Page 100 of Viking in Love

“If there is such a thing as a fair hearing for a woman killing a nobleman! Nay, I think ’tis best to go on as they started. If there is no body, there can be no proof of murder.”

“From what I have been told of Oswald’s cruelties, he is in the proper resting place. Allah be praised!”

“Leave it to a woman to think of putting a piece of shit under a pile of shit.”

They grinned at each other.

Caedmon sighed. “I cannot imagine where this will all end.”

“Every knot has some way to undo it, my friend.”

Caedmon looked up then and saw that Breanne was staring at him. As their gazes held for a long moment, his heart swelled, and yea, he began to tingle in all his extremities, one in particular.

He realized in that moment that the biggest knot in his life was standing before him, with wisps of red hair blowing in the breeze and green eyes liquid with some emotion he could not name. It was a knot he feared would never unravel.

A short time later, Geoff came up to him with two cups of mead. The idiot was wearing a gold-embroidered green samite surcoat over a black tunic and braies with a gold-linked belt. Dumb as a goose! Did he not realize that fine apparel would make Dunstan greedy?

They sat down on a low bench in the bailey, which was bracketed on either side by wild rosebushes. Drifa’s handiwork, he supposed, wondering how soon Breanne would be itching to build something. If so, it had better be something religious, like a life-size crucifix.

“You are smiling, Caedmon.”

Caedmon smiled wider. “I was just noticing all of the princess Drifa’s live decorations. For your wedding?”

Geoff nodded. “Inside, as well. Flowers everywhere, even in the garderobe. And the food! We will all grow fat as lazy summer bears. But Sybil is pleased, and that is what matters.”

Caedmon arched his brows. “No second thoughts?”

“None. I did not realize how much I yearned for land of my own, but beyond that, Sybil and I are well suited.” Geoff’s cheeks flushed of a sudden. “The ceremony takes place day after tomorrow. Will you stand with me?”

“Of course.” He studied the still-blooming color on Geoff’s face. “You are smitten. God’s bones, you are!”

“Not smitten, precisely, but I must needs thank you for stepping back and allowing me this opportunity.” He squeezed Caedmon’s forearm.

“You are wrong, my friend. Sybil had eyes only for you from the beginning.”

“Speaking of which, I notice that you and Lady Breanne cannot keep your eyes off each other. Mayhap ‘smitten’ is in the eye of the beholder.”

Caedmon felt his face heat, too. “The woman is driving me barmy.” Instead of mentioning the one, most important, way in which Breanne was making him crazy, he told Geoff about the whole scenario with “Lady Amicia,” even the clenching woman-muscle business.

Geoff was howling with laughter by the time they noticed a lone rider on a fast horse approaching Heatherby. The man was an advance guard, carrying the Golden Dragon flag of the House of Wessex. Turns out the folks at Heatherby were to be given a great—some might say dubious—honor. King Edgar, two thanes, an ealdorman, and a troop of four dozen hirdsmen would be arriving for the wedding.

“That wily slyboots! It appears Dunstan has his own hidden agenda,” Geoff observed.

“You have no idea!” Caedmon proceeded to tell him of the archbishop’s request for land to build a monastery. “I daresay he knew all along that the king was on his way, to reinforce his grab-land appetite.”

“They bode ill for Heatherby and Larkspur.”

“For a certainty!”

“And for us,” Breanne said, coming up to them. “I suspect the disappearance of the earl of Havenshire is in this mix, as well. Now that we are forewarned, however, we can concoct our own plans to deflect their questions.”

Plans? She and her lackwit sisters are going to make plans? Caedmon turned to Geoff. “Shoot me with an arrow through the heart and put me out of my misery right now.”

“Oh, nay, you do not escape so easily!” Breanne put her hands to hips and glared down at him. “If we are going to suffer, you are going to suffer with us.”

So, Caedmon said, “What the bloody hell!” and, with Geoff’s hoots of encouraging laughter, he did what he had been wanting to do all day. He pulled Breanne forward so suddenly that she fell against him with a squeal, a sure sign that she wanted him, in his opinion. Leastways, that is what he told himself. Then he bent her back over one arm and kissed her.

And kissed her.