The Distant Tide by Heather Day Gilbert

An Unfulfilled Dream
Bookish princess Britta feels her dreams are pulling her in two directions. She longs to travel and share the good news of Christ with others, but her heart lies firmly in her Irish homeland, with the people of her father’s kingdom. To complicate matters, the king’s right-hand man, Ronan, has finally declared his love for her.

A Vengeful Raid
Thoughts of retribution have consumed Ari Thorvaldsson ever since his older Viking brother was slain in Irish lands. Having assembled his band of warriors, he sets out to wreak havoc on the people responsible for Egil’s death. But his attack is thwarted, and Ari is injured and taken prisoner.
As Britta struggles to communicate with the wounded warrior, she slowly realizes he’s had a change of heart. When the threat of Norman invasion draws all too close, Britta must convince both her father and Ronan of Ari’s good intentions…but will she find out too late that her trust has been misplaced?

(The Distant Tide was first published in The Message in a Bottle Romance Collection, Barbour Publishing, 2017.)