Season of the Sun by Catherine Coulter Page B

behind the gunwales. Their dreams are no longer of plunder but of beautiful females beguiling them and seducing them. I will announce tomorrow that you are mine, and that will be the end to their sniggering and gossip.”
    She lowered her eyes. “That is kind of you, Magnus. Actually, I have come to become better acquainted with you. I told Olav that I would give him my decision in three days. He cares about me, you see, and doesn’t want me to be overly impetuous.” She paused; then, to his surprise and fascination, she giggled. “He fears your manliness sways me unduly, though he didn’t say that precisely. I should have told him he was quite right.” She was serious again. “I wanted to see you, Magnus, to see if you truly were the man who was in my mind all the day long.”
    â€œAnd am I, Zarabeth?”
    She smiled at his off-kilter pronunciation of her name as she stepped back, still held in the loose circle of his arms, and looked up at him. The moonlight was scant but she could see his features perfectly. She studied him, cocking her head to one side in serious contemplation.
    He held himself perfectly still, not moving, not changing expression, just waiting for her to complete her study.
    â€œYou are as you should be, and to me that is all that is perfect.” She lightly touched her fingertips to the small notch in his chin. “This is clever.”
    He raised a thick dark blond brow. “ ’Twas not of my doing, though if it pleases you, I will claim full knowledge and the planning of it. One girl told me once that Odin had rejected me, pressing his thumb into my chin to show the world his repugnance.”
    â€œThis girl who told you that—did you hurt her to make her speak so evilly?”
    â€œActually, it is so.” His voice lightened as he spoke his memories. “She had seduced me, this older girl who was then yet younger than you are now, and I was but an innocent lad of twelve summers when she first took me inside her and I learned the pleasures of a woman’s body. Then I discovered that year I preferred hunting walrus to covering her. She cursed me, ranting that my cleft was the sign of Odin’s displeasure.”
    Zarabeth chuckled. “I should have cursed you also. Walrus hunting! ’Twas not well done of you.”
    â€œI was but twelve years old, Zarabeth.”
    â€œAye, but were you so beautiful even then, Magnus?”
    â€œWhen you birth my sons, perhaps one of them will be in my image, and then you will know.”
    Zarabeth was silent. He continued to do this to her, to speak so bluntly that it robbed her of her wits.
    â€œWhat bothers you, sweeting?”
    â€œYou and the effect you have on me. It’s strange and it confuses me and makes me stupid.”
    He stroked his fingertips over her jaw. “I would make you happy, not stupid.”
    â€œWould you bear with both?”
    â€œI will manage to bear with all you ever show me.” He leaned down to quickly kiss her. He didn’t try to part her lips, just kissed her warmly and lightly.
    â€œI’m afraid,” she said, looking up at him, at hismouth, damp from their touching, firm and gentle. “You come from a land I’ve only heard about, a land where all the people are strangers to me, a land where the weather is harsh during the winter and there is little sun for many months.”
    Magnus had considered taking her on board the Sea Wind, but he quickly changed his mind. It wasn’t at all chilly here in the open, and she felt safe here, with him, a man she’d known for only two days, the man she would marry. He smiled at her and sought to reassure her. “They will be strangers only until you smile at them and tell them hello. My kin will love you, as will Harald Fairhair himself, our king. He comes from the Vestfold, you know, though at present he has no royal residence there. But he is a cousin to my father, and thus of