Ice Maiden

Lawmaker shook his head. “I think not. For all his rage, methinks George Grant is not a man who’d harm a reckless youth.”

“How can you be certain?”

Ottar went for Grant, and Rika shot forward, prepared to intervene.

Lawmaker yanked her back. “I’m a good judge of character.”

One hand on Ottar’s shoulder, Grant held the youth at bay. Rika held her breath, her arm burning from Lawmaker’s steely grip, and watched as the two exchanged some unintelligible dialogue. Finally Grant released him, and Ottar scaled the cliff. Rika breathed.

“See?” Lawmaker said. “I thought as much.”

Ottar shot her a dark look as he brushed past her.

“The boy’s jealous,” Lawmaker said.

“Jealous? Of whom?”

“The Scot. I told Ottar about the marriage.”

“That’s preposterous,” Rika said. “Why would Ottar be jealous? He’s just a boy. Besides—”

“He’s smitten with you. Has been e’er since he was old enough to walk and you to lead him by the hand.”

“Nonsense. We’re friends.”

“He’s nearly a man. Take care to remember that, Rika.”

She had no time to reflect on Ottar’s peculiar behavior or Lawmaker’s explanation of it, because Grant had scaled the cliff and now stood before her.

Rika drew herself up, ignoring her fluttering pulse, and looked the Scot in the eye. “You will agree to my plan?” She pursed her lips and waited.

“I will not,” Grant said between clenched teeth.

She had expected him to yield. Could he not see that he’d lost? That she would prevail?

“In that case,” she said, “there’s more driftwood on the opposite side of the island. I’m certain some of the children would be pleased to help you gather it.”

The fire in his eyes—slate eyes, she noticed for the first time—nearly singed her, so close did he stand. She was uncomfortably aware of his size, his maleness, and let her gaze slide to the stubble of tawny beard on his chin and the pulse point throbbing in his corded neck. Perhaps she’d been wrong to so quickly dismiss his masculinity.

Yet there was something different about him. He was not like the men she knew. She had not the feeling of foreboding she did as when Brodir loomed over her in anger. After a long moment, she realized why.

Grant dared not lay a finger on her.

Likely because he knew Lawmaker would kill him if he did. Or mayhap, as Lawmaker had said, Grant wasn’t the kind of man who…Nay. They were all that kind. Besides, it didn’t matter the reason. The knowledge of his reserve gave her power, and power was something she’d had little of in Brodir’s world.

“How far is it?” Grant snapped, holding her gaze. “To the mainland.”

“Three days’ sail—by ship.” Lawmaker glanced pointedly at the makeshift raft on the beach. “In fair weather.”

Grant’s eyes never left hers. “Three days. No so far.” He brushed past her, deliberately, and stalked off onto the moor. Bleating sheep scattered before him.

Her skin prickled.

“You’ve not much time left,” Lawmaker said to her as they watched him go.

She knew well what the elder meant. Brodir was long past due and could return any day. When he did, Rika’s one chance to save Gunnar would be lost forever.

“This is one of the complications you mentioned,” she said as she watched Grant charge a ram in his path.

“Precisely.”

“Well, then, old man, I leave it to you to sort it out.”

George settled on a bench in a corner of the village brew house and wondered how the devil to go about getting a draught of ale to slake his thirst.

He’d been given free range of the island, much to his surprise, and since he’d been strong enough to walk he’d covered every desolate, wind-whipped inch of it. Save sprouting wings and flying off, for the life of him he couldn’t fathom any way of escape.

Damn the bloody woman and her clan.

All had been instructed—by her, no doubt, though she seemed to hold no great position in the eyes of her own folk—to speak nary a word to him save what was necessary to feed and shelter him.

What little he’d been able to learn about the place and its people, he did so from his own observation and from snatches of overheard conversations.

The village was small, housing less than a hundred folk, and sat atop a cliff on the south side of the island. Below it lay a thin strip of rocky beach, boasting a tiny inlet at one end that harbored the single craft Rika had called a ship.

’Twas not much of one in George’s estimation. There was no natural timber on the island. Clearly the byrthing, as the locals called it, was built of scrap wood gleaned from shipwrecks. The low-drafting vessel looked barely seaworthy, but was heavily guarded all the same—likely due to his presence. Right off he saw ’twas too large for one man to sail alone.

Though sleet and the occasional snow flurry pummeled the surrounding moors, George was comfortable enough in the furs and woolen garments the islanders had loaned him, and with the food and shelter he’d been offered. He was neither prisoner nor guest, and felt a precariousness about his situation that was intensified by the fact that he had no weapons.

’Twas not the first time he’d been forced to use his wits in place of his sword to get what he wanted, though he’d feel a damn sight better about his chances with a length of Spanish steel in his hand.

He supposed he could just wait it out. If it were spring, he’d do exactly that. But few ships dared negotiate even coastal waters in the dead of winter, let alone chanced an open sea voyage. It could be weeks, months even, before another craft lit in Fair Isle’s tiny harbor.

The memory of the shipwreck burned fresh in his mind, though no trace of it, save scattered bits of wood, was left along the rocky shore of the island. He’d hired the vessel and its crew out of Inverness, and had taken a dozen of his own men as escort, including his brother.

Oh, Sommerled.

He raked a hand through his hair and blinked away the sting of tears pooling unbidden in his eyes. What had he been thinking to let the youth talk him into such a daft scheme? They should have traveled up the coast by steed, as was expected.

Expected.

Sweet Jesus, the Sinclairs!

Even now, they must wonder what had become of him and his party. His wedding to Anne Sinclair, youngest daughter of their chieftain, was to take place—he mentally counted off the days—two days hence!

He’d never get back by then. He cursed, and a dozen sets of eyes turned in his direction. Not at this rate, he wouldn’t.

The door to the brew house banged opened, wrenching him from his thoughts. Needles of sleet blew across the threshold instantly chilling the room. On its heels drifted another frosty presence.