“What?Why?I canna leave her –”
“If the Keiths believe her to be a witch or a pagan, ‘tis no’ a far leap to believe the same with ye.And after what ye did today?Defeating one of their men?How do ye think they’ll receive that?”
Ailith dropped her chin and turned forward on the horse again.
“Rumors can be dangerous things,mo ruaidh,” William explained as he softened his tone.“I understand why ye do what ye do, but others might no’.”The horse ambled along, and William tried again.There had to be another, deeper reason why she had put herself at such risk.Something more than to help a woman she’d met all of three times.He curled his body around hers and pressed his lips to the gentle curve of her ear.“Why would ye do that?Why could ye no’ leave well enough alone?I warned ye of it, and told ye I did no’ want ye fighting at all.”
His voice was a growl.Questioning and softer, albeit tinged with anger.
She didn’t answer right away, but William was patient.
“I told myself I would no’ say anything,” Ailith said hesitantly.“’Tis no’ my story to tell, but I must tell ye.Ye’re the only other person who might understand.”
“Understand what,mo ruaidh?”He held his breath.
“She’s like me,” she answered in a low voice.A hesitant voice – one so unlike his Ailith.“A voyager like myself.I had to protect her.”
William bit his lips.He had been trying to guess what could have prompted his wife to take such a dangerous chance with her own safety, but this?That was thelastthing he expected.He barely understood his own changeling wife when she talked about the future and who she really was.That there was another?A changeling?Others, like Ailith, who somehow traveled through the fabric of time?Voyagers, as she called them.
“Teagan?”he whispered, trying to understand what she was saying.
Though his anger cooled, simmering under his curiosity, he was not sure his fury was going to go away with such a complicated answer.
“She’s the only person here who understands what this is like, what I’m going through.Ihadto save her.”
He let this information sink in.How might he have handled such a situation?William could not begin to guess.
“Is she from your time?”he asked.
“No’ quite,” Ailith answered.“Closer to my time than yours, but more than a hundred years before me.So a bit different.”
A hundred years’ difference between their times?William couldn’t conceive of that, of hundreds and thousands of years in the future.They rode in silence again.
His voice was curt when he next spoke.“We must teach ye to fight better with the knife, and perhaps a sword.The sticks can only do so much, and the knife is better for a close-contact fight.And a heavy hand can make ye lose your weapon.But even then, ye canna pick a fight willy-nilly.I’m trying to temper my anger at ye –”
“Anger?But I washelpingher!”
“Butyecould have been killed,” he finished, ignoring her interruption.“’Tis no’ your time, your world.Ye must learn some control over your actions.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath.“Aye, I suppose ye are right.I’lltry.”
He appreciated her response, but he didn’t much care for it.It wasn’t a promise or guarantee, and she still did not seem to fully understand the fact that she could have been seriously injured or killed this afternoon.The mad king might be gone, but the danger among the clans persisted.And she had just antagonized a clan that had a close tie to the Morays.
They rode in silence the rest of the way to Drumoak.
The more he thought about the afternoon and the danger Ailith put herself in, the larger the burning ball of emotion and rage in his gut grew.
But was it worry that Ailith might be injured?Or that she might kill someone herself?
Several people milled around the yard when Ailith and William returned.Eoghan and Betris brightened and waved when they entered, but William ignored them all.After he turned his horse to the stable lad, he didn’t even pause at the main hall and practically dragged Ailith directly through the hallway to the tower.
If he forgave her for the fight regarding Teagan, he had an odd way of showing it.
He kicked the door to their chambers closed as he yanked her into the room.
“Are ye still mad at me?”she asked as she whirled around.William’s face was a mask, and she couldn’t read him.“I thought ye understood!That ye forgave me!”
His jaw clenched.“Idoforgive ye.Christ’s blood, Ailith, I can forgive ye for nearly anything.But ‘tis no’ enough to stop my anger!”
