“He most certainly will.”
“Afraid not,” Rhys said with a smile and wrapped his arms around her. “He has grown ratherattached to the spy and I do not think he will surrender her.”
It took Heather a minute to understand. “Maura?”
Rhys nodded.
“Does my father know she spies for you?”
Rhys nodded again. “Maura came to me when she learned that your father felt the same for her as she did for him. She asked permission to leave, not wanting to see your father hurt. I told her to tell him the truth and if he wanted her to leave then she had my permission to do so.”
“My father did not want her to leave,” Heather said, thinking how long it had been since her father had loved.
“Not at all,” Rhys confirmed. “Your father is a wise man. He understood that Maura was not there to harm your clan, nor did she harbor any ill-will against it. She was more an emissary than a spy. Maura is a good woman and will make your father a good wife.”
“He wants to wed her?” Heather shook her head and answered her own question. “Of course he does. It has been so long since he has loved, he would not want to lose her. You know this woman well? You can vouch for her good nature?”
“Aye, I can,” Rhys said, “Maura is my aunt, my mother’s sister.”
A smile spread wide across Heather’s face.
Rhys laughed. “I know what you are thinking. You think to ask her many questions aboutme, but she will answer none of them, unless I give her permission to do so. I would concern myself more of what Patience will think when she finds out. Emma, I think, will be sympathetic.”
“You are right. Patience will grow angry whereas Emma will be happy for our da. You are getting to know my family well,” she said, though wondered if it was because he already knew them well and cared for them. “My father would have wanted to know more about the man who would wed me. Does he know more about the Dragon than I do?”
“That was not part of the marriage agreement and your father had little negotiating power.”
“Did you ever meet with my father personally?”
“He insisted on it and I respected him for it, so I met a couple of times with him.”
“But he never saw your face?” she asked, curious to know if perhaps her father saw in Rhys what she did...that he was Quinn.
“He asked, but it was another thing that was not negotiable.”
Heather eased out of his arms, and he reluctantly let her go.
Silence settled between them for a few moments before Heather said, “Why did you let me escape? Why not just return me home?”
“I thought it best that you have a few days of freedom before you learned your fate.”
“So, when you let me go, I was already your wife.”
“Aye, you were, and I was impatient to claim you as such,” Rhys said.
“I would have never thought that I would be glad that you did. And while the Dragon can breathe fire at times, he also can be a loving creature.”
Rhys walked slowly over to her. “A creature you say, not a beast?”
“A beast strikes without cause or thought and cares naught for the consequences,” she said, stretching her hand out to him.
He wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her up against him. “I have done just that often.”
“When you were a slave warrior and it was forced upon you,” she said, her arms reaching up to wrap around his neck. “You are a slave no more. You are free to do as you wish. To love who you wish and to make love to whom you wish.”
Rhys gave her a gentle kiss. “There is one woman that I want to make love to all the time.”
Heather smiled. “She pleases you that much?”
