Page 55 of Alliance Bride
“Eadlyn.”
Her eyes darted to him, the surprise on her face driving the guilt deeper.
He cleared his throat, his heart trying to choke him with a final protest of fear. There was no going back if he took this step. He swallowed his hesitation. “Have you taken a walk yet today?”
She shook her head.
He gestured to the village. “I’ll take you if you’d like.”
She hesitated long enough that he braced himself for the polite refusal he deserved and looked at Ranvi. No doubt the two of them had done a lot of talking about his recent behavior. The surprise in her expression shifted to something softer, almost cautious, like the moment before stepping out onto thin ice.
“I would.” She straightened and brushed the dirt from her hands as she stepped from the garden.
It left Aevar strangely winded, as if he’d just run a race he hadn’t known he was in. He caught an approving nod from his mother. One less weight on his shoulders.
They walked side-by-side back toward the fjord, their steps falling into a rhythm, but neither said anything. The silence pressed between them, making each footfall echo in Aevar’s ears. Finally, he asked, “How is your training coming?”
“Well, Heida is intense, but a good teacher. She’s very inventive when it comes to ways to incapacitate a man.”
Aevar gave a low chuckle. “She’s a dangerous woman.”
Eadlyn smiled, though more slowly than she had with him a couple of weeks ago. “She is that.”
“The more you can learn from her, the better.”
Her smile faded. “Do you think I’ll ever have need of her training?”
Aevar hesitated, the fear of something happening to her trying to snatch his breath. “I hope not.”
Down at the shore, they stopped. Eadlyn’s gaze swept across the water, the breeze lifting strands of her hair. There was something reverent in the way she viewed it. The way she breathed in the air and the peace that washed over her expression as if all worries disappeared when she saw the water. Despite everything she had left behind, she had found contentment here, never complaining, just as Erik had said. Aevar had never known anyone with that kind of resilience.
She turned to him, and he averted his eyes so she wouldn’t catch him staring. She didn’t speak right away, but he felt her studying him now.
At last, she said, “I don’t know how to swim.”
He turned back to her. “You never learned to swim?”
“I never had the opportunity. Or permission.”
“Then I will teach you.”
Her brows shifted ever so slightly upward. “You would?”
He gave a firm nod, hoping for a day when the doubt he’d created in her healed. “Yes. But not right away. The fjord still has teeth.”
They shared a smile, hers tentative but warmer. Aevar let out a slow breath. It was a beginning—a cautious one—but one he’d fight to protect.
Chapter Twenty
Aevarlitthelamp,its glow spilling across the room as he turned toward the bed. Eadlyn lay still beneath the blanket, her eyes closed, and her face soft in sleep. He watched her for a long moment. His feelings for her had grown in the last few days, faster than he was ready for. It scared him. But he kept choosing to stay the course. If he pulled back now and didn’t show her how he felt, she’d never trust him again.
A lock of hair lay across her shoulder, and he found himself reaching for it. He paused but gave in to the desire that had lingered within him since their wedding day and brushed it aside. Soft as silk, just as he’d imagined. He let his fingers rest on her shoulder and traced his thumb over the curve of it.
She stirred beneath his touch, and he said her name. Her eyes blinked open, slow and unfazed. She didn’t startle anymore. A sign, he hoped, that she felt safe here now.
“Góthan morgin,” he murmured.
She echoed him in sleepy Nordric, and he smiled at the way she formed the sounds. She was getting better at it. He withdrewhis hand, but the warmth of her skin stayed with him. As she yawned and sat up, he left the room as was their routine.
