Quotes from Josie Litton

Utterly still,all but invisible against the wall of the stable, the Dragon kept watch over his Saxon bride.

The bonds of family can be wonderful but there is a time to know when to stand apart.

Besides the Hawk's own men, the men of the Wolf and the Dragon kept watch as well. Night and day,hour to hour, never eased for a oment,three warlord husbands kept guard over their beloved wives.Out beyond the harbor, boats patrolled. In the hills beyond Hawkforte, sentries stood their posts. No one entered the town without being indentified. No one came near the stronghold without being approved. At this rate,they would never catch Wolscroft.

It is not safe for a woman to be traveling on her own." "I was perfectly safe until you crossed my path." "Well may you see it that way,but if I hadn't come along,someone else would have and you could be in great difficulty right now." If she hadn't known it would hurt, she might have laughed. As it was, she had to content herself with a grimace. "Oh, you mean I could have been chased over a cliff?

Except for Thurlow,there was not a person she would have missed and many a one to whom she would gleefully have said farewell forever.But that had changed now,utterly changed. She longed for Dragon, the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand,the warmth of his smile. For a moment she closed her eyes and saw him behind them.

You did what you had to do." He started,sure he had heard her wrong. "Oh,don't mistake me, I have no more liking for being staked out like a goat than would the next person. Still, it was a good plan, all things considered.

Do you have any idea how humiliated I am to be related to such a man, much less to have to call him father?" "Take comfort. Perhaps your mother strayed." "Oh,dearly would I like to believe that!

That's a bad bruise." "I scarcely feel it." Indeed, she probably could have been smacked over the head with a log just then and would scarcely have noticed.

Yet he was still shaken by fading echoes of his fear that she might flee. Losing her would be very . . . personal.

I pledged to make this marriage. Now it is a matter of honor." "Honor is a cold bedfellow.

Besides the Hawk's own men, the men of the Wolf and the Dragon kept watch as well. Night and day, hour to hour, never eased for a moment, three warlord husbands kept guard over their beloved wives.

Dragon was controlling himself admirably but he had the look of a man who has found something unpleasant on his boot.

She turned her head slightly, relieved that she could do so, and found Dragon not asleep or at least drowsily replete, as he should have been—oh no, not he—but wide awake, propped up on an elbow, and looking at her with what appeared suspiciously to be amusement. "I don't think you are human," she said sulkily. He grinned. "I felt like a god a few moments ago, but that's to your credit, not mine.

Good," Dragon said with satisfaction. "Now we'll try it the other way." "Other? But this is perfectly fine." "You can't get anywhere lying on your back." His smile turned devilish. "Well, actually you can but perhaps this isn't the time to dwell on that.

Dragon!" she said and moved ahead of her husband to greet her brother-in-law with a warm hug. "You look well. The leg is still not bothering you?" "It would not dare, after the terror you put it through.

She gathered wild greens and berries while he prepared the rest of supper. They ate largely in silence except for her praise of the fish and a brief discussion about how to catch the best trout. She favored nets, he preferred lines.It was all very polite.

Dragon's eyes flew open. He stared at his hand curved over the alabaster mound of a perfectly formed breast, at the delectable rose-hued nipple peeking through his fingers, up past the firm set of a certain chin and straight into honey-hued eyes that somehow failed to appear the least abashed. "Uh..." he said, which he rather thought was as articulate as any man could be expected to be under the circumstances, skald-souled or not.

The temptation to just crawl up onto the bank and lie there in a huddled mass of misery was almost overwhelming, but some part of her, as she observed with a certain dazed detachment, was too pigheaded to give up. No,she would plod on likely to the ends of the earth, slipping and sliding, gasping and groaning, until either the river won or she did.Had she been inclined to wager, she would have bet on the river.

The Lady Rycca of Wolscroft and you would be well advised to take your eyes from her. She is betrothed to a Norse lord who comes soon to claim her.

There seemed to be some...irregularity in your coming here," the priest said delicately. Thus did he characterize her arrival, bruised and battered, in the arms of her betrothed rather than under the decorous escort of her family.

So too did any doubts about the involvement of Loki, god of mischief. That capricious deity was clearly up to his old tricks. How else to explain how a man who adored women-and who was adored by them-found himself with a bride who faced the marriage bed with less enthusiasm than she would a viper-infested den?

He could not be absolutely certain she would not get away-again. In the dark of night, haunted by such grim thoughts, Dragon found consolation. He had a fleet of ships at the ready. Before his willing Saxon bride could don boy's garb, run off a cliff, or plunge into a river, he would have her safely aboard and at sea. Damned if he wouldn't. He felt better after that and even dozed a little but was up and dressed before dawn's gray fingers peeled night away.

There was time after that to eat the very fine meal Cymbra and Magda prepared with Rycca's able assistance, to linger over the table as Dragon spun stories, and for lovers to dream the night away in each other's arms. But on the morning tide, while yet a ghostly mist lingered over the water, shouts rang out on the quays, oars slipped into their locks, and sails billowed as a dozen war-armed dragon ships sailed for England.

By noon,the tide had turned. The drakars emblazoned with wolf and dragon joined the fleet of the Hawk as they set sail for the city of the king.