Dream of Me/Believe in Me

better.
    With forced calm, Hawk said, “You mentioned a marriage offer. I never received any such. Why should I believe it ever existed?”
    “Because of this.” From within his tunic Wolf withdrew the scroll he had shown to Cymbra in the hold of his vessel. He passed it to Hawk, saying, “Your sister tells me you can read and she's already identified this as your seal. What explanation do you have for it?”
    Hawk took it slowly, studied it carefully. His dark,slanted brows drew together. “This is not my hand, nor did I authorize this.”
    “Yet it is your seal?”
    He looked more closely holding the parchment up to the light to study the wax imprint. With great reluctance, he nodded. “It appears to be.”
    Returning the scroll to Wolf, Hawk looked at him thoughtfully. “You really did propose an alliance between us?”
    “I did. The man who carried that message to you has never returned. His fate is unknown to me. I presumed him dead at your hand. This reply—” he gestured at the scroll, “was brought by a Cornish trader who frequents these waters and who claimed to have been paid to bring it.”
    “Paid by whom?”
    “A man in your service, wearing your colors.”
    “I sent no such man, nor do I know anything of your messenger.” Hawk's frown deepened. “Something is very wrong here. Someone has deliberately intervened to prevent an alliance between us.”
    Wolf nodded. “Any idea who?”
    “Our mutual enemy, the Danes? But I don't see how they would have had the opportunity.” Silently, he resolved to discover precisely what had occurred as quickly as possible. “An alliance between us has much to recommend it,” he admitted. “Yet, too, I must be certain this is best for my sister.”
    “It is,” Cymbra said quickly. With husky urgency, she added, “Surely you can't believe there is any reason for me to mislead you about that?”
    Her brother smiled gently but his eyes remained dark with concern. “I can think of an excellent reason. You have always sought to heal even at great cost to yourself. Mayhap you are doing that right now.”
    “No! You must put such thought from your mind. Wolf and I are very happy together.”
    Hawk did not reply to that although he did look from one to the other of them thoughtfully. He turned his attention to the superb food. Shortly the conversation moved off in other, safer directions.

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

    T ELL ME ONE GOOD REASON, CYMBRA SAID , “just
one
why men are n ecessary.” She slammed the dough she was kneading so hard that the worktable shook. Around her, the women didn't even pretend to be concentrating on their own tasks. They exchanged tolerant glances and waited to hear what the jarl's bride would say next.
    Brita stifled a giggle. “Well, I can think of
one
use they have but I'm quite sure you're already aware of it.”
    Cymbra waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, certainly, and with that they think to so dazzle and confuse us that anything else they do will pass our notice. I think not!”
Slam.
“I think they have not the sense of women.”
Thud.
“I think they are stubborn, infuriating, mule-headed, and—”
Smash.
    “My lady—” Brita yanked the dough to safety. “Perhaps you'd like to gut the fish instead?”
    The idea had appeal, if only because it would put a sharp knife in her hand, but Cymbra declined. With a sigh, she left off abusing the dough and went over to the window. In her mind's eye she saw not the childrenscampering across the hill top but the scene she had witnessed shortly after dawn as the men rode out. “They're hunting again.”
    Brita and all the other women already knew this, yet did they cluck their tongues sympathetically. “Only boar, my lady,” Brita reminded her. “I heard the lord Dragon say the jarl was in no mood for anything else. Boar we can always salt. It will not go to waste.”
    There was already such quantities of food stored for the winter, even after all the feasting, that real thought had to be given to decide what to do with more. A week now had Saxon and Norse hunted together, vying for the fiercest kills. Daily they pounded back into the hill fort, dripping blood and heaven knew what else, leaving to the women the task of coping with the carcasses while they went off to the sauna to see who could endure the most heat, tell the most outrageous stories, and drink the most ale.
    That was when they weren't wrestling, throwing javelins, or testing their skills in every conceivable