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Toke help me, I was not prepared. I needed another ten years, at least. I’d not even had the chance to lay eyes on a woman for all this time, and now I had to share a hut with one?

I laid eyes on her now, and I couldn’t seem to tear them away. She was small, with narrow shoulders and a loose-fitting tunic the color of silt. She wore no cloak, and she was soaked to the bone. I’d expected skirts, but she was definitely in pants. I followed the lines made by her hips and thighs and barely had enough sense left over to think,that’s not what pants look like on a man.

Wasn’t I a clever one?

Apparently not clever enough because she turned, looked right at me… and I couldn’t do a damn thing but stand there gawking like an idiot.

With our gazes locked, it was like all the ability went out of me. The smallest gasp left her. Her dark eyes shined, a slant of light falling over her face, and I found I didn’t recognize her. Had I expected to? The girl from my memories was just a swirl of dark hair. I’d been a boy. We’d lived and grown and gone to bed and woken up a thousand times since then.

She was a stranger. And she looked at me like I was a stranger too. One she’d just discovered in her hut.

“I’m sorry,” I started, but whatever I was going to say after that was lost to what happened next.

The dog, who I’d had forgotten about, became a fury of barking. The bed hit the wall as the beast leaped to the floor and hurdled towards me.

Instinct made me raise the knife still in my hand.

“No!”

Both were running, the dog scrambling for me, her scrambling for the dog, and she cut it off at an angle, colliding with the thing right at my feet. She wrapped her arms around its shoulders and dropped it to the planks, her body holding it down as it rioted like a hell-beast underneath her.

“No,” she said again, and the dog cut the racket, though its legs still thrashed.

Cheeks hot, I turned my blade away.

“That dog’s a menace,” I bit out.

They were Baer’s words, not mine, and I hated myself the moment I heard them.

Fenli looked up. This time, there was no surprise in her face. This time, she had hell in her eyes.

She rose and I took a step back, my heel hitting the wall. The dog scrambled behind her, and it was clear to me which beast demanded my attention now. Wet hair fell over half her face. At her full height, she still only reached my nose, but her shoulders squared and her jaw tensed, the one brow I could make out at a dark slant. The whole look seemed to promise me I would regret all of my choices very soon.

I regretted them now.

Her finger jabbed me in the chest.

“Don’t,” she whispered, “touch my dog.”

I gathered myself. I was a man, after all… practically. This hut felt a hell of a lot more hers than mine, but it was also the only place in the whole godsdamned village where I was allowed to bunk.

Baer had made that clear.

I had to stick up for myself a bit. Claim this corner that currently harbored everything I’d ever had.

“Tell you dog not to touch me.”

For two beats of my heart, we only stared at each other. Then she turned away and scolded the animal. To my surprise, it listened, slinking back towards the bed to lie down on the rug with ahumph. It looked at me, but its eyes kept flicking back to her.

I looked at her, too.

Fenli had fled from my corner, as far as the hut would allow, and was back with the fireplace. I watched as she lifted the fire iron from its hook and stoked the coals. The glow highlighted all her edges, lighting her with warmth, and I saw more than I wanted to. The slight tremble in her hand, the grim line of her mouth, the worry in her brow.

I was an idiot. She didn’t want this any more than I did. By the looks of it, she wanted it even less.

I’d told myself it had been a help. The marriage had made Runehall’s clan stand down. They’d relented, and the little girl my father had told me I had to marry got to stay with her mother. I’d told myself that every time the uncertainty and dread rose up at the thought of her.

At least I’d helped her.