Page 142 of The Outlaw Viking

He gave her one more quick kiss, then released her.

“I will be back on the morrow. Be here.”

“I will probably be gone by then,” she stated stubbornly.

“Do you think so? I do not. By the by, what kind of fabric would you like for your wedding dress?”

“Wedding dress?” she sputtered. “Are you listening to me? Get this into your thick head. I…am…leaving.”

“Did I tell you I adopted Adam?”

Her eyes widened with shock. Good. Best to keep the wench guessing. He used to know that about women. He had forgotten over the years. Well, he would have to hone his skills now.

He continued. “Didst know that the little scamp stowed away on a ship and came all the way to Southampton to find me? To bring me back to you?”

Her mouth hung open now. Another good sign, he decided, and went for the kill. “Adam will, no doubt, insist on being my—what did you tell me that time about modern wedding rituals? Oh, I remember—my best man.”

Rain made a strange gurgling sound.

“And Adela can be your wench-of-honor.”

He turned then and left, without another word. He had much work to do before dark.

Rain stared at Selik’s departing body. She could barely keep herself from running after him. He looked so damned wonderful.

He no longer had the magnificent long blond hair that she had loved, but he looked just as good in the short style which barely came to his neck. Somehow it drew more attention to the sharp edges of his cheekbones and jaw, made him more handsome, less beautiful. A deep blue, short-sleeved tunic stretched across his wide shoulders, going only to his knees. The well-defined cords in his muscled calves and thighs stood out under his tight braies as he walked away. A thick, silver-linked belt accented his narrow waist.

Would this be the picture Rain would take back with her to the future?

Just before he opened the doorway to the church, Selik turned and his eyes, a startling gray against his tanned face, held hers for a long moment. As if in promise.

She’d told him that she didn’t love him anymore, but that wasn’t true. She loved him more than life itself.

She had to go home. And it wasn’t just stubbornness that made her stick to that decision. Even though she could never forget Selik’s lack of trust and ugly words at Winchester, she had already forgiven him for that. And his still harboring that mistaken notion of her infidelity—well, she could even accept that, hurtful as it was.

But Selik intended to continue his blood feud with Steven of Gravely. What kind of future would they have if she stayed? The next time someone hurt him, whether it was Steven or some other enemy, which would inevitably happen in these violent times, he would be off on another round of vengeance. The cycle was never ending. And she refused to be part of it by staying in his life. She just couldn’t bear such continuing pain.

Trust in love, the voice said.

But Rain was afraid to trust anymore.

“Well, what did ye expect?” an exasperated Ubbi exclaimed back at the farmstead when Selik told him of his failure with Rain. “Ye are blind as a bat, just as she said. And I thought ye had more sense than to go blundering after her so clumsily.”

“If I am willing to forgive Rain for her—for her betrayal with Steven, why can’t she forgive my harsh words?”

“Betrayal! Betrayal! Is that what ye said to her? Well, no wonder she rejected ye!”

“Explain yourself,” Selik demanded.

“Do ye have any idea what condition my lady was in when she returned from Winchester? Her body was one big bruise from her shoulders to her toes. And all because of you!”

Stunned, Selik demanded that Ubbi tell him everything.

When he finished, Selik raked his hands through his hair distractedly. “But I saw them together.”

“Ye saw what ye wanted to see.”

“Why did Athelstan not tell me?”