Page 7

“Yes. It is only a short swim away. Barely even a few hours, if we cut straight across the lake.”

Hours?

In open water?

The mere thought of it made my gut tighten.

“Or not,” he said, stroking my back. “That is fine. We can stay close to shore if you must have land in sight. It will take days that way, but I do not care. You will be with me.”

“I’ll do it,” I said. “Swim across the lake with you. For you. If you want that, I will do it.”

He lit up.

“But I have to learn first.”

He nodded quickly. “Yes.”

I couldn’t help but kiss him again, until we were both shaking with need. I’d have let him have me right there, holding me up with a combination of his strength and his control over the water, but to my surprise, he was the one to pull away.

He eased me down, took my hand, and hauled me out of the lake after him.

I thought we were going back to the cabin to make love, but no.

I rinsed myself clean at the pump, dried off and dressed in warm clothes, and he rushed me straight off to town, where I found myself ordering a late lunch at the tavern.

Henrik ate his lunch there every day and was on his way out as I was going in, but at my invitation, he was happy to join me at my table, ordering himself another drink to keep me company while I ate.

Henrik was a merchant, as I’d once been, and he was always keen to corner me whenever he could and talk shop.

Where I’d specialised in importing fine goods to sell in the kingdom’s capital, he focused on bringing general goods to serve the population of Laskeld and its environs.

He was a knowledgeable man, and we’d spent many comfortable hours in conversation.

We’d become good friends, but even so, once I’d finished my quick meal of hearty beef stew served with freshly baked and still-warm bread, I had to conjure up Sayan’s sweet hopefulness and somewhat baffling excitement over having me in the water with him before I could bring myself to ask Henrik for the favour.

“You want me to teach you to swim?” Henrik repeated.

I swallowed my mouthful of ale and set the tankard down on the scarred but sturdy tavern table. “Yes.”

“You don’t know how to swim?”

“No. That’s why I’m asking.”

Henrik pushed back from the table and gawked at me. “How can you not know how to swim?”

“It’s quite easy. All you have to do is grow up in a city where the river is poison and where, if you’re stupid enough to jump into the crowded harbour in the first place, the longshoremen will row right over your head.”

“Fair enough,” he said mildly. “No need to be offended.”

“Sorry, Henrik. That was rude of me. I find myself somewhat frustrated over the whole business.”

Henrik cocked his head and made an encouraging noise, even as he waved at the server and pointed first at me and then at himself.

“Sayan…” I slumped down in the wooden settle, then tipped forwards and set my elbows on the table and my chin in my hands. “Sayan is most eager for me to join him in his lake.”

“Ah.” Henrik gave me a broad wink. “To swim .”

“Yes. To swim.”

“I understand.” His tone of voice very much said that he didn’t.

“Quite honestly, if it was just for that, I wouldn’t have any problems at all. He actually does want me to swim, though. He mentioned taking me to a waterfall.”

“Waterfall?” Henrik paused to thank the server, who brought over two foaming tankards. He pushed one my way. “There isn’t a waterfall around here.”

“Sayan said it was a few hours of swimming if we cut across the lake, or a few days if we follow the shore.”

Henrik’s eyes widened. “He might be talking about the waterfall up at the top of Norreld, but that’s hundreds of miles away, Erik. Doesn’t matter how good you are at swimming, you’ll never make it a few hundred miles. Doubt you could even make it one hundred. Does he know that?”

“Definitely not, no. Sayan is a naiad. He has a connection to the water that I, lowly human that I am, can’t even begin to fathom. Unfortunately, that works both ways. He has no comprehension of my human limitations, I don’t think he’ll ever manage to teach me, and he’s getting very frustrated.”

“He’s not the only one, I’ll warrant.”

“He is not.”

“Well, you came to the right man for help. I could teach you myself but I’m not getting in that lake until midsummer at the earliest, not even for a good friend such as yourself.

It takes that long for the water to warm up, and my old bones won’t like it.

My nephew Ral, on the other hand, is young, hearty, and restless.

A regular dunking in cold water can only do the boy good. ”

I eyed Henrik. “If you’re still hoping that I will fall in love and marry him?—”

Henrik threw back his head and boomed out a laugh. “He’s far too young for the likes of you.”

“That is not what you said when you tried to get me to marry him before.”

Henrik shrugged, unabashed. “Was I supposed to ignore the fact a rich and available widower had moved close to town, and me a family man with two wonderful nephews ready to settle down?”

“Yes. I wasn’t available.”

“Didn’t know you’d taken up with the Naiad of Laskeld himself, did I?”

“You saw me with him.”

“Right, but everyone knows he doesn’t come back for seconds. At least, he didn’t before you.”

I merely lifted my brows and took a sip from my tankard. “What about Mikko? Do you think he’d do it?”

“You don’t like my little Ral?”

“He’s a charming boy. Mikko is a sensible man.

As I have thus far proven to be impossible to teach, I might need Mikko’s pragmatism and, more importantly, his patience.

Also, Ral isn’t little.” He was the same height I was, six foot two inches.

Perhaps even a shade taller. Considering that he was in his early twenties, he wasn’t really a boy, either.

“Mikko is a sensible man,” Henrik said. “You’re not wrong there. Far too sensible to get in the lake before midsummer.”

“Then I’ll ask Ral, if you think he’ll be amenable.”

“Oh, he’ll jump at the chance. Ral’s sweet on you, you know.”

“On…? On me?”

“Come, now. No need to look so surprised. Why shouldn’t he be sweet on you?”

“Why…? As you just pointed out, I am twice his age!”

“True, true. In case you hadn’t noticed, your naiad is more than twice your age, with a few thousand years on top.”

“I’m sure you’re mistaken. There’s no reason for a lad like Ral to turn his attention to a man like me.”

“I’m guessing he has a fancy for plain and stern,” Henrik said. “I wouldn’t worry yourself about it.”

Plain and stern?

Plain, yes, but…was I stern?

“I’m sure he’ll be able to keep it in his breeches,” Henrik went on. “If he doesn’t, a sharp word from you will do it.”

“If he doesn’t, what he’ll get isn’t a sharp word from me, it’ll be a nasty fright from Sayan. Possibly a near drowning.”

Henrik’s tankard paused halfway to his mouth. “I’ll ask Mikko for you,” he said.

“Thank you.”