Chapter 10: The Bride Speaks

I put my hand in his.

It was the easiest thing I had ever done.

Torin's fingers closed around mine, warm and steady, and I stepped up onto the dais beside him and turned to face the hall.

Two hundred faces looked back.

Gudrun's was white under her veil.

"I have been called sick," I said. "I would like to answer that first."

Someone near the back snorted.

"I am not sick. I have never fainted in my life."

"I wander at night because I count the oats, and someone has to, and that someone has been me since I was twenty-two."

Kjell began to clap, once, loudly, and stopped when no one joined him.

"Anyone who wants me gone may say so now, to my face, with a witness."

I looked at Gudrun.

"I do not agree to be withdrawn."

The hall made a long, low noise.

Vigdis was still on her knees.

Her mouth hung open, and for a moment she looked like what she was, a girl who had never once been told no.

"Rise, Lady Vigdis," Torin said.

His voice was very calm.

She stood, trembling.

"You asked me to take you in your sister's place," he said. "I will answer you once, so there is no mistaking it. No."

"My lord, you don't understand. I am the one who..."

"I understand perfectly."

He looked at her the way he had once looked at me, but with the warmth taken out.

"I have a wife. I did not take a package from Lowmere. Today you have tried to hand me a second one."

A ripple of laughter ran along the benches.

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