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‘Yes I value a man who keeps his word Once my path is chosen I do not deviate’

‘Even if a better way appears?’

He shook his head ‘There has never been a need I find it iht at all times’

‘And what is that?’

He gestured about him ‘To have my own patch of earth where I can sow and farm without fear Here I will put down my roots The wanderer has found a place to lay his head’

‘And is that all?’

He sighed ‘Where is this conversation leading, Edith? If you must know, I intend eventually to send to Norway for a bride I told Halfdan I would do so once I had land when I entered his service’

Her stomach churned ‘Then you have an intended?’

‘In aThere is a woave me leave to ask if I ever became a jaarl I suspect he never believed it would happen, but everyone knew my intention’

Everyone but her The sht come to love her and want to marry her died She hadn’t even realised that she had had that dreaone She raised her chin and refused to shoon telling me?’

‘Why should I? It has nothing to do with us’

Edith clenched her hands together so tightly that her knuckles hite ‘You should have said so It would have made a difference’

‘Why?’ He seeenuinely astonished

‘Because I could never do to another woe to weep She never cried ‘That’s why’

‘I intend to look after you I never shirk my responsibilities’ He frowned ‘I knohat it is like to be the son of a concubine’

Each word tore into her soul She had been living in soht that he was bound to ask her to marry him It was the most sensible solution Now she discovered that she was soht His heart already belonged to someone else It shouldn’t bother her but it did Once in her life, she wanted to be loved