The rest of the morning passed quickly, with Magnus fixing the gaps in the roof and then joining her for a light meal of bread, cheese, and mead. Usually, the Norse ate two meals a day, but she thought he deserved more, since he was healing.
After eating, Magnus stood up and began to move around the cabin, stretching, and flexing his arms in a most distracting way.
‘Must you do that?’ she asked, adding, ‘This is only a small cabin. I fear you will knock something from the rafters if you continue.’ She pointed up at the many tools and dried herbs hanging from the beams.
It was another excuse. Truthfully, she found his body a little too much to handle. She’d become very emotional since the baby, and lonely. Watching Magnus strut around was making her heartbeat quicken in a most disturbing way.
‘I do not want my muscles to seize up,’ Magnus explained, rolling his shoulder slowly, the plates across his stomach and chest rising and falling with the movement. Desire flooded her body with liquid heat, and she had to look away.
How could she still feel this way about him? There was already a child in her belly; her body should know better than to want him again. Except he was the only man she had ever wanted.
She glanced to the open doorway and the autumn light streaming in, golden and bright, reflecting the colour of the changing leaves. The forest would burn with colour for a short time and then die back, signalling the start of winter with snow. She would wait out the dark months, and then, as the light of spring returned, her baby would come.
She would need to make sure she had enough food to last her until late spring. ‘I should check the traps,’ she said, making her way outside.
Magnus followed. ‘Heimdall’s traps, is that what feeds you?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. Hunting is time-consuming when you are alone. Besides, my vegetable garden and foraging in the woods also help, and I sell the fur in the markets when I have enough.’
Magnus frowned as if unimpressed by her plan. ‘Will you be able to provide for yourself and a babe?’
She sighed. ‘Heimdall taught me everything he knew. I always managed perfectly well when he went raiding.’
‘But…he earned coin from raiding.’
Kendra’s gaze sharpened with disapproval. ‘He spent that on ale and wagers… I suppose I do grieve him a little—he was someone to talk to. But I am better off without him. I just need to get through the difficult time of the birth, and then I will be fine.’
Magnus’s stomach twisted. ‘Please tell me you won’t try to do that alone.’
‘No,’ she said briskly, as she gathered up her empty sack and swung it over her shoulder. ‘I have convinced the midwife to come live with me for a month. She will help me through the worst of it.’
‘So, she will be up here soon…before yule?’
She didn’t answer. Her gaze drifted to something behind him and she paled. Tensing, he turned and instinctively placed himself in front of her.
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