by Kris Tualla
“—and me.” she interrupted him to be sure he didn’t get the wrong idea. “I don’t want to live alone for the next fifty years.”
She risked facing him. “I do want to find love again.”
Dahl nodded slowly. “I understand.”
He reached for her hand and wrapped it in his. When he did, she heard Tor’s voice again.
That’s him, Kyle.
*****
Selby elbowed Teigen. “Did you hear that?”
Teigen grinned. “I certainly did.”
“You need to tell Dahl that he has your blessing to court Kyle,” Selby whispered. “So he doesn’t waste the time she has here by being afraid he’ll make you mad if he does.”
Teigen wanted to look back at the other couple but didn’t dare. “Do you think he could win her in three weeks?”
Selby laughed. “Have you taken a good look at him?”
Teigen snorted. “Men are more than their looks.”
“And you know Dahl as well as I do.” Selby bumped her shoulder against Teigen’s arm to punctuate the point. “He’s a wonderful man inside as well as out.”
They were almost to the Arendal town square, so Teigen turned around and walked backward. He flashed a broad grin when he saw the other couple walking hand-in-hand.
And this time Kyle didn’t pull her hand away from Dahl’s.
“Come on, you two!” He laughed, delighted by the sight. “I’ve worked up a thirst.”
Dahl grinned back. “Don’t rush us. We’ll catch up.”
Teigen laughed again and turned back around.
We’re counting on it.
Chapter
Six
July 10, 1950
“You are asking for my permission to court Kyle?” Teigen asked Dahl when the men were hunting rabbit the next day. Mrs. Nilsson had a favorite stew recipe that she wanted to make and Teigen assured her that he and Dahl would supply the meat.
Dahl nodded nervously. “I thought I should, since she’s your brother’s widow.”
Teigen lifted the shotgun to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The rabbit leapt in the air before collapsing on the ground. Teigen jogged forward to collect it as he thought about what he wanted to say.
He was tying the rabbit’s leg to his line when Dahl reached him. He looked at his friend, deciding to ask the hard questions now rather than when it might be too late.
“I know this sounds like a stupid question, but if you court her, what do want to happen?”
Dahl hesitated, looking at Teigen crookedly. “I think I want to marry her.”
“You’ve only known her a week,” Teigen challenged. “How can that be possible?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Dahl looked confused. “Maybe it was seeing her with Olina.”
“Olina?” Teigen liked his cousin, but Dahl had a point. The two women were very different. “How?”
“Don’t get me wrong, your cousin is a lovely woman. She’ll make the right man very happy. She’s just not right for me.” Dahl shrugged. “Like I wasn’t right for Selby.”
Well said. “Go on.”
“Kyle is a special kind of woman. And I can understand why Tor married her before he shipped out.” Dahl smiled. “When you meet someone who seems so perfect, you don’t waste time.”
“She was pregnant,” Teigen reminded him.
“He would have married her anyway.”
Teigen’s brows pulled together. “How do you know that?”
Dahl threw up his hands. “I don’t know. But I do.”
Teigen looked at his friend carefully. “What’s going on with you?”
Dahl’s shoulders slumped. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Try me.”
Dahl rested his shotgun his shoulder. “Ever since I first saw her, I felt like I was being pushed toward her.”
“Pushed?” Teigen repeated. “By what?”
“A hand that wasn’t there.” He considered Teigen with narrowed eyes. “Are you happy now? I said it.”
Teigen started walking again. He knew Dahl was a level-headed guy. He was the ranking officer in their Milorg group and his decisions were always solid ones. The man wasn’t crazy, no matter how this all sounded.
And Teigen also knew his brother. If anyone could reach past the barrier to the afterlife, Tor would be the one to do it. That’s the sort of man he’d always been.
Was that possible?
“So you’re serious about this?” Teigen said to Dahl once his friend was walking beside him again. “You want to court her with the hope of marrying her?”
“I do. Unless there’s something that I discover about her in the meantime that turns me away.” Dahl looked like he couldn’t believe his own words. “But only if you agree, Teig.”
“I’ll tell you what, Dahl. I couldn’t be happier if this works out,” he said. “Not only for you, but for me.”
“For you?” Dahl stopped walking. “What do you mean?”
Teigen faced his friend. “I’m going to tell you something in strict confidence. At least for now.”
Dahl’s expression showed his concern. “Understood.”
“I think I’m going to sell Hansen Shipping.”
Dahl stepped back, his eyes wide. “Really?”
Teigen nodded. “My father told me last week that he wants to retire.”
Dahl looked askance at him. “And you don’t want to take it over? Why not?”
Teigen shrugged. “I don’t want to stop teaching.”
“Does Nikolai know that?”
“He does.”
Dahl tilted his head. “So how does my courting Kyle have anything to do with that?”
“Because Thor will receive Tor’s portion of the sale.” Teigen watched as understanding washed over Dahl’s face. “And if you’re married to Thor’s mother, then I know his money will be well managed and not end up in some American’s pocket.”
“That does make sense…” The wheels in Dahl’s head were obviously turning. “Kyle will still want to live in America…”
“That’s where their life is, isn’t it?” Teigen stated. “Are you willing to move to Minnesota?”
Dahl’s brow furrowed. “I might be.”
“You better decide that before you court her. Or at the least, talk about it with her,” Teigen warned. “I could be wrong—she might move to Norway. But I highly doubt it.”
*****
Kyle stood in the doorway watching Thor and Torhild playing in the courtyard with their new toy cars. Thor was making typical rumbling engine noises when Dahl and Teigen walked through, carrying three dead rabbits on the line.
Thor’s eyes widened. He abandoned the cars and ran to the men. He looked equally fascinated and horrified.
“Did you shoot those?”
Kyle answered the question instead of translating it. “They went hunting for our supper, Thor.”
Teigen handed Kyle the rabbits. “Will you give these to Mrs. Nilsson? We’ll go wash up.”
“Sure.” Kyle accepted the bounty and headed toward the kitchen.
Thor was behind her in a flash. “Why’d they shoot the bunnies?”
Kyle looked down at her city-born, city-raised son and realized he had no idea where meat came from. For a farm girl from Viking, that was an embarrassment.
“Mrs. Nilsson is going to butcher them and make stew.”
Thor frowned. “What’s butcher?”
“Take off the fur and cut up the meat,” she eased into the explanation.
“Can I watch?”
Kyle hesitated, wondering if that was a good idea. On the farm, killing and butchering the animals that they raised or hunted was a common occurrence, one that she’d experienced her whole life. But for Thor, the new experience might prove too gruesome.
She decided to leave the decision up to Mrs. Nilsson and hope for the best.
“He’ll get in my way,” she grumbled. “Maybe another time.”
Kyle wa
s surprised at her own disappointment, but she understood the housekeeper’s point.
“She says you can’t stay and watch this time. Maybe when she makes chicken.” Kyle figured the plucked bird would look less like a furry little pet and its disembowelment would be easier for Thor to accept.
He frowned. “Does she take the feathers off and cut up the meat on a chicken? Is that where chicken comes from?”
“Yes.” I am a complete failure. “Now go back outside and play with Torhild. It’s a beautiful day.”
“What about fish?” Thor asked as he trudged toward the back door. “Does she take off the skin and cut up the meat, too?”
“Yes.” Now was not the time to quibble about what marine flesh was actually called.
When he reached the door, Thor turned around and looked at her. “Can I go hunting?”
*****
Dahl stepped up behind Kyle and smiled at Thor. “Skal du ha det gøy?” Are you having fun?
Kyle’s stomach fluttered a little at the sound of his voice. That was interesting. Pleasantly so.
“He wants to know if he can go hunting,” she told Dahl in Norsk.
“Yes. Of course he can go hunting!” Dahl’s smile widened. “Teigen has a pellet gun he can use.”
“Stop talking like that!” Thor shouted in English.
Kyle looked at her son in surprise. “Like what?”
“Like sel hanska poe vee yah,” he imitated the sound and cadence of Norsk. “I don’t like that.”
“That’s Norwegian, Thor, you know that. It’s the language the people here speak,” Kyle chastised.
Thor pointed at Dahl. “I don’t want you to talk to him like that.”
“To Dahl?” Kyle glanced at him and looked back at her son. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t want him to like you.”
Kyle was staggered by her son’s jealousy. “But I like him, Thor. In fact, I like him very, very much. And I want him to like me back.”
Thor scowled. “I don’t.”
“Well he just offered to take you hunting!” she blurted. “Should I tell him no?”
Thor’s eyes rounded with disbelief and he looked from her to Dahl and back again while Kyle wished she could suck those words right back out of the air. Thor with a gun? The idea terrified her, even if it was only a pellet gun.
Dahl laid his hand against the small of her back. “I’ll make sure the boy is safe, Kyle.”
Even though Dahl’s assumption of her objections was spot on, Kyle wasn’t ready to give in just yet. “He’s too young.”
Dahl’s voice was calm. “I was shooting a real gun by the time I was five. So was Tor, I’ll bet.”
“Don’t bring him into this.”
“Don’t coddle him, Kyle,” Dahl countered. “Isn’t that what you were saying last night?”
“When you have children of your own, you can tell me how to raise mine!” she snapped.
“Stop talking like that!” Thor stamped his foot and looked like he was about to cry. “I want to go hunting!”
Kyle was caught in a steel trap between the two of them. If she dug her heels in, she would lose both Dahl’s and Thor’s respect. But to give in…
She whirled on Dahl and jabbed his chest with a stiff finger. “If anything happens to him, I will kill you. I was in the Army. I know how.”
Dahl saluted her. “Yes ma’am.”
“Don’t mock me!”
“I’m not. But I was a captain and I do outrank you.”
Kyle huffed and faced her son. “I’ll let you go hunting with Dahl if you’ll stop shouting at me about him.”
Thor looked at the Norseman standing by her side. He was clearly torn between his desire to shoot at something and his dislike of her growing friendship with the man.
“When you can agree to that, we’ll talk about when you can go. Understood?”
Thor turned around and stomped back to Torhild who sat on the ground surrounded by their toy cars and staring at him like he was the oddest thing she had ever seen.
*****
Dahl waited until after their rabbit stew supper, when Thor was in bed and Kyle’s mood was soothed with a glass of wine, before he asked her to take a walk with him. He wanted to have a serious discussion with her and he wanted to do it in private, away from Teigen, Selby, and the inquisitive Ben.
They took the path away from town and along the bluff. Dahl brought a blanket for them to sit on and enjoy the beautiful view of the North Sea.
He began the conversation with, “I’m sorry if I sounded harsh today. Thor is your son and you should raise him as you see fit.”
Kyle looked contrite. “And I didn’t mean to snap at you. You made a good point.”
“That’s done, then.” He stopped at a grassy spot and spread the blanket on the ground, smiling. “May all our arguments end so simply.”
Kyle laughed at that. “Amen.”
The couple settled on the blanket. The sky above was still blue, but the eastern edge was beginning to darken to purple as the sun lowered in its long elliptical arc.
“Tell me about your life in America,” Dahl prompted. What’s it like?”
Kyle raised her brows and drew a deep breath. “Well, I own a Victorian duplex in Minneapolis. I live in half and I rent out the other half to pay the mortgage. And I go to school at the university.”
As he asked more questions and Kyle talked, Dahl put together a pretty complete picture of what life in America would entail. Though Kyle had been a working mother all this time, he wondered if she would be willing to stop and raise their children if he married her. At least until the children were in school.
He decided to ask.
“That’s an interesting question,” she admitted. “As a counselor I could work part time and hold sessions in my home, I suppose…”
“I could go along with that,” Dahl said without thinking.
Kyle looked at him sharply. “What would you do?”
“I’d look for work in the theater, I think—I’d teach acting or maybe produce or direct for an established company.” He shrugged. “Iowa State University talked about offering me a position, but I wasn’t interested at the time. I could write to them and see if that’s still a possibility.”
“That’s two hundred miles south of Minneapolis.”
He narrowed his eyes as he considered the situation.
“Couldn’t you work on your thesis at home and drive up once a week to meet with your professors?”
Kyle nodded slowly. “I’d have to ask, of course. But something like that might work out.”
Dahl stared at her, stunned by their conversation. “Kyle…”
She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. Her gray-green eyes widened and her expression was somber when her hand fell back to her lap.
“What are we doing?”
“I think…” He paused, honing his thoughts. “We’re both wondering if we could make a future work between us.”
Kyle brushed her breeze-blown blonde hair out of her eyes. “You mean before we jump in and get our hearts ripped out?”
Dahl nodded. “Is that what it feels like to you?”
“Yes. It does, actually.”
“So what now?” His smile grew slowly. “May I court you?”
She looked cautiously optimistic. “What will Teigen think?”
“I already asked him.”
“You did?” she yelped. “What’d he say?”
“He was thrilled,” Dahl said honestly. “So what do you say?”
Kyle’s expression shifted. “I say you should kiss me.”
Dahl didn’t need to be asked again. He slid one hand around Kyle’s neck and buried his fingers in her hair. He pulled her close, his eyes pinned to hers until hers closed.
When their lips touched it felt like being struck by lightning. Electricity fizzed through his veins and every nerve in his body tingled. If Dahl had any doubt about their connection, it dissipated in that instant.
“Did you feel that?” he whispered when their long and deep kiss ended.
Kyle looked like her world was as shaken as his. “Yes. But you better kiss me again to be sure.”
Chapter
Seven
July 13, 1950
For the last three days Kyle had felt like a young girl again, giddy and full of hope. When Dahl’s lips met hers the first time, she couldn’t help but think of Tor—Dahl’s was her first romantic kiss in five-and-a-half years.
But it took less than thirty seconds for her to realize that Dahl was a completely different man with a distinct appeal that was all his own. And she was smitten.
To the core.
She convinced Dahl to keep his physical displays of affection limited to times when Thor either wasn’t in sight or after he went to bed.
“It’s not only my feelings that we have to consider,” she reminded Dahl. “I can’t ignore his—and right now with being so far from home his world is out of kilter.”
“Of course.” Dahl brushed her hair out of her eyes and kissed her forehead. “Are you ready to let me take him hunting? That might be a good start.”
Kyle drew a deep breath and held it. She knew what the answer should be, but she was reluctant to loosen her hold on her son. He was Tor’s only legacy and he still seemed so young.
But Thor had said he was sorry about yelling at her, and he hadn’t griped about her conversing with Dahl since. And honestly, the two of them were conversing much more frequently since their first kiss.
The first of many.
“Breathe, Kyle,” Dahl chided. “It’ll be fine. I promise you.”
She released her held breath. “Okay. You can take him.”
Dahl grinned. “I’ll get Ben to come along. Thor likes him.”
Kyle’s fingers twisted into a nervous knot. “When will you go?”
“There’s no time like the present.” Dahl planted a solid kiss on her lips. “And it’s a beautiful day.”
And that was that.
Thor looked like an extra Christmas was happening when she told him. He squealed and jumped up and down, doing a little dance in the room before Kyle had him change clothes.