Awareness shot through her, and her breath caught in her throat as he turned to face her, his eyesdark with need.
He leaned closer, his mouth a breath from hers, and a sense of something important filled her, of a moment, a wisp of time that somehow could, if she allowed it, change everything.
“Do you ever wish for what you have nay right to ask for?” he breathed, the sadness in his voice breaking her heart.
Aye, of how much I want you, she silently replied.
As if coming out of a trance, Aiden stiffened, withdrew his hand.
Missing his touch, bereft even though she knew ’twas foolish to toy with the unattainable, Gwendolyn searched for something to return the moment to safer ground. “Does anything worry you?”
“I refuse to answer that and look weakin your eyes.”
“I doubt there is such a possibility,” she said, finding thestatement true.
For a long moment he stared at her, and she caught the edge of sadness in his gaze. “You speak highly of me when we have known each other for buta short while.”
“Mayhap,” she agreed, “but during that brief time, I have discovered you are a man of your word,one who cares.”
“’Tis greatpraise indeed.”
“Praise you have earned. Even when I didna know your true name, your deeds exposed you as a knight of high regard.”
Quiet fell between them, broken by the soft sounds of the night, and she enjoyed the peace his company brought her. A serenity that, once he departed for Thorburn Castle,she would miss.
Leather scuffed rock as he stepped back. “’Tis late. We must return to camp if we are to rest at all.”
As if with thoughts of him stirring in her mind she could rest? Not wanting to end this time between them, but doubting ’twas wise to remain, she nodded.
* * * *
Several days later, as the sun slowly edged toward the horizon, Gwendolyn sat near a break in the dense brush, stared at her home in the distance.
Hundreds of tents littered the roll of land, livestock grazed in several places, and near the castle, a trebuchet was being built.
At the sounds of steps,she glanced up.
Sir Cailin moved up the incline toward her.
She arched a brow, refusing to allow Aiden’s friend to see her disappointment. Since the morning they’d departed for Latharn Castle, Aiden had kept his distance.
As the Templar neared the top of the embankment, Cailin crouched to keep behind the thicket, and then moved to where she sat. “You dinnamind company?”
“Nay.” She glanced toward the stronghold. “Though far from reclaimed, ’tis good to see my home.”
He settled on a nearby rock, gestured toward the mist-laden coast. “We are fortunate sea fog has begun to form. By dawn it should be thick enough to slice.”
“How did Aiden know the mistwould appear?”
Cailin glanced at the clear sky, then to where the dense blanket of white hung over the water a distance out to sea. “The conditions are right.”
“How doyou know that?”
“From our time at sea. If you sail enough, you notice a connection with wind, air, the sun’s heat or lack of it, and the resultant weather.”
“I canna begin to imagine all you and the others have learned over your years as Templars.”
“’Tis difficult to think the life welove is over.”
