Or he might not.
She stopped walking abruptly and looked around herself. A wild place indeed, she had reached. As wild as her emotions.
Her mother often told her to master her passions.Get hold o’ them, lass, for they will betray ye in the end.
Did Mam regret having wed with Kendrick? They argued a terrible lot, but aye, the quarrels invariably ended in passion. Bradana had learned young that when the curtain of their sleeping place was tied shut and certain sounds came from within, she had best keep away.
Mam’s relationship with Kendrick was not an easy one. Could Bradana go to her for advice? Nay, for she could not explain in any sane fashion what she felt for the man from Erin.
Besides, Mam had said, “’Tis best perhaps, Bradana, that ye go to wed a man wi’ whom ye ha’ no emotional ties as yet. Feelings may grow between ye, which will be easier than investing the whole o’ your heart.”
Bradana sat down on the trunk of a tree that had washed ashore and faced the sea. The vast, seething and restless sea that reminded her all too much of what she felt inside.
Was it really better to go and live her life with a man she did not and might never love? To keep her heart clasped tight?
What if it was too late? What if she’d already lost her heart?
Absurd. She did not know Adair MacMurtray. She did not believe in love at first sight. That was attraction. Lust. And aye, she might well feel that for Adair, but…it took a rear position to the rest of it.
Bitterness touched her. She did not need this agony. Had she not enough to dead with? The oft-times stressful situations here at home. The fact that she must soon wed and leave all she knew behind.
Everything but Wen. She would not go without Wen.
At that thought, she felt a powerful pull. She wanted to get to her feet. To hurry back as swiftly as she could.
To the hound?
Or to the man he guarded?
Why had she not realized Wen had assigned himself to guard Adair? When no one else would. Because a knife in the dark could end it all quite swiftly.
End everything, save what she felt inside.
In a rush, she went back down the shore. The sea spoke to her as she went, hissed and gurgled and chuckled around the stones.
Two pebbles. The two of them together for only a short while.
Gods, let him be safe when she reached him.
*
Adair dozed fora time, the hound’s great head in his lap. But the pain in his chest roused him again and again. Eventually he had to get up and use the pot behind the curtain in the corner. He thought of venturing out to empty it, but hoped Nolan or Flynn might turn up to inquire how he was, and take up the task.
No one came near him. Not his men nor any of Kendrick’s household. Not till the afternoon had dragged on did Nolan come to check on him, bringing a measure of what Adair suspected was his own food ration, and taking the pot away with him.
Some time later yet, Bradana slipped in. She came like the afternoon shadows that stirred beyond the door. Adair’s only notice was the sweep of the great hound’s tail on the floor just before she appeared.
The sight of her brought relief. He hadn’t been sure she would return to him.
She spoke, however, to the hound. “Ye may go now. I am here.”
Wen went out—no doubt to relieve himself and find something to eat.
“He’s been guarding me?” Not till then did Adair realize it.
“Aye.”
“Ye think they will try to finish me, then?”
