Shining Water 01 - The Icecutter's Daughter Read Free Page B

women, causing them to hurry on their way. Without another word or look, she disappeared into the dressmaker’s establishment.
    Rurik felt utterly confused and dismayed with the encounter. He hadn’t thought this would be an issue when the letter arrived from his uncle two days earlier. “You are closer to her than anyone, Nils. Try to help her understand. I never meant to hurt her.”
    “I’ll talk to her, Rurik, but you have to stay. I need to get away from the dairy,” Nils said, now sounding desperate. “You know I don’t fit in there. My brothers may have a passion for dairy farming, but not me. I only do the office work because it keeps me out of the milking barns. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, you know, that we’d open our furniture business.”
    “I have to go, Nils,” Rurik said, shaking his head. “My uncle needs me. Look, I’m still planning to have my own shop. The fact of the matter is, we can’t open that shop until Svea and I marry and I come into my marriage money. I’ve not made any plans to do that right away, so I guess I’m kind of puzzled as to why you are talking like this.”
    Nils shook his head. “I figured the way Svea talked, you and she would be marrying this year.”
    “Well, this year has barely begun. Look, your sister is a sweet young woman, but I’ve had misgivings about this arrangement for some time. Neither of us have ever had any say in the matter. I know my mother wasn’t all that keen on arranged marriages.”
    “But our fathers were.”
    “And mine is dead now. My mother also. For me, that kind of changes things,” Rurik answered.
    “But it shouldn’t.” Nils’s voice had sounded almost frantic. “It was our fathers’ will that you two marry. They saw it as a good business arrangement. Your family farms, and mine has the dairy. The two can help each other greatly.”
    “ Ja , I know all that,” the tall Swede replied. “But we’re not talking about two farms getting married, are we? There’s no reason our families can’t continue to help one another. That is the Christian way.”
    “Don’t bring God and religion into this,” Nils spat out.
    Rurik frowned. “Why not? God is at the center of all I do. In fact, He’s the reason I feel it’s important to go to Minnesota.”
    “Oh, don’t go blaming this on the Almighty. If you plan to back out of your promises, you need to take the responsibility of it yourself. I won’t have you breaking your engagement to my sister and telling everyone that God made you do it.”
    “But I haven’t broken the engagement.” He looked at Nils and tried not to sound as angry as he was feeling. “I haven’t broken anything. I still plan to work with you and for us to have a business. I will honor my father’s desire for me tomarry Svea—that is, if after this separation we can both agree it is the right thing to do. The fact is, though, I would kind of like to be in love with the woman I plan to marry.”
    “But you love Svea. You always have.”
    “I love her like a sister. I love her as I love you—like a brother.” Rurik stepped closer and pulled Nils into the alley with him. “But the truth is, I’m not in love with Svea.”
    “But that will come. You and I both know that marriage has very little to do with love. Marriages are made for the advantage of the families.”
    “That might have been the old way—the Swedish way, even—but it’s not my way. I will not marry anyone unless I love the woman with all my heart. I cannot in good faith allow your sweet sister to marry a man who isn’t worthy of her—and that would happen if my feelings don’t change. Added to that, she’s still very young.”
    “Bah! You’re just using that as an excuse,” Nils shot back. “I ought to deck you for this. Folks will talk, and her reputation will be ruined.”
    “Her reputation will be just fine. The people of Lindsborg know we have never courted without you at our side. She has