He stopped speaking, knowing that he’d said all that he could. It would be up to Marissa to decide if she truly trusted him to makegood on his promise to protect her. And he was willing to give her all the time she needed.
Finally, after quite a bit of her glaring as she considered his words, she gave him a quick, terse nod.
Heaving a sigh of relief, he extended his hand toward her. She took it, accepting his help as he slowly guided her down toward the shore.
A few ducks had made their way back onto the rocks and the sand. They quacked merrily at them as they approached.
Marissa clung tightly to him. The closer they got to the water, and subsequently the birds, the more her hand grew clammy with sweat. But he did not let go.
“It’s all right,” he murmured to her. “It’s goin’ to be all right.”
A few ducks flapped their wings as they approached, their rubbery feet slapping against the sand as they waddled out of their way. But other than that, they seemed to pay them no mind other than cocking their heads at them curiously.
Arthur guided her to the water’s edge. The gentle lapping of the water just beneath their boots helped to drown out a little of the squawking. Slow and rhythmic.
“Now, look at me,” he commanded.
Thankfully, Marissa seemed too fearful of the ducks surrounding them to argue back. Her gaze snapped to his.
Fear still lingered in the depths of her gaze, as clear as the sky was blue, but there was something else there as well.
Trust.
She was trusting him to stay true to his word, to protect her. And to help her.
Pride bubbled low in his belly.
“Breathe with me,” he said, before demonstrating to her exactly what he meant.
Arthur made a big show of taking a deep breath through his nose. He allowed it to puff up his chest, before holding it for a few seconds and blowing it out through his mouth.
He did this a few times, his eyes pleading with Marissa to join in. After the third large, measured breath, she did exactly that.
He nodded as she matched him breath for breath, before pausing to explain.
“This is what I have me men do,” he admitted.
For a moment, she stopped the breathing exercise to listen to him, but he shook his head and motioned for her to keep going.
“When they’re terrified on the battlefield,” he continued, “or when I need to keep them calm for the healers. Men who have just witnessed or done somethin’ terrible for the sake of the clan, and who have gone a wee barmy because of it. Sometimes it helps.”
Marissa nodded, continuing the breathing exercise. But her muscles were still so tense that she seemed ready to break out into a run. He needed something else, something that would distract her and keep her focused on him and the exercise.
Recalling her words from the night before, Arthur began speaking once more.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“There was somethin’ else I was goin’ to tell ye last night,” he revealed. “Somethin’ that I’ve nae told anyone. Nae even Joseph.”
The only sign that she was listening to him and registering what he was saying was the slight widening of her eyes. He took that as a good sign, before continuing to speak.
“I told ye that Joseph was a bastard. And we all ken about that. I told ye how the council treated him poorly because of it. But what if I told ye that Ayla is only me half-sister as well?”
Marissa stopped her breathing exercise, her mouth gaping open in surprise.
“What?” she asked in astonishment.
Arthur shook his head. “Keep breathin’ and tryin’ to calm yerself. I’ll do the talkin’.”
