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Valdar nodded, accepting her words. ‘Hringson, will I be welcome at Jaarlshiem?’
‘I’ve no quarrel with you, Valdar. Never did,’ Ash proclaimed. ‘I’ve no quarrel with any man. I simply claim what is lawfully mine. The king understands. You would know this if you had been at court this morning.’
‘I will take your word for it. I had other matters to attend to.’ Valdar’s cheek flushed slightly and Kara wondered where he’d been. He never missed court when he was in Sand.
Kara made a little clicking noise in the back of her throat. Her horse started forward. ‘Shall we go before anything else happens?’
‘Are you expecting more trouble, my lady?’ Ash made no attempt to mount his horse.
‘You always have to make a scene, Ash,’ she said. ‘There was no cause to do that. And there is no reason except simple extravagance to have this many men accompanying us. You would think we were riding off to battle, rather than returning to Jaarlshiem to see our son.’
A muscle jumped in his jaw. ‘Hardly extravagant. Prudent. What is mine stays mine. I trust Valdar the Steady and everyone else understands that now.’
Kara’s mouth went dry. ‘Does that include people?’
‘I look after my own.’
Kara straightened her back and dug her heels into her horse’s flank. ‘Then I was never yours. Seven years, Ash, seven long years.’
Chapter Six
Kara had never belonged to him.
Kara’s words resounded in Ash’s head with every step his horse took. Once he had thought she was his without question. Kara had always been there with her ready smile and hero worship. He’d failed to appreciate her and her potential.
This trip was about more than meeting his son. It was about protecting Kara, even though he was certain she’d claim that she didn’t need protection. With each encounter, her steely strength and clear head impressed him more.
Kara might have thought Valdar the right man for her, but he was not. Ash knew this in his heart. All he wanted was a chance to prove that he could be the sort of husband she’d longed for all those years ago—brave, steady in battle and valiant—a true hero.
He wrenched his mind away from his circling thoughts and concentrated on the road ahead.
The twilight drenched the road to Jaarlshiem in shadow. The air bore a distinct chill of winter as a bone-chilling drizzle began to fall.
‘Were you listening and watching, Uncle? Did you understand my message was meant for you, as well?’ Ash muttered under his breath. ‘When are you going to make your move? On this journey or against my ship as it moves slowly up the river towards Jaarlshiem? Or are you a spider, willing to sit and wait for me to make a mistake? I no longer make them. You have now become the hunted.’
He glanced back. Kara’s head nodded. She jerked awake, making her horse start, but then her eyes began to flutter again.
‘I’m fine,’ she muttered. ‘Keep going.’
‘Did I say anything?’
He glanced about them to judge where they were and smiled. Tension flowed out of his shoulders. The gods were with him today. His younger self would never have noticed her exhaustion.
The gods favoured those who noticed small details. He’d learnt that lesson in the mud of his first victory, six months after he had escaped the dungeon. It should have been a defeat, but he’d noticed the Franks had not bothered to defend their western flank and had forded a river. After that, he had started to win other men’s respect. The lesson had stayed with him ever since.
‘We stop for the night.’ Ash pulled his horse up as the rain intensified. ‘A woodcutter’s hut sits in the clearing up ahead. I used it years ago. Shelter on a night like this. No one will dare refuse us. I carry the king’s rune, promising safe passage.’
At his words, Kara scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I’m prepared to go on. All night should see us to Jaarlshiem’s boundary.’
‘You have regained your tongue, my lady. That is news worth celebrating!’
‘When the occasion calls for it.’ Her look flung daggers at him.
He shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. Maybe his earlier choice of words had been lacking in subtlety, but he wanted Valdar to take a message to his uncle.
If Kara had remained, there was every chance she’d be taken hostage and he couldn’t allow that.
