Return of the Ravens (Ulfrik Ormsson's Saga Book 6) by Jerry Autieri Read Free Book Online Page B

made sacrifices for your benefit that you never recognize."
    Runa turned aside and leaned away from the table. "This again? Yes, you ran to my side the moment Ulfrik was buried and yes you saved me the cruelty of widowhood. But I'd rather be a lonely widow than a married woman with a broken jaw."
    Konal closed his eyes and inhaled, then slowly let out his breath. "This is not the discussion I want to have."
    "Maybe it's what I want to discuss? Look at my face. The man I married would not have done this to me, but now this new Konal is all too ready to strike me for the slightest insult to his honor. I dared to look at a keepsake from my dead husband and that deserved violence? What if I should speak of him? Maybe you'd cut out my tongue?"
    Runa watched the flush flow around Konal's scar tissue, but he held the same arrogant smile, even if his nostrils flared to betray his anger. She knew he was on the brink of another outburst. However, were he to hit her again then she would have every ground for declaring divorce immediately. The hall might be empty, but people would be crowded outside to know what happened within it. She could make a case for public humiliation, and then Konal would have to consent to a divorce.
    "As I said, I considered this morning. That sword bothered me, and not just for what it means to you. I know you wanted to believe Ulfrik lived even after seeing his head and hearing Einar's account of his death. When my brother, Kell, died I went through the same thing, but I moved beyond it as I thought you had. But this morning I was reminded that you still carry his memory."
    "Is that so wrong? He was my husband for almost twenty years and the best man I ever knew."
    She noticed Konal's hands were clamped tight on the table, and that they trembled. It was as if he were harboring a mouse beneath them that he feared to crush.
    "I used to think he was the best man I ever knew, too. Until this morning."
    They stared at each other, and his haughty smile shrank away. "Why this morning?"
    "Because while you were gone I went back to our bed to clear away that rusted sword. While I was there, I thought of what else you might be hiding in that chest beneath the bed. The one you were so eager to keep me from seeing that you even goaded me into striking you. I took it to the blacksmith to break the lock and wasn't I surprised at what I found?"
    "W-- What did you find?" Runa's eyes shifted to the red cloak draping Konal's shoulders. Her heart began pounding against her ribs.
    "Well, you're looking at it. A fine red cloak. I was disappointed there was nothing more. So I took it back to our bed and replaced it. But here's where Fate guided my hands. I think you know what I found next."
    Runa wavered on her bench, a wave of weakness crashing over her. "There was nothing else to find."
    "But there was more. As I folded the cloak I discovered something hard in its hem. I cut the edges of it and here's what tumbled out."
    He lifted his cupped hands off the table and a pile of glittering, winking jewels sparked reflections under Konal's chin. She had not seen the gems since she and Ulfrik replaced them into the hem of a new cloak, and the memory of their brilliance paled beside reality. Even under these conditions they were breath-taking reds, blues, yellows, greens, and a few stones like clear ice. These were the gemstones prized off a golden cross given from the King of Frankia as a gift to the King of England.
    "At first I could not believe these were the same gems my brother and I had searched half the world to retrieve. After all, my dearest friend Ulfrik had told me himself that though Fate had delivered him the bishop who possessed these treasures, he did not ever see them himself. These gems were to have been lost to time. But how does one forget such a pile of jewels? I have never seen the like since, and just like family I know my own when I see it. Dearest Ulfrik stole my treasure and lied to me and my brother about it.