He pulled her hand up to his face, looking closely at the reddened teeth marks visible across her hand, frowning.
“What did you do to yourself?”
Mia tucked her hand in the folds of her shift.
Bjorn hesitated before speaking, as if judging whether she was able to discuss his work in her condition. “The town has been buzzing with gossip since Cronwall abandoned his wife. I have been called on to settle fistfights between men who think Catarina caused it and men who think Cronwall found another woman in a faraway city. There have been wives scolding their husbands for not stopping Cronwall from leaving, and a few bawds even blame me.”
“I am sorry.”
“Please do not add to my burdens. I will find the man, if there is one. If he was real, he’s probably a trader. Already gone by now.”
“But what about the woman?”
He sighed, closing his eyes. Mia tried to soften her demand.
“There would be a body. If it happened.” Mia added the last bit out of obedience. She did not need to be right. Not if it added to his burdens. Not if her sex was prone to imaginations. “Do you want me to go back out and look?” he murmured, sounding so tired. “I will do it, if it will give you peace.”
Alma stirred inside the house. She would want to eat soon. Bjorn was surely hungry too. Mia straightened herself at once, standing back from Bjorn. She needed to do better for everyone’s sake. She had slept, and she could not prove the events had been real. It might have been imagination, the most universal of women’s sins. Father Stefan would be angry with her.
The sun would be on the horizon within the hour. It would be a beautiful spring morning.
Stefan’s fist hit the door again and again. He would go on hitting it, splintering it if he had to, until Bjorn answered. He could apologize later.
Mia appeared.
“Mia, get Bjorn. Immediately,” Stefan said. She looked terrible, as if she’d had no sleep. Stefan wished she would take better care of herself. Bjorn said other women flirted with him daily, but Bjorn always remained faithful. How long would he stay strong under such temptation? Still, Stefan could not warn Mia. The sacrament of confession could not be broken, even to aid a struggling soul.
Mia shook her head no. “Let him sleep for a few more hours, and then I will send him to you.”
“Wake him up, Mia. Now.”
“Father, please. He is exhausted. Let him sleep.”
Father Stefan stuck his foot in the door, pushing it open wider. “Forgive me, Mia, but I must get Bjorn.”
“What is it, Stefan?”
Bjorn appeared from the bedroom. His face sagged with exhaustion. Stefan pushed the door open all the way, going to Bjorn to whisper, keeping his back to Mia. Bjorn nodded then pointed at her.
“She heard an argument last night in the woods beyond our home. A trader, she thinks. No one she recognized. I thought it had been a dream.”
Mia couldn’t help it; she smiled at her husband. She had not imagined it. She had not been a poor wife to tell him.
“The merchants are going mad with speculations,” Stefan said. “The rumors will ruin them all. People will go to another village to buy.” Stefan had one hand on Bjorn’s arm, pulling him toward the door.
“Let me get my cloak,” Bjorn said, stepping back into the bedroom.
“Have you had breakfast?” Mia asked Father Stefan. He looked at her as if she spoke another language. She waved to the little table by the fire. “Breakfast?”
“No,” Stefan said. “Thank you,” he added. “Do you want to tell me what you saw?”
Bjorn stepped out, ready to go. “Keep the food warm, Mia. And don’t go into town today. Not until I know who is among us.”
“But I do not want to be alone.”
“I’ll send Erick to check on you,” Stefan said, holding the door open for Bjorn before following behind. “He will even stay with you if you feel uneasy.”
“But what should—”
They closed the door and were gone.
Mia wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and it came away with bits of straw from the floor and mud. She pinched herself as punishment. She should have washed herself. She must have looked like a fool.
Margarite stirred. She probably needed to relieve herself before the pain returned.
Mia went back to her life.
Chapter Five