Dream of Me/Believe in Me

is the dread repute of the Hawk that protects us. Any hint of weakness is the door through which catastrophe will enter.”
    Her shoulders stiffened. She faced the steward proudly. “I see no weakness in Lord Hawk.”
    Edvard did not relent. “And surely you would never seek to prompt any.”
    “I seek only to be a good and loyal wife.” She spoke gently in deference to what she recognized as his true loyalty to his lord.
    The young man's expression softened slightly. “Then we will all hope you succeed, my lady, for there is not a man or woman or child here who does not wish the best for Lord Hawk.”
    Thus on notice that the people of Hawkforte expectedher to prove herself, Krysta was relieved when the tour of the manor concluded a short time later. She thought to seek the relief of solitude in her quarters until the supper hour so that she might reflect on all she had seen and learned. But when she passed through the great hall on her way to her chamber, she found Daria lying in wait for her.
    So suddenly did she emerge from the shadows that she took Krysta by surprise, prompting a small, startled cry.
    “Oh … Daria. I didn't see you.”
    The older woman's thin face bore two stark patches of color high on her cheeks, emphasizing the flat glitter of her gaze. “No doubt your mind is too full of frivolous thoughts to take note of your circumstances.” She sneered, her mouth twisting in derision. “You are a fool. The only sensible thing you can possibly do now is leave.”
    Coming from another, such rudeness would have surprised Krysta. But from Daria it seemed as natural as the curl of smoke from a wood fire, a reminder of embers lurking just below.
    “I don't think that would be sensible at all,” Krysta said.
    “Don't you? Then you don't understand the situation. You have
enraged
Hawk. Do you understand? He is so consumed with fury that he cannot trust himself to be anywhere near you. He's already had one stupid, selfish little wife and she did not live long. He is not a man who suffers fools gladly. He is in love with another woman, a lady of true nobility and worth whom he wishes to make his wife. Indeed, he would already have done so were it not for this idiotic alliance.”
    Before the barrage of so much that was new and shocking—a previous wife, dead … another woman he loved?—Krysta felt as though she had been plunged into a turbulent sea, both cold and smothering. Yet did a life-lineseem to beckon, disputing Daria's claims at least in part.
    “Hawk is not angry. Certainly he gave no indication of that yesterday eve.”
    Daria dismised that with a snort. “Of course he did not. He never shows his emotions before his people. But he's been out on the training field all day barely restraining himself from hacking his own men to pieces. You truly have no idea of the havoc you've wreaked, do you?”
    “I have done nothing so severe as to merit this. You are exaggerating—”
    “Nothing? God's breath, you are even stupider than Adda!”
    Daria's poison tainted the very air around her, yet even recognizing that, Krysta could not stop herself from asking, “Who is Adda?”
    “Who
was,”
Daria corrected triumphantly. “She was Hawk's first wife, that sniveling child. Her death was a relief to us all.”
    “How did she die?”
    “She fell from a cliff, that same one right out there.” Daria pointed toward the sea. “And good riddance to her, she deserved no better. We weren't even able to recover her body. Denied proper burial, her soul is condemned to wander forever. But of course that wouldn't worry you as you are not a Christian.”
    “I
am
a Christian. My father saw to it that I was reared as such.” She did not add that she suspected him of doing so as an antidote to what he perceived as the dangerous influence of her vanished mother.
    Daria looked taken aback but she recovered quickly. “No matter. You may call yourself what you will but your heart is pagan. The Norse can never be anything else. That is why you dwell in the frozen wastelands beyond the grace of Our Lord.”
    “Our land is as God willed it to be. However, I doubtHe willed you to be so ignorant and prejudiced. If that had been His wish for anyone, He would not have sent His Son with tidings of love and redemption for all.”
    For a moment, mounting fury held Daria in thrall. She did not move or speak but stared at Krysta with unconcealed malice. The silence drew out between them like a rank fog. Daria's mouth