“Do you have any idea how humiliated I am to be related to such a man, much less to have to call him father?""Take comfort. Perhaps your mother strayed.""Oh,dearly would I like to believe that!”

“For once in her life, the thought of being on the back of a magnificent horse did not command Rycca's attention. She was far too busy looking at her magnicifent husband as he removed his sword belt and blithely shucked off his trousers. Naked, he walked straight into the pool, submerged completely, and came up a few minutes later, tossing streams of water from the thick mane of his hair."Hand me the soap,would you?"Such a simple task, yet to fulfill it he would have to come closer.Or she would."That's a lovely gown," he said, smiling."All my gowns are lovely thanks to the Lady Krysta and your own generosity.""It would be a shame to get it wet."She looked at him in alarm, wondering if he would actually do such a thing. His answer was a look of pure innocence, which immediately confirmed her suspicions."Do you have any idea how any women must have labored so long to make this gown?""No,do you?""Well,no,not actually because I never had a gown like this before, but even so, surely you wouldn't do anything to damage it?""Just to be safe,why don't you take it off?"Oh,yes,that would certainly be safe. Indeed,never was she any safer than when was she naked and in his arms. Except, of course, from the danger of her own emotions."I bathed when I awoke.""The day is warm.""The pool looks deep.Recall, I cannot swim.""Recall I mean to teach you.”

“You are afraid?”“I am not!” Spoken too quickly, the words rang false.“I thought you merely uneasy but now I see there is more than that. Why? It is not as though I am a stranger to you.”“But you are, stranger than any man I have ever met before.”Dragon grimaced and caught her hair in his hand, drawing her head back slightly, the better to look at her. “Ever do you pick my vanity. There will be nothing left of it soon.”She stared back at him in bewilderment. “What have I said?”“It is what you have not, but never mind, I am resolved, what sighs and moans of pleasure, what cries of delight I wish to hear, I will have from you, wife, before this night is done.”

“You are the third bride wed for peace," Cymbra said with a smile. "And to be frank, it has not been an easy road for the two of us who went before. Yet knowing what we do now, neither Krysta nor I would ever have chosen a different path.""How much choice did you have?"To Rycca's surprise, Cymbra laughed. "In my case, none." She sighed in mocking languor. "I still remember Wolf's deeply romantic proposal. He told me that if I did not wed him, he would kill my brother.""He what?""Oh,don't worry, he's gotten much better." She laughed again, fondly. "Much, much better.Besides, Dragon is the one who was always good with women."Rycca could not dispute that but neither could she ignore what she had just been told.Shocked, she asked, "What did you do?""Do? Why,I punched him,of course. What else could I do? He went to our wedding worried that the blow still showed.""You...punched him?" The ethereal beauty beside her had struck the fierce Wolf?"Rycca,dear sister, something you must learn at once.Wolf and Dragon are both wonderful men but they are also overwhelming. It is part of their charm. Nontheless,with them it is always best to be firm. For that matter, the same can be said of my brother, as Krysta learned readily enough.""She and Lord Hawk seem devoted to each other.""As are Wold and I. That doesn't mean one should be a meek little woman rubbing feet.""What a horrible notion! However did you think of it?""Oh,didn't you know? That's the kind of wife Dragon always said he wanted."Too many more shocks of this sort and she was going to turn to stone right where she stood. "He said that? Whatever could he have been thinking? Any such woman would drive him mad.""Which is more or less what Wolf told him, only he said she would kill him with boredom. No, Dragon needs someone who can match his spirit, which I am now reassured you can do. Come, let us seek out Magda, who will serve us cool milk and cakes and give us a snug place to talk while the men amuse themselves.""Dragon has a sword for his brother.""The Moorish sword? Perfect, they will be occupied for hours.We won't see them again until they are satisfied neither is stronger or more agile than the other.”

“When you are better rested, I’ll expect you to help with the chores.”Her head whipped around so quickly that hair like copper silk lashed his arm. “What makes you think I will be here long enough for that?”“I am paying you the compliment of assuming you are intelligent.” Before she could conceal her wary surprise, he added, “Or if not, that you have at least enough common sense to realize that you would not get very far.” Ominously, he added, “If I have to go after you again, I will put aside any concern I have about why you are concealing your identity and take you straight to the authorities. Is that clear?”She paled slightly, making him twinge with guilt, but he ignored that. The threat was as much for her own good as for his peace of mind. When she murmured under her breath, he bent closer. “What was that?”Their eyes were level. Hers blazed. “I said,” she repeated, enunciating very clearly, “You’ll have to catch me first.”

“You want to control me.” She spoke dispassionately as though observing the plight of another woman far distant from herself. Dragon looked up, surprised. “You are my wife.”“Say rather possession for so do you think, do you not?”He shrugged, wondering why she stated the obvious. “All wives belong to their husbands.”“I wanted to be free.”His eyes darkened. There was greater challenge here than even he had thought. “You wanted to be safe from Wolscroft and the rest of them, even from me when you though misguidedly. That is why you fled.”She shook her head. “Oh, no, safety was a convent from which not even my father could have forced me. But it was not to one such that I fled, was it? I wanted freedom, and having tasted it, however briefly, I want it still.”His hands tightened on her, driven by the sudden, piercing pain her words brought. Did she think to leave him again? To flee as she had done and leave him once more bereft. No, by heaven, she would not! “No one is free,” he said fiercely. “We are all enmeshed in duty and responsibility.”“Your duty is of your own choosing, for you did not return here after many years away and willingly take up your inheritance. Your destiny is of your own making and you the master of it as much as any man can claim to be. I want the same myself, no more, less.”“But you are a woman . . .” His bewilderment was genuine. Such yearnings as she described belonged to the realm of men. Women were for hearth and home, the nurturing of children, such ordered security of days as could be wrested from uncertain fate. A man in the thick of battle, in the fury of adventure, in the depths of night had to be able to count on that, for without it, of what purpose was anything?“You are a woman,” he repeated firmly. “And my wife. You have been too long apart from womanly ways with no proper influence to guide you. I applaud your strength and your courage; both will breed true in my sons, but—”“Your sons? Your sons? They will be my sons, Lord Vanity, and my daughters as well, mayhap only daughters, for by heaven it would suit me to thwart you so!”

“Ashamed of what she had thought, Rycca lowered her eyes. “I am sorry.”“For what? Assuming I took the stone by force? But that’s what Vikings do, isn’t it?”He sounded exasperated and she could not blame him. But neither was she prepared when he suddenly asked, “Why did you not want us to marry? Because I am Viking?”She had wondered if he would ask, then decided her reasons would likely mean nothing to him. But he was a man of surprises, this hero of her strange world. And very good at biding his time.“It is true, I did not wish to wed a Viking.”“Because of what you have heard about us?”