Page 117 of Tears of the Wolf
“Your sister died because of a miscommunication among your cousin’s men. Aelgar never was a warrior.”
“My sister died because you thought I would be easier to control.” Brynn’s eyes stung with tears.
Selene exhaled a long breath. “Your sister was a strong-willed girl, but I really expected you to be beyond her influence now.”
The wagon hit a bump in the road, making all of them jostle. Low voices came from outside. Brynn could sense what sheguessed to be the twins as well as Neirin and several of the other soldiers.
“Aelfwynn tried to have you removed from the Council of Mothers,” Brynn said. “She told me. She knew it was the only way to make you stop pushing for her to marry Aelgar.”
Cousin marriages were common enough. Selene had argued that an uncle and niece of the same age were not that different. Aelgar was only half-brother to their father, after all. Aelfwynn was hearing none of it.
“Be grateful you will never know what it’s like to have a child plot against you,” Selene snapped.
Brynn would have happily accepted a thousand plots from Osbeorn if it would bring him back.
“You have never had adult children, Brynn,” Selene said. “You cannot understand.”
Rage poured through Brynn’s veins. Always there was this excuse—always Selene’s reasons were incomprehensible to Brynn because of some shortcoming or lack of experience. First it was because Brynn was a child herself, then because she didn’t have one. After Osbeorn came, it was because Brynn didn’t have a daughter. Now it seemed that the boundary stones had been moved once again.
“You aren’t my mother,” Brynn spat. “You never were. Aelfwynn, she was my mother. And I hope that someday I’m half the mother my sister was.”
“You are insolent,” Selene barked, jerking back on Esa’s hair.
Esa whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.
Brynn clenched her hands into fists. In that moment, everything that was wrong in her life could be blamed on this woman.
“You will go back to Paega and you will fulfill your duty to our people.” Selene shook her head. “Throwing your life away on some random thane? Really, Brynn?”
“He’s an alderman.”
“Bah.” Selene seemed about to spit for a moment. “An alderman who cuts his own grain and salts his own fish? It was an insult for Aelgar to arrange the match.”
It didn’t matter what Selene thought. Aelfwynn would have liked Cenric. Maybe not at first, but she would have grown fond of him. If nothing else, Aelfwynn would have accepted him when she realized he made Brynn happy.
And Cenric did make her happy. For the first time in her life, if only for a brief moment, she hadn’t been afraid. She hadn’t had the shadow of Selene’s expectations hanging over her, the threat of death, or the slow torment of Paega’s quiet condescension.
Brynn didn’t even care if it was selfish to want Cenric. She was going to get back to him if she had to fight the world to do it.
“Cenric is my husband,” she said flatly, defiantly. “I belong with him.”
“You belong where I tell you,” Selene snapped. “And if this Cenric tries to come for you, he will face consequences.”
“If you hurt him,” Brynn vowed, voice cold, “not even Eponine will be able to save you from me.”
Selene tsked at that. “Try to avoid blasphemy, child. And are you really willing to sacrifice your ward for him?”
Brynn looked at Esa, crying quietly at her mother’s knees. She was determined to get out of this and save them both, but if it came down to it? Brynn didn’t know what she would do.
“We are meeting a ship down the coast that will take us south,” Selene said. “I have the word of Olfirth to let us pass.”
“Does he know you’ve taken me captive?”
“You are not captive,” Selene argued.
“No?” Brynn cocked her head. As angry as that response made her, the deflection told her that no, Olfirth didn’t know shewas being taken against her will. The old thane probably didn’t know she was here at all. “What are these ropes, then?”
Selene made a frustrated sound. “Youwillsee reason, child.”
