he realized the waves rushing over the sand had only partially covered his footprints.They’d also completely covered the sound of her pursuit.
His shoulders sank.He’d hoped to avoid a confrontation.He’d hoped to escape quietly, letting Avril think he was a harmless coward like Loki—a knave who’d deserted her but wasn’t worth hunting down.
“Where do you think you’re going?”she demanded.
“Away.”
“Without a word?”she asked, clearly vexed.“Without even saying goodbye?”She poked him with the sword, and he flinched.“How could you do that to…to a sweet little girl like Kimbery?”
Brandr could tell that Kimbery wasn’t the only one hurt by his desertion.But he didn’t dare let Avril know how he really felt.“She’ll get over it.”
His cold words hung on the air as a wave crashed on the rocks and hissed over the sand.
