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heard before from her mother. “If you can’t take good care of your pets, you can’t keep them.”
    “He’s not a—,” she said, snagging the little girl’s hand to drag her back. “I told you, Kimmie, he’s a bad man.”
    Brandr opened both eyes now. Even mussed from slumber, the woman was lovely. Tendrils of hair had pulled loose from her braid and framed her face like seaweed draped artfully on a sandy shore. Beneath her kirtle, her rumpled white underdress was untied at the throat, revealing the subtle curve of her bosom. And her sleep-swollen lips…
    He frowned. A strange memory tugged at his brain. Had he…kissed the woman?
    Her fleeting glance and the guilt in her eyes confirmed his suspicion. He had kissed her. But when? And why?
    Her gaze drifted and settled upon his lap, and suddenly he wondered if he’d done more than just kiss her. Had he taken liberties with her that he couldn’t recall?
    “Kimbery,” she said, continuing to stare with discomfiting boldness, “bring Mama her dagger.”
    His breath caught. Her dagger? What did she mean to do? Surely she wouldn’t...cut anything off of him in front of her daughter. Would she? He tried to ask her what she intended, but his mouth was too dry to speak.
    Once she had the dagger in her hand, she approached him, and he drew his legs back defensively.
    “Listen,” she confided softly so her daughter wouldn’t hear. “I’m going to cut your wrists free. But if you try anything, I swear I’ll plunge this dagger into your throat.”
    He looked down at his hands, resting on his lap. No wonder he couldn’t feel them. The ropes were cutting into his swollen wrists, and the fingers of his left hand were blue.
    “Do you understand?” she said, narrowing flinty eyes at him.
    He nodded.
    She sliced him free, and he bit back a groan of pain as sensation suddenly stabbed into his fingers like a thousand agonizing needles. He felt the blood drain from his face as he fought to stay conscious.
    “Kimmie, bring me a cup of water, please.”
    The little girl hurried to comply. Why the woman was showing him mercy, he didn’t know. Perhaps it was only that she didn’t want his death on her conscience. But he gladly accepted the water as she tipped the cup back for him, coughing as he drank too swiftly.
    Whether she would have actually slit his throat in front of the little girl, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t about to put her to the test.
    “Kimbery,” she called over her shoulder, her blade resting against his neck. “I need you to wait in bed until I call you.”
    “But, Mama, I want to help, too.”
    “Not yet. In a moment.”
    Brandr didn’t like the sound of that. What did the woman want to do that she didn’t want her daughter to see?
    “Promise?” the little girl asked.
    “I promise. Now wait there till I call you.”
    The lass skipped off, and Brandr was left alone with the woman.
    She stared at her blade where it contacted his throat, muttering irritably to herself. “I should just let you go on suffering. God knows you would have shown me no mercy.” She glanced down at his misshapen arm. “If I do this for you,” she said, sighing, “if I put you out of your misery—“
    By Odin, she meant to kill him! His warrior instincts took over, and despite her menacing blade, despite the wrenching pain in his arms, with the last of his strength, he reached up with his good hand and roughly seized her wrist, giving it a sharp flick and sending the dagger clattering across the floor.
    For an instant, their eyes met, and he saw true panic there as he gained the upper hand. But his advantage was short-lived. In the next breath, she drove her free fist forward and punched him hard in the nose.

Chapter 4

     
    The Viking instantly lost his grip on her, and Avril tumbled back onto her hindquarters, cradling her bruised knuckles. What was wrong with the man? Hadn’t she said she was going to put him out of his misery? The ungrateful wretch!
    He