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Her frozen nose had led her astray because up close, the stew smelled rancid and tasted even worse.
That’s what they get for eating his food. Do better.
‘Perhaps Jael can come and train you?’ Thorgils suggested cheekily, hoping to keep Fyn from noticing that they had both stopped eating.
Should have put it back in the damn pot when he turned away.
Someone with a simple approach. Someone, maybe like you, Thorgils, who is at that sort of level.’
Ha!
Thorgils hung his head at his dimness, then raced out after Fyn,
Why? Was he sad she wouldn’t let him eat it?
Jael and Thorgils decided to leave before Fyn could offer them anything else to eat.
He didn’t offer any of his stuff to begin with!
‘I had fur in my mouth.’ ‘Is that all?’ Thorgils gagged. ‘I swallowed a claw!’
Oh my!
Outside the hall, a searing wind attacked them, and Jael realised that she would need to get a new cloak made of thick fur if she wanted to survive in this frigid place.
She didn’t realize that this morning for the horse ride?
Jael hissed, glancing around, listening for footsteps.
Shouldn’t she be able to see them in the snow? Well, maybe not since already packed.
‘He won’t hesitate to talk to your father if he sees anything amiss between us.’
Talk to HIS father? That’s not what he’s there for though.
‘Tiras will report everything back to Lothar and believe me, he’ll work very hard to find something.’
How is he going to report something when the sea is frozen, unless they have carrier birds?
I just need to survive him, survive this place, and find a way back to Aleksander. I can’t waste my time trying to help someone who can’t even help himself. Someone who has no future as a king or a man.’
Wow…
Come and sit, there is much I have to tell you,
And sit? You’re not at home! Ain’t nobody got time for that ridiculousness!
and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold on.’
Yet you need her to sit?
Jael ended up lost, twice, but finally, she found her way to Fyn’s hut in the hill.
Hope she brought him some fresh food…
‘She’s been obsessed with Eadmund since she was a child. Which is strange, don’t you think?’
Yep. She killed the wife. How could no one realize that if she’s been like that since they were kids?
And no matter what her aunt had warned her, she was never going to let that happen.
Oh lord…
Thinking about Oss and its people as though she wanted them to like her, as though she wanted to belong?
She’s ridiculous because knowing that she has a child with Eadmund means she’ll be there for at least a couple of years, a little longer of Alex’s description of the little girl was between 2 and 5 years old (for some reason I was picturing a little girl, not a baby). She needs to try to learn stuff and people for her own peace of mind and comfort.
Despite Evaine’s childlike appearance, her right hand was itching to slip inside her cloak and touch Toothpick.
She really named it Toothpick?
‘Ivaar will destroy everything. He can’t come, Jael. He can’t!’
Ivaar! Shouldn’t the concern be to stop Eadmund!
She closed her eyes, thinking of Edela. Her grandmother may just have saved her life.
Wasn’t that the whole point?
‘Yes, you’re right, I suppose Jael could be with child by then, so she might not want to make the journey.’
Wow…
And she will. I’ve seen it.’ He stared at Edela with such fierce determination that she shuddered at both his expression and his words. Seen it? How?
Yeah, now you realize? He already ranted about her having his child, which I could see being understood as speculation on his part initially…
tearing off a piece of the bread Jael offered him. It had been warm when she left the fort, but it was almost frozen now.
What did she expect, leaving it in the saddlebag out in the cold the entire time they practiced instead of inside by the fire?
Fyn was too shocked to respond, so Jael got up, and, finding a jug beside Fyn’s bed, she poured herself a cup of very watery ale.
Better hope it’s not piss! Beside his bed on nights it’s too cold to get up.
‘No!’ The look on Fyn’s face was pure terror. ‘No, please, Jael. Please don’t do that!’ He reached out, grabbing her hand. ‘Promise me you won’t say anything to the king, or to my mother or father. Please!’
Ok, what did he do to get banished? Something ain’t right…
I wonder how she’ll be when my grandsons start arriving?’
Granddaughter, hon…
Fyn saw the confused look on Jael’s face and tried to unmuddle his thoughts. ‘He found me,’ he mumbled, coughing nervously, ‘being raped.’
What in the hell!
‘It’s acceptable to be the man doing it, but to be the one... receiving it... that is to be like a woman. Not a man.
Wow…
Fyn laughed bitterly. ‘Not him. They would never banish him.
Tarak!
‘It was... Tarak.’
I knew it!
Thorgils was waving his arms around, retelling his battle victory to two attentive women,
I hope not the victory over Jael! He’s lame.
‘Tell me about what?’ Morac asked irritably,
She said Eadmund, not father.
‘Nothing, as she said. She’s just being silly, thinking of Eadmund all the time.
Oh, mom’s an idiot.
‘We have to find the other one,’ she heard from somewhere behind her. ‘She must have taken the book.’
Oh snap! Her mother or grandmother gave her the “book” she used to dream walk.
‘We don’t want to go back there, none of us do after what happened, especially you.
He was from there as well?
The smell when they entered the cave was intense, like rotten eggs, Jael thought, wrinkling her nose. The air was much warmer than outside, though; warm, and glowing blue!
Hot pool? And no one knows about it?
‘I can’t think of anything to say, except, thank you, and get out so I can get in!’ She smiled ecstatically at the men as she rushed to remove her gloves and cloak.
So… they traveled all the way there and can’t get in? There aren’t smaller offshoot pools so they can all partake?
And I tell you, in Eadmund you have a good man, and
A good man? He’s been having sex with another woman the entire time he’s been married to her!
He should have done more to help them when Ranuf died.
Wow. Really? All this time?
He looked happy and relaxed, warm too, in a thick fur cloak.
Does she have a thick cloak yet? Why has no one given her one?
‘I know. I’ve been thinking about wearing one of the furs from my bed instead,’ Jael said awkwardly.
Instead of just getting a new cloak?
Perhaps he knew about Evaine’s baby? But if that was the case, why wasn’t he with her?
Ask him.
Eadmund frowned after her, disappointed by the abrupt end to their promising conversation. He reluctantly turned his attention back to Evaine.
He’s so dumb he doesn’t even realize that her comment means se knows about him and Evaine…
Her memories of Tuura, though seventeen-years-faded now, were still raw enough to give her nightmares. ‘But Branwyn’s my sister. I just hope that she’ll be alright.’
But they left her sister there?
‘Your eye is closing up,’ Fyn noted as Thorgils and Jael shook themselves by his fire.
All that ice around…
saw you two speaking to each other last night. Things are moving along at a rapid pace now. Before long, you might even decide to get married!’
Lol
‘Well, she didn’t do it alone,’ Jael noted, wryly. ‘I think Eadmund may be partly responsible.’
You think?
‘Don’t be too hard on Thorgils!’ he called up to her. ‘He has more reasons than most not to want Ivaar back!’
Lord have mercy! Another rapist?
Oss was a long-ago memory that she’d shut behind an iron-strong door. She didn’t want to open it again. Not ever.
Was she Thorgil’s lover?
I’m not sure he’s even seen inside it before?’
He was inside it on your wedding night and walked out of it the next morning.
