A Flame Put Out Read Online Free Page B

territory must have slowed them down just enough to allow the horses to reach the house in time. The water was too shallow for the deep ship to pull up to the dock, so it was positioned in the middle of the bay, waiting, while two Irish sailors in a small boat rowed toward the dock.
    She heard the sound of raised voices as she peered down to the beach. She saw not only Ainnileas and Grainne, but Ingrid as well. So the horse belonged to Ingrid, not Ulfrik. The girl must have come in a desperate attempt to run away with Ainnileas.
    As Alrik came up behind her, he obviously reached the same conclusion. He bellowed with rage as he drew his sword to rush down the hill toward the beach. Selia took the shorter way, climbing down the cliff, and reached the group on the beach before he did.
    Ingrid, frantic, eyes wild, cried incoherently. She appeared to have pulled out fistfuls of her own hair. Ainnileas’ body language was more subdued. Although he held himself in a slightly defensive posture against a sudden attack from Ingrid, the expression on his face seemed to be one of pity. Grainne stood closest to the water, veering back and forth between her son, the mad Norse girl, and the small Irish boat on its way to grant her freedom.
    Ainnileas’ gaze landed on Selia. “What are you doing here?”
    “Alrik knows what you tried to do,” she said, gasping for breath. “He won’t let you come back to Norway, and I needed to see you one last time—”
    Ainnileas looked up sharply as Alrik crashed through the brush. “Why did you bring him here, Selia? Now he’ll think I planned this!” His gaze flickered toward Ingrid where she crouched in the sand, sobbing.
    Selia turned as her husband rushed toward her brother with his sword drawn. “No, Alrik!” she cried. “He had nothing to do with this!” She stood in front of Ainnileas to block the attack.
    Ainnileas pulled the dagger from his belt and shoved Selia aside. Grainne screamed.
    There was a blur of motion as Ingrid launched herself at her father. She grabbed his sword arm so tightly that she came off her feet as he tried to shake her loose. “This is your fault!” she screamed. “Ainnileas won’t have me because of you!”
    Alrik’s eyes were lit up like the devil himself as he glared at Ainnileas. “Is it not enough that you meant to steal my wife from me, but now you would steal my daughter as well?” he snarled.
    “No!” Ainnileas shouted, gripping his dagger. “I do not want Ingrid.”
    The girl wailed again. “He loved me until you ruined it! You ruin everything!” she screeched at Alrik.
    He grabbed Ingrid by the hair to pull her free of his arm, letting her dangle for a moment before dropping her unceremoniously on the ground. “You are an embarrassment to me, daughter,” he sneered down at her. “This boy is a coward and a deceiver, and yet you throw yourself at him like a whore. As long as there is breath in me, I will never give you to him.”
    Ingrid cried out as though she were in physical pain as she collapsed onto the sand. Alrik motioned to Olaf, who came forward. “Take her back to the horses until the ship is gone,” he ordered. “Restrain her if you must.”
    Olaf hoisted Ingrid to her feet. She put her head into his chest, sobbing. He held her for a moment and spoke softly to her, then half-led, half-carried the girl up the hill toward the house.
    Grainne and Ainnileas stood close together, watching Alrik. He gave them both a scornful look before turning his gaze to the small boat. The sailors had tied it loosely to the dock but appeared fearful to get out, and so they sat in the boat as it bobbed like a cork in the water.
    “Get in the boat, woman,” he ordered Grainne, pointing with his sword. “My wife would say goodbye to her brother, but not to you.”
    Selia had told him, without going into detail, how there was no love lost between her and Grainne. If she never saw her mother again it would not be a hardship.
    The woman shared