Page 66 of Ulf's Destiny
“Thanks, my friends.” Ulf suddenly looked exhausted himself.
“No problem. You just take care. And Ylva, it’s nice to meet you.”
After one last nod, they left. Ylva spent a long moment bathing Ulf, tending to his various cuts and scrapes, crying all the while. She knew the baby was making her more emotional than usual but this was ludicrous. Every time she discovered a new bruise, a tear fell down her cheeks.
“I’m all right,” Ulf, kept repeating, wiping them away. “I’m all right. I’m here.”
When the water was cold he finally agreed to leave the tub.
“Lie with me, my love,” he mumbled, stretching his long limbs on the pallet. “I need you by my side, even if, unfortunately, I’m in no state to?—”
He fell asleep before he could finish the sentence. He had only eaten a piece of bread, but she knew at the moment he needed rest more than food.
Moved by his sudden vulnerability, she sat next to him and watched him a long moment, stroking his hair, his chest, his arms, everywhere she could reach. All the while, she whispered words of love.
The baby kicked, and she placed Ulf’s hand over the place where she had felt the nudge. Was it a foot, an elbow, a knee? It was impossible to tell. But it was her son, letting her know he was here.
“It’s all right, Einar, your father’s here,” she murmured to her little boy. “Feel him, he’s back. He loves you, he loves me, and he’s never leaving us again. Everything is going to be all right.”
It was alreadymid-morning when Ulf finally came to find her outside the hut. Rather than getting fully dressed, he had simply put on his braies and thrown a cloak over his shoulders. His clean hair looked deliciously mussed. He had never looked better.
“Have you been here long?” he asked, taking her into his arms.
“Not really. I had a long sleep myself. I just saw Oslac, who asked after you.”
Her brother, understanding that she and Ulf needed the hut back, had gone to sleep in Caedmon’s hay loft.
“I hope you told him I’m fine.” He made a grimace. “I’m sorry I fell asleep on you like that yesterday but I needed that sleep.”
Yes. Getting beaten probably did that to you. She was glad she would never find out, now that she had found a safe place to live. Carefully, she placed a hand over his bruised cheek and her eyes started to water—again.
“I hate to see you like this.”
He covered her hand with his. “It’s all right, I’m fine. Truly.”
“You look like a mighty Norse warrior.”
He let out a booming laugh she had never heard before but loved. “You say that like you don’t know if it’s a good thing or not.”
“Well… That’s precisely because I don’t know. You do look magnificent, but I hate knowing that you’ve been hurt.”
“I was hurt. But then you saved me, remember?”
“Yes.”
That had been the proudest moment of her life. Ironic, because the day she had tried to stab him for real had been the worst, most shameful.
Ylva stared to shiver, and no wonder. The morning was unusually cold for the season.
“You’re cold,” Ulf said. “Come here.”
He lifted the heavy cloak he was wearing and wrapped her inside, keeping her tight against his bare chest. The warmth, the comfort, were like nothing else she had ever experienced. This man and what she felt for him were like nothing she had ever experienced, and she relished every moment of it.
“Let’s go back inside,” Ulf murmured after a while. “There is something I need to do.”
Intrigued, Ylva followed him through the door then waited to find out what this mysterious thing was. Everything withinher melted when she understood that what he thought he had to do was fall to his knees at her feet—and ask for her hand in marriage.
“Ylva, my beautiful, brave she-wolf, I didn’t lie when I said that you were my destiny. I truly believe it, now more than ever. So, will you stay here with me? Be my wife? Give me little cubs to love and cherish?”
