Quickly he shifted his gaze back to the woman, trying to convey a warning with his eyes since his throat was too dry to speak, but she appeared not to notice, her expression unreadable as the wolves came to stand on either side of her like a pair of dark sentinels.
Maybe she really was an apparition after all, Danr thought with a shudder, an unforgiving ice maiden like the ones his mother had told him and Rurik stories about as boys, a supernatural force able to control the animals of the forest as well as the elements. If she was, then he was entirely at her mercy. She could do whatever she wanted and there was nothing he could do to stop her.
He swallowed, waiting for her to decide his fate. At least a spear would be quick, whereas being torn apart by wolves... Surely not even he deserved that?
Did he?
He dropped his head back to the ground and closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling the kiss of cold flakes on his lids and lashes, but when he opened them again she was gone and the wolves were nowhere to be seen. All he could see was snow.
Copyright © Jenni Fletcher 2020
If you enjoyed this story, be sure to read the first
two books in the Sons of Sigurd miniseries
Stolen by the Viking
by Michelle Willingham
Falling for Her Viking Captive
by Harper St. George
Don’t miss the next stories in the
Sons of Sigurd miniseries, coming soon!
Redeeming Her Viking Warrior
by Jenni Fletcher
Tempted by Her Viking Enemy
by Terri Brisbin
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Flapper’s Baby Scandal by Lauri Robinson.
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The Flapper’s Baby Scandal
by Lauri Robinson
Chapter One
1928
Betty Dryer sat at the bar on the outskirts of the dance floor, tapping the toe of one black patent leather shoe against the foot rail to the beat of the music while scanning the crowded room. The Rooster’s Nest was a hopping place tonight and her sisters were already taking advantage of that. Exercising the freedom that only came when the three of them escaped into the night, became the women they could only dream about being.
Her youngest sister, Patsy, wearing a cute blue dress covered with layers of fringe and a matching hat, was nearly dragging a guy onto the dance floor, while Jane, in her red-and-white-striped A-line dress was over by the piano, pinning numbers onto the backs of couples for the dance-off that had just been announced. Jane wore a hat that matched her outfit, too. They all did. Betty’s hat was silver, with a purple feather, the same shade as her purple dress, trimmed with double layers of wide silver lace at the hem, neckline and sleeve openings. She’d sewn it herself. They all had sewn their dresses and wore hats to cover their blond hair. In order to keep people from recognizing them as William Dryer’s daughters.
This was their secret life. One their parents could never learn about or they’d be locked away in the top floor of their house like a trio of Rapunzels.
Betty scanned the crowd a little harder, looking for a dance partner. She’d already turned down two men, because she’d danced with them earlier tonight. That was one of the rules she’d set for herself and her sisters. To never dance with the same man too many times. They were here for one reason. Fun. Getting paired up with someone could ruin that for everyone.
A knot formed in her stomach. She breathed through the tightening, wishing she could make it go completely away, but that wouldn’t happen. Just like not marrying James Bauer wouldn’t happen. The man her father had chosen for her to marry. Other than seeing him at one of the houses he’d built in partnership with her father, she didn’t even know James.
She didn’t know many people in general. Due to a life of being locked up in her father’s house, knowing her only taste of freedom was this—sneaking out at night to visit speakeasies—which would stop as soon as she married James.
She used to have dreams, when she was younger, of growing up and getting married. She’d thought that would be the most wonderful thing on earth. Having her own house, her own children, who she would take to the park, to the beach, on picnics, just all sorts of different places and have all kinds of fun.
Then, she’d grown up and discovered the real world. That had happened three years ago, when she’d been up in Seattle visiting her grandmother and aunt. Her aunt had fallen in love with a man, one who had run out on her, left her pregnant and alone.
It was the next thing that had solidified how wrong Betty’s dreams had been.
She’d met a man. A man who proved how easy a woman can become besotted and how fast a man can disappear.
That thought was enough to anger her all over again, and she wasn’t here to be angry. She was here to have fun and dance.
Dance the night away.
She scanned the room again, and as it had before, her gaze landed on a man sitting alone, at a table in the far corner behind the piano. He’d been there since she’d arrived, and she’d wondered if she’d seen him before, here or at one of the other speakeasies she and her sisters visited regularly. There was something about him that was familiar, but she couldn’t say what.
He looked like an average Joe, as did most of the other men in the room. The Rooster’s Nest attracted those types, working men. Day laborers and dockworkers. Men who had their sleeves rolled up and their boot strings double knotted. Those were the type of men who wouldn’t know her father.
There
