Dream of Me/Believe in Me

long-suffering. His high-pitched voice grated. “Well enough, I suppose, given the ordeal I have endured. First called to account to the jarl for this one's disappearance, then finding out she had come here disguised as a servant. I see you made fast work of that, my lord, and I salute you, but I fail to understand why she sits in the place of honor at your side.”
    “Because she is my betrothed?” Hawk spoke as though to a dullard child. Around the hall, people sniggered at this blunt assessment of the lordling's intelligence.
    For his part, Sven remained undeterred. “Was, Hawk of Essex, only
was.
The shame she has brought upon our family renders her unfit to be any man's bride.”
    “You left behind whatever passes for your brain when you departed for these shores.”
    There were men in Winchester, powerful men around the king, who quaked when they heard the Hawk speak in that tone. They were wise enough to sense his anger rising and know the savage danger it represented. Sven was unburdened by any such awareness. He merely shrugged his narrow shoulders. “Insult me all you like, itmakes no difference. Mind you, you should be thanking me for what I have saved you from but I don't expect you realize it yet.” He paused, then with a dramatic wave of his arm toward Krysta announced, “She is a changeling.” As one, those assembled in the hall gasped and quickly positioned themselves for a better view of the violence they were certain was about to follow.
    Belatedly, and still only dimly aware that he had transgressed the bounds of courtesy, Sven added, “Before you think to deny what I say, hear the rest. Her mother was a witch who seduced my poor benighted father and bore him a changeling child. He near died from the shame, hiding her away as best he could. Out of respect for him, we kept the secret. Never did I imagine she would come to the notice of one such as the Wolf and that he would intend her to be the honored bride of so great a noble as yourself. But he had heard rumors that I had a half-sister and insisted on meeting her. Scarcely did he do so than he decided she was the one for you. I tried to tell him otherwise but all he would talk of was the dowry. The great dowry he insists is your due…. But never mind, it is not an issue now. None of our father's property is rightly hers, she deserves nothing, and her behavior of late cannot leave doubt of that in the mind of any man. But do not fret, lord, another will be found for you. Although not,” the miserly fool hastened to add, “any of my true sisters. They are … indisposed to wed.”
    He glanced at Daria. “A lady of true worth is needed to honor your bed and name.” He turned his gaze to Krysta. “And bear you children of a human ilk, not changeling creatures of the sea.”
    “God's blood!” Hawk roared and rose from his seat.
    Finally alarmed, Sven scampered back behind Daria and Father Elbert. “Oh, yes, you may curse me now but time will prove me right. Look at her. She is no lady nor will she ever be. I disown her and deny she is any part ofmy family! There will be no dowry for her. She deserves to be just what she cast herself, a servant … nay, a slave!”
    “Hold your tongue! Are you so lackwit as to give no thought even to your own life? I swear—” Hawk's hand went to his sword.
    “No,” Krysta cried. She put her hand over his. “Kill him and kill the hope of peace! If a Norse noble dies in your hall, what chance any other will give you his sister or daughter?”
    “I want no other woman! This buffoon thinks to save himself the coin of your dowry, nothing more. He concocts a tale to be told to credulous children and expects me to believe it!”
    “It is no tale,” Sven said with stiff affront. “Not even one such as she will deny the truth of it.” To Krysta, he said, “Give no thought to returning with me. Never again will you set foot in the lands of my father. Nay, keep her, lord, or dispose of her as you will. I give her to you and gladly. Knowing what you know now, no doubt you will want to punish her for her effrontery, and that is as it should be. You should lose no time chastising her.”
    “The only person I have any interest in chastising is you, you insufferable prig. As you value your skin, get you from my sight!”
    Finally Sven realized that he had gone too far. Or perhaps it was Daria and the priest tugging at his sleeves that alerted him to danger. They swept him from the hall, still with an