The tension left her completely. So completely she looked limp. Am I that intimidating? he wondered.

“I was so afraid you’d think I’m some kind of traitor.”

He snorted. “Crap. The gods didn’t make pretty girls to waste on dead men. If I wasn’t old enough to be your father, and if you hadn’t been married to Ragnar, I’d be out here chasing you myself.” He stopped there. That wasn’t quite the way he should say it. Too much subject to misinterpretation.

She knew his style well enough to accept it in the spirit in which it was meant. “Thanks. It’s good to hear I’m not an old hag yet.”

“You’ve got two or three good years left. Speaking of your friends, what ever happened to that tiny little one? The blonde. Sherilee. Something like that.”

Kristen smiled saucily. “Interested?”

“No. I…. Uh…. I haven’t seen her around. I just wondered.”

“I’ve seen the way you look at her. The game you’re thinking about doesn’t have anything to do with running through the woods.”

He grinned weakly, unable to articulate a protest. The woman in question had stricken him speechless the few times he had encountered her. He did not know why. That is, he understood his glandular response, but not why the particular female should have initiated it.

“I’m not shopping, Kristen. I just wondered. She’s your age, after all.”

“Be twenty-two in a couple months. Don’t let Inger see you looking at her like that. She’ll cut your throat. Yes. She’s still around. I see her maybe once a week. You just haven’t been around much. She’s a little scared of you, you know. You’re so quiet and broody, you make her nervous.”

“I’m that way because she makes me nervous,” he admitted. “I’m supposed to be old enough that women don’t affect me that way. I shouldn’t even notice them when they’re that young.”

“I’m not going to say anything. Just keep talking yourself in deeper.”

“Don’t laugh, either. It’s not funny to me. You said Aral comes to see Mist when she’s in town. Tell me about it.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“You noticed. You’re too damned smart for a female. Can’t put anything past you.”

“All right. I’ll back off. All I can tell you is that he goes to Mist’s house every day when she comes to the city. I saw him go by this morning. He was pretending he was interested in the park. I recognized him anyway.”

“He doesn’t seem to be sneaking, though, eh?”

“I don’t know.”

“He wouldn’t just ride out Lieneke Lane if he was, would he?”

“I don’t know him well enough to guess.”

A servant signalled Kristen. She led Bragi to the kitchen, where he devoured most of a chicken. “Been eating so much chicken lately, I’m going to turn into one. Guess I’ll have to see Mist for sure. Find out what the hell is going on. Going to be embarrassing if they’re just playing a little push-me pull-you.”