Viking in Love

His heart seized up. “Breanne! What is amiss? Please do not tell me that you are already regretting our marriage. You told me when we were in the root cellar that you loved me. I thought…”
She shook her head and continued to sob. He held her until the tears stopped, and he wiped her wet face with a cloth.
“Tell me,” he said.
“Oh, Caedman, I feel so bad. I am not regretting the marriage. Of course I am not, but you were forced into this. I could have prevailed with my father, but I did not.”
If you only knew, sweetling. He cocked his head to the side. “I was not forced.”
“Of course you were. You do not love me.”
“I do so.” Heart and soul

Breanne had not spoken to Caedmon alone since yestermorn when they were “rescued.” She did not know what he had said to his children, but she had seen from a distance that he spoke to them seriously and at length. But at the end, they were all laughing, and he placed a fatherly arm over the shoulders of Hugh, who had been the instigator.
She had also seen him talking with her father over cups of ale. It had been a long conversation, but it could not have been too bad since her father had not lopped off his head or done him bodily harm.
Caedmon had not wanted to be married. He probably still did not. But she was going to marry him anyhow. She would teach him to love her over time

At the head was Breanne’s father, King Thorvald.
Holding a hand for silence, Thorvald studied both of them thoroughly. Then he smiled and yelled over his shoulder, “Someone get the