“Ha’ ye so little faith in your man that he canna help us win?”
“He cannot, Grandfather. He will not be here. Adair and I are leaving for Erin.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Their first quarrel,and their marriage but a day or two old. They waited till they were back in their quarters to begin, Adair burning with so many emotions that he could barely express them. Anger. Distress. Dismay. Frustration.
He did not want to aim all that at Bradana. Yet as soon as they were alone, but for Wen, he set into her.
“Ye promised me ye would no’ do that again.”
Bradana turned to face him. She looked impossibly beautiful to him, with her tangled hair all wild around her, face flushed and eyes overbright. His wild Alban love. Determined to leave this land she adored.
“Do what?” she asked, stalling for time because, to be sure, she knew.
“Sacrifice yoursel’ for me.”
“I am no’—”
He rode over her, a thing so rare he had never before done it. “Sacrificing what ye love, for my sake. This place that is as good as a part o’ ye.”
“Naught matters to me more than ye. And I did no’ promise. I said I could no’ promise—”
“Ha’ ye so little faith in me that ye think I cannot fight Mican?”
“Ye keep asking me that, and I ha’ told ye that is no’ why. If Mican comes and finds ye no’ here, finds both o’ us gone, he will spare the others. All those good people and my brave grandsire.”
“Or he may burn down the settlement. Without us here to help them stand.” To Adair’s own surprise, he was not afraid to fight. Growing up in Erin, he’d been no devoted warrior. True, skill with weapons had come easily to him. But going off to fight for the king’s interests had not held much interest.
This situation was vastly different. And his anger refused to lie down.
“Ye do no’ want to go to Erin.” He made of it an accusation.
And watched a war fought in Bradana’s face. She did not want to live her life in another land. Nor did she want to admit that.
“I want to be wherever ye be, Adair.”
“That is no’ an answer.”
“It is!”
Wen whined. Bradana dug a calming hand into her hound’s fur.
Fiercely, Adair asked, “And if I wish to stay here with your grandfather and fight against Mican? Will ye be with me then?”
“Och, I beg ye, nay!” She came forward into his arms—an action he found hard to resist. “Please, Adair.”
Adair knew how badly she wanted this. He could feel that, just as he could feel her determination at other times, or her desire for him. A stronger wave of frustration swept through him.
“Would ye leave your grandfather knowing ye will likely no’ see him again?”
“If doing so may spare his life, this place he loves. Adair, I canna explain it. This fear reaches so deep inside me.”
He understood that. Despite the carefree way he had lived his life before coming to Alba, he too felt things deep. It occurred to him, for the first time, that maybe he had chosen to live lightly in denial of those deep feelings.
But now, here in this dark land, those feelings had caught up with him.
“Bradana.” He trapped her face between his hands and gazed into her eyes. Eyes full of storm. Of passion. “I do not like to run from a battle.”
