FORBIDDEN TALENTS Read Online Free PDF Page A

member of Neven’s household.
    She wished she could tug the neckline higher but settled for standing up straight to keep the shift’s neckline from gaping. She supposed that was the designer’s intent. Good posture made the most of her unsupported breasts. The conventions of clothing in Alfheim still made no sense to her. Everyday clothes were modest enough, but formal clothing often left women’s breasts nearly exposed while the hemlines swept the floors. The hiking shorts she’d been wearing when she’d arrived had scandalized servant and lord alike.
    The chamber wasn’t nearly as large as the cavernous hall that had hosted the Althing six months earlier. This was a much smaller assembly. Long, dark wood tables were arranged in a square with open corners. Chairs rather than benches were drawn up around the perimeter. Wide fireplaces blazed on either side of the room, taking the winter chill from the seamless stone floor. Celia had wondered at the vast expanses of smooth stone in Quartzholm until she’d been told they were the products of the long vanished Great Talents.
    Dahleven escorted her to a seat between his and Ragni’s at the head table. To their left, four massive chairs awaited Neven and Gudrun, Loloma and Nai’awika; beyond them, Dahleven’s older sister Ingirid and Father Wirmund occupied two of the four seats on the other end of the table. Though Ingirid wore the gray veil of mourning for her husband Jon, her smile was full and welcoming. Kaidlin, Dahleven’s younger sister, and Saeun, one of her ladies, sat at the end.
    Aenid, Ingirid’s daughter, sat to Ragni’s right. She also wore a veil of mourning, not only for her own father but for the father of her child as well. She rose to give Dahleven a hug.
    “ Uncle Dahben! I heard you were back. ”
    “ How is little Kaleth? ” Dahleven asked. Aenid had borne a daughter to Sorn, his oath-brother, barely six weeks past, and the Naming Day had taken place only three weeks ago.
    “ She’s a wonder! And so strong! And hungry! ” Aenid beamed.
    “ Sorn would be very proud, ” Dahleven said.
    “ Proud? ” Celia laughed. “ He’d be crowing like a rooster. ”
    Dahleven grinned. “ That he would. ”
    Aenid cast a sly smile at them both. “ And teasing his sworn brother about when he, too, would prove his manhood. ”
    Celia blushed. As heir to the Jarldom it was Dahleven’s duty to secure his family’s line. His mother had already started making pointed remarks. There was no shame connected to having a child outside of marriage here. Some would even see it as a good thing, a proof of a woman’s fertility. But she wasn’t ready to have a baby yet, and continued drinking the contraceptive tea Thora supplied. Dahleven was willing to wait, though he’d made it clear that he’d welcome having a child with her.
    “ We’d best be seated, ” Dahleven said, glancing around the room.
    The other chairs were filled by their Tewakwe guests and the high ranking lords and ladies who lived within a half-day’s journey of Quartzholm. Only the places reserved for Neven and Gudrun, Loloma, and Nai’awika remained empty.
    Ragni spoke from Celia’s right as she took her place. “ You are lovely as ever, Celia. Too fair to sit in Dahl’s shadow. ” He wore the gray of the priests of Baldur, in perpetual mourning while Baldur remained in Niflheim. His hand flirted over her upper arm, where she’d eventually wear his brother’s marriage bands, but he didn’t touch. “ Come, switch with Aenid and sit on my right. Serve me as you did before. ” Ragni’s easy grin leeched most of the sexual innuendo from his flirtation.
    She’d often served Ragni during family dinners while Dahleven had been away. He flirted outrageously with her, but he’d never stepped over the bounds of propriety, so Celia felt safe playing the game.
    “ Should I trade the attention of two handsome men for only one? ” she answered.
    Ragni’s reply was forestalled. Two