“My son will defeat you,” Mican told Kerr disparagingly. “He is a warrior before whom few may stand.”
Was he?
“We will spar tomorrow,” Kerr, always the more aggressive of Kendrick’s sons, promised Earrach.
And what if they do?Bradana wondered. What if things grew heated and incautious, and Kerr did her the favor of killing her bridegroom? Would she then be free of this terrible destiny laid upon her?
The man Chief Mican had brought with him was, so it seemed, their clan elder, who would perform the handfasting here before the entire settlement, two days hence. Tomorrow would be a grand feast. Following their joining would come an even more elaborate one. She would depart here for the north as Earrach’s bride.
And would he claim his rights as her husband here, even before they left? No doubt. She would be as a sacrifice to him.
She eyed him as she played, fingers now moving by rote. He ignored her and seldom glanced in her direction.
What would it be like, to be touched by him? Taken by him? Prey to those hands and those lips.
She plucked a sour note. No one noticed, save perhaps Mam, who rose and came to her.
“Lay the harp aside for now,” she bade. “Come and speak wi’ your betrothed.”
“There will be time for us to talk together in the morning.”
“Now will be better. Ye maun get to know him.”
“Mam, I feel unwell. May I be dismissed?”
Mam’s gaze met hers. “I fear not, love.”
So she went and sat beside Earrach. He did look at her then.
“Pray, Master Earrach,” she said as the others talked around them, “tell me o’ your settlement.”
“’Tis a vast place, mistress.” He glanced around the hall. “Perhaps no’ so grand as this. We are too busy fighting off the natives—even after all these years—to spend time on niceties. But I hope to someday make it the strongest holding in the north, for my sons.”
“A fine ambition,” Bradana said. His sons. The ones he expected her to bear. “Is it beautiful, your land?”
“I think so. Worth fighting for, and won by blood. Ye will learn o’ men, true men.” He held her gaze even as he drank from his cup. “I am no’ afraid o’ a fight.” He cast a brief look at Kerr. “I am no’ afraid to tak’ on yer brother.”
“I ha’ a pony and a fine hound, Wen, whom I mean to bring wi’ me.”
“We ha’ plenty o’ hounds. Best to leave yours behind and choose a new one there.”
“I am bringing him.” She met his gaze with determination.
“You will do as ye wish, I am sure. But our hounds are fierce and may no’ accept him. Would ye bring him only to see him savaged?”
“He is most important to me.”
“Then leave him here wi’ yer brothers, that he may survive.”
“Wen comes wi’ me, or I do no’ go.”
Earrach looked interested. His dark eyes latched on to her face and something dangerous moved in them. “I was no’ told ye were stubborn.”
“Master Earrach, I am giving up much to wed wi’ ye and move awa’ from my home. I will no’ give up Wen.”
“Ye gain much also. Many fine hounds. A hall o’ yer own. A husband who will die, and kill, for ye.”
A shiver chased down Bradana’s body from head to toe, precisely as if an evil wind moved through her. An omen of things to come.
