Without speaking, he pulled her off to the side where they could talk in private, but not so far away she couldn’t see Hrolf’s sullen glare and Dar’s self-satisfied wink. Thork leaned one shoulder against the stone wall of the keep, but still held her hand firmly, absently rubbing the inside of her wrist with his thumb. His eyes held hers for a long moment, their unfathomable blue heightened by the deep color of the cloak.
“Do you know why I am here?”
“Yes, I think so.” Ruby’s heart beat wildly in fear at Thork’s aloof countenance. He could surely feel it through the rapid pulse at her wrist.
“We will marry on the morrow,” he declared. No asking. Just a flat statement of fact.
Ruby really was beginning to worry now. This was not the way she’d imagined their reunion would be. She nodded, unable to speak over the lump in her throat. Lord, she wished Thork would smile or say something to disclose his feelings about the event.
I never wanted to wed.”
Ruby’s heart dropped and she lowered her eyes to hide the pain. “I know,” she said softly. “You told me so often enough.” A sense of foreboding enveloped Ruby.
“Marriage is a trap that ensnares a man in deadly emotions.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Ruby said shakily, raising her tear-filled eyes.
Thork quirked an eyebrow and wiped an errant tear that hung on the edge of her eye with the pad of his thumb.
“Marriage could be the melding together of two people destined to be together. It could be a sharing—a partnership of a man and a woman with a common goal. It could be a touch of paradise on earth.” Ruby couldn’t believe she was spouting such flowery words, or that she actually meant them. She closed her eyes bleakly.
“Is that how you envision our marriage?” Ruby’s eyes shot open. For the first time, Ruby noticed the raspiness of Thork’s voice, the odd glow in his eyes.
“Yes,” she whispered hopefully and restrained herself from reaching out to brush a strand of hair that fell over his forehead.
“Even if I wanted that kind of marriage, what do you think my brother Eric would do?” Thork said huskily. “Think you that he would let me plant my feet in one spot for long? That he would not harm those I cherish?”
Cherish! Ruby’s hopes soared. Hesitating several moments to select just the right words, Ruby finally said, “Life is so short. It seems to me such a waste to spend those precious days looking over your shoulder, worrying about what might happen. We have to grasp the moment.” She inhaled deeply and scrutinized his face to see if he understood what she was trying to say. “Oh, Thork, wouldn’t you rather have a day of happiness than a lifetime of ‘what might have beens’?”
A gentle smile turned up the corners of Thork’s lips. ” ‘Tis odd that you should say that.”
“Why?”
” ‘Tis the selfsame reason I returned for you.”
Ruby studied his handsome face, which just now seemed to relax from some rigid tension that had held him in its grasp. She frowned in puzzlement, not sure what he meant.
“When Hrolf and his men bound me and I lay two days with no food or drink in his prison, I had to face the prospect of dying. Oh, ’twas not a new threat. I flaunt death at every turn as a Jomsviking. But the idea of dying and never seeing you again—that, I discovered, I could not bear.”
“Thork, what are you saying?”
“Nay, let me continue. I asked myself this question as I lay contemplating death: What would you do today if you knew there would be no tomorrow? The answer was simple: I would marry Ruby and cherish each moment, no matter how few they may be.”
Ruby hesitated for only a second, then threw herself into his arms, despite the dozens of people who watched from the other side of the hall. He caught her and lifted her so her toes barely touched the floor. Ruby buried her face in his neck, sobbing out the weeks of desolation she’d suffered in his absence.