The Highlander's Secret(59)

He was built like any warrior and had muscular arms from rowing and years of having learned to wield a sword. The red-haired Viking glanced up at their arrival and his eyes narrowed when he saw her.

“Ragnar?” she breathed out in shock.

There was a long moment, while he looked Jain over carefully before the realization struck him. “Jain? Is that you?”

Jain almost laughed and felt a tremendous amount of joy come bubbling up inside her. “Yes, Ragnar. It’s me.”

Tears shone in her eyes. She reached up and touched her brother’s fiery beard, a reminder of the time they’d missed.

“The seer told me I would find you, but I did not believe him,” Ragnar said. “Everyone else thought that you were dead.”

“No, I’ve been living here all this time. There is a village south of here that took me in and cared for me. The man who raised me is their chieftain now, he’s worried that you’re going to attack.”

“Of course we’re going to fight!” he snarled. “The men of this land destroyed our settlement, they killed our family.”

“But it wasn’t them,” she argued. “You speak of avenging our family, but you’ve already done that ten times over. Isn’t it time for peace?”

Ragnar scoffed. “How do you know that for sure?”

“Because I knew Keenan! The people who took me in had no idea it was a Viking settlement. Whoever it was, it wasn’t them. These people are innocent. You speak of honor and justice, but killing them will not grant you that.”

Ragnar raised an eyebrow.

“I have no wish to kill innocent people, even if they are Christian. You claim they took care of you, and I suppose that puts me in their debt.”

“You’ll not attack them then?”

Her brother smiled. “Not for the love I bear you. However, if they threaten our camp I am obligated to defend our people.”

“Why have you come back after all this time?”

Ragnar sighed. “When they took me on the ship, I told them we had to go back. I knew you had to be hiding somewhere. None of them would listen. They tied up Leif and me until we made it back to the Viking stronghold. The ships finally landed, and I asked Earl Thorston to send a search party. He said it was too dangerous. He said that because our settlement was massacred it was a sign from the gods that we were never to return.”

“But here you are,” Jain muttered. “What about our brother, Leif?”

Her brother winced. “Leif is in Valhalla. He died on a raid two years ago. After a while, I gave up hope. I mourned your death, and the death of our father for many years…until last winter when I went to the seer. He said you were alive and well, but wouldn’t be for long – I had to come rescue you. I asked the Earl again to let me have a ship and that I would sail across the sea. When he denied me again we got into an argument.”

Jain’s eyes grew wide as he paused in the story to have a drink. “What happened?”

“I buried an axe in his skull,” Ragnar responded with a grin. “Now I am Earl. I am the one who decides when and where we raid. I have control of all our ships, and do you know how I chose to use them?”

“How?”

He leaned in and took Jain by the hand, saying, “To find my sister so I could bring her home at last.”

Jain pulled her hand away from him. “I’m not going with you, Ragnar. That is what I came to tell you. These are good people and they took care of me for many years. I’ve made a home here, you can’t take me away from it.”

“Of course I can,” he growled. “You’re a Viking by birth and your place is with us, whether I have to drag you home or not. I did not come all this way just to go back empty-handed. We’ll camp here for the night and then tomorrow we can discuss what to do about your village.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she told him, “This is my home, not back north in the land you came from. I wouldn’t even recognize our homeland when we got there.”

Her voice cracked with raw emotion as she said it, realizing how true those words had become even if she had never admitted it to herself.

“You made a home with strangers once, you can do it again,” he spat out angrily.

Jain shook her head. “No! I will not leave here. Ragnar, I’m married and in love. Please don’t make me choose between the love of my life and the love of my family. It would break my heart in pieces.”

“Married? To who?” Ragnar demanded. His voice was softer when he questioned her and Jain’s eyes began to mist.

She smiled at him and said, “To a good man who I love and treats me well, that’s all you need to know.”

“I’ve been searching…for so long I’ve been searching to find you, and now I don’t even recognize you.”

Jain stepped forward and took her brother by the hand. “Ragnar, I love you. You’re part of who I am, but this is my life now.”





Chapter Twenty-eight


Alan rolled over in bed and reached for Jain beside him. His hand found the empty coolness of the place where she had been and that startled him awake. The blacksmith’s eyes flew open as he sat up on the bed and threw back the rest of the covers. When he saw that there was no warm body next to him, Alan began to panic.