Claimed by the Viking

Chapter 5 : Ins and Outs

Wounds happened during fight training. It was nothing new, but it was quite uncommon for the Jarl to be hurt, since he was actually quite a great fighter, one of the many skills he had had to master in order to prove his worth as a Jarl. He knew Regan had obviously not hurt him on purpose, and therefore he didn't blame him at all.

After ordering Regan to put an end to the training, since it was indeed time to go eat, Tharn took the path to the nursing house, honestly not knowing what to expect from his upcoming meeting with the woman. He had not really thought about what to tell her about the day before. He had no idea how to express his apology for what had happened. He didn't know if there would be a right way to do so.

The door of the nursing house was wide open, and as he peeked inside, he saw that both women were nowhere in sight. He entered anyway and heard some noises from the backroom. The small house was divided into two rooms: the entrance one which was quite large, with two benches in the middle and some storage tanks around, made to welcome wounded men and tend to them, while the backroom contained some working tables and was the place Hilda used to hang herbs, flowers and other things to dry, it was the workshop of the nursing house in a way.

Surely enough, when he went to the door of the backroom which was slightly ajar, he heard the humming of a woman that came from inside. Pushing the door, a bit more to be able to have a complete view of the inside, his breath caught in his throat.

Adelheid was alone, her back towards him, standing in front of a table, a large window allowed her body to get wrapped in sunlight, making her look even more heavenly than usual. She had not heard him enter and kept on grinding some sort of herbs in a bowl with a masher. The room nicely smelled of dry flowers, and he noticed that what she was taking care of must have been lavender, judging from the color of it and from the smell in the air. That was a nice scent.

Tharn took his time admiring the young woman, keeping himself mute. Her blue dress went very well with her hair and fair skin. The white shirt she was wearing beneath complimented her white creamy skin that he knew to be very soft from the few times he had been able to touch her. Thanks to the light showering her, her thick lashes projected shadows on her upper cheeks which had a slightly pink tint to them. He observed that her face looked livelier than she had on the previous night, which he was grateful for even if she looked fairly tired. Her hair was loosely tied in her back with a ribbon, probably to forbid it from getting in her eyes while working, which revealed a graceful neck the Jarl would love to feel under his lips. The dress she wore he hadn't taken his time to observe then: it was quite a right fit even if a bit too tight on her chest area, making it easy to imagine their fullness when she inhaled and the undershirt she wore stretched on them.

He was getting distracted again. As he decided it was time to announce his presence, his wounded shoulder hit the doorframe and he grunted, vividly reminded of the pain that occupied his arm. She hastily turned around when she heard him, dropping the masher down to the ground. That's when he saw her eyes. They were still puffy, probably from the crying of yesterday. He felt bad for having thoughts of using her body while he had caused her so much pain. What was wrong with him by Odin?

He wanted to appear composed, trying to put her more at ease.

As Adelheid looked at him with a guarded look, he bent over and picked up the masher before calmly walking towards her in order to put it back in the bowl.

She flinched as he approached.

Of course, she must have been scared of him. He felt dejected with himself.

"Good day Adelheid." He told her in a neutral voice while taking a few steps back, trying to make her a bit more comfortable in his presence.

She avoided his stare and muttered some greetings while still putting some more distance between them.

Would she step back anymore, she would merge with the wall.

He went back to the main room and installed himself on one of the bench, planning to present some sort of apologies to her before she tended to him, but he had no time to do so: Adelheid had just noticed his wound and gasped. She went to rummage through a few trunks before she came back with clean pieces of bandages, balms and jars towards him. She gestured for him to take off his shirt and he did so without any argument, admiring how serious and dedicated she was to treat him, letting her former fear from him left on the side when she realized he needed her help.

It made him feel even shittier. She was a gentle girl; he had known that from the beginning in spite of her feistiness. And this was one more proof of that. He had definitely been unfair towards her.

"You need to be stitched up." She announced calmly once she had completely cleaned out the wound. Her cheeks were slightly red now that she noticed how his half-naked form revealed a tone and muscular body to her. "Hilda should be back soon, she'll do it." She finally said as she retreated away from him now realizing that he was the one who made her so pitiful the day before and she was standing too close.

Before she was out of reach, Tharn grabbed her forearm trying to be gentle, and he sighed when she obviously flinched from his contact.

"Adelheid, I promise I won't hurt you. Not anymore. Thank you for nursing me." He told her calmly and was glad that she didn't go any further away even if she still looked guarded. "Yesterday, I didn't mean to do what I did. I don't know what came to me, it felt like I was not myself. By Odin, you're the first person who manages to bring out the worst in me. But I've been told that people who manage to bring out the worst from others could also bring out their best. I sincerely-"

The door suddenly burst open and Hilda walked in, talking to herself while carrying a large basket of many plants, not noticing the two young people as she rummaged through the basket.

"Adelheid, I have found some ginger, you'll see that this is really nice to let it soak in warm water with lemon: it makes an incredible decoction!" She said happily as she lifted her head. "Oh."

Adelheid immediately shifted away from Tharn, his hand falling at his side. He was a bit mad at Hilda for interrupting him, but at the same time glad because he didn't know what he would have done if the golden-haired woman had rejected him once more.

"Hello Jarl Tharn." She stated blankly, her eyes falling on his wounded shoulder. "Oh, you're hurt."

After briefly looking at the wound, she stated that he needed stitches but congratulated Adelheid on the cleaning and treatment of the wound. She went to a trunk and brought out a needle and some thread that she gave Adelheid with a smile.

"That will be a great training for you: Jarl Tharn is strong so he shouldn't be a sensitive subject of experiment and you already saw me do it yesterday. Just think of it as sewing."

Adelheid wanted to protest, but Hilda gave her no choice since she immediately took her basket from the entrance and went to the backroom, saying she had things to do.

Tharn decided against taking on his interrupted speech and silently sat as Adelheid slowly but efficiently stitched him, noticing his hard muscles more than before now that they had had a moment. But he was not talking, and Adelheid felt comforted by the fact that for the first time, he was at her mercy, and not the opposite.

Once she finished sewing him up, she applied a last balm on top of the wound to help it heal in a clean scar.

The Jarl took his time putting his clothes back on as he observed Adelheid's back while she was putting things back in their place and cleaning the needle in a bowl.

Before he took his leave, he went to her and lightly deposited his hand on her arm, staying behind her, happy that she didn't flinch away for once even if she had suspended all of her movements.

"Thank you for stitching me up. And thank you for your acceptance of our little... arrangement."

He was referring to her acting as his concubine. She had not yet thought about that since she mostly had to act that way in public during dinner, which had not happened yet.

"See you tonight." He whispered to her, resisting the urge touse her proximity to caress her skin more, knowing very well that she wouldn'tenjoy that. Not yet. But one day, he would be able to do so, and she would beawilling participant, he promised himself.