The Maiden Who Fell Through Time

CHAPTER 23: "Sparring Jealousy"

Uhtred quickly meets up with me outside the hall, grabbing my arm and forcing me to stop and turn to look at him.

"What?!" I say expectantly. Honeyed brown orbs meeting bright blue.

Uhtred stares at me- an unreadable expression painting his handsome face as he holds me in place and seemingly studies me.

I swallow hard, allowing misguided irritation to color my tone and be aimed towards him. "What is it?! What do you want Uhtred?!"

His brows furrow and his lips slightly purse before he finally begins to speak. "I...I just want to make sure you were alright...and that you were calm."

My chest felt tight, and my heart rumbled like thunder and rapid cannon fire. My breathing shallow and slightly hitched at finally feeling the warm sensation of his skin against my own. At that moment, I felt hot, and also smaller somehow...delicate maybe? Like I was folding down into some kind of human origami underneath his gaze. The feeling of it all I found slightly uncomfortable, foreign...and unknown. I wasn't entirely sure if my heart was pounding from the look that he was giving me at that precise moment, from his soft words, or from prior events. Either way though...I felt like I needed to get out- to escape. I needed to think; and there was absolutely no possible way for me to do that in Uhtred's company- especially feeling as I felt at that exact moment.

I scoff and shake free from his grasp, turning to leave.

"Where are you going?" He asks me.

"I need to hit something- preferably a Dane." I shout over my shoulder back to him.

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FINAN POV:

With the way that Wren bore down into Cnut, he was surprised that the bastard himself didn't catch fire, such was the intensity of her heated gaze. Finan thought back to that moment earlier in the hall this morning, and he noted the real anxiety that this woman's unpredictability had seemingly now instilled in him. It was worse enough with the moments that Uhtred had, and now...well now he had another little 'shite to worry about besides his lord and fellow brother in arms. 'Damn, the two of 'em are a bloody right pair...fuckin' match made in heaven...' He thought to himself in passing- before quickly shaking his head and becoming unsettled with the idea his brain had just proposed.

Walking the yard of the inner fortress, Finan kicked the pebbles and bits of dirt beneath his feet. The large sounds of a crowd gathering and the momentous commotion of laughter and revelry catching his attention- distracting him momentarily from his thoughts, as he made his way towards the sparring circle set up in the center of the courtyard.

He scanned the courtyard and the surrounding area for any sight of a familiar face, before discovering one very familiar and very beautiful face in particular. The corners of his lips pulled into a small smirk at the sight before him. The sight of her sparring with effective ease against a young Danish bloke twice her size. He beamed with a strange kind of pride and bemusement at the scene playing out now before him. He knew that the whole encounter with Cnut had left her in a bit of a state, since she was the first to bolt from the hall and away from the rest of the group- despite the men's protests or concerns; however, Finan now saw firsthand that his own concerns were heavily misplaced, as he watched her shed her pent up aggression in the sparring ring- unleashing her fury towards Cnut onto some poor young Danish lad who she was now abusing in a round of hand to hand combat.

He watched on from a small distance as the Dane went to tackle her, presumably hoping to overpower her with his superior size and strength. Then in moves that were entirely unfamiliar to him, he watched as she simply and effectively side stepped every blow he attempted to land with graceful agility and speed. Finan watched on as the Dane once again attempted to tackle and grapple her down to the ground; and he watched as the young lad got the better of her for but a moment- before she used the Dane's weight against him, and sent him spiraling down face first into the dirt.