They hear the outriders before they see them, and by the time the horns go up half the pack is out in the snow. A moon is a long time. You are at the gate because the contract says the betrothed stands where the pack can see her.

Eyvind Nordheim comes in at the head of eight riders with snow in his hair and a second horse on a lead, and there is a woman on that horse, in a southern coat.

He swings down and walks through them to you, grey with cold, the collar of the fur coat up, the henley open down the chest, a cigarette going in one hand.

he says, and it is not aimed at you; the pack gives him the gate.

The woman is handed down to Halstein and walked to the far house, and nobody says her name out loud. Eyvind stops in front of you with snow melting in his hair and does not touch you. He looks at your hands first, then at your face.

he says. He pulls the silver ring off his own finger, turns it once, and holds it out between two fingers, close enough to take and far enough that you have to reach.