“I daenae ken what I would have done without both of ye.” She smiled softly to herself. “Ye both saved me life.” Maggie lifted her little head and licked her palm as if she could somehow understand what Emily was saying. “I daenae want to go home without both of ye.”
Maggie barked, and walked to the door.
“Ye want to wait for help outside?”
She barked again. Emily sighed and let her out. “Ye just wait for that priest here. He’ll probably run into Peter soon. Daenae go far.”
Maggie settled just outside the door and Emily gave her one last pat before heading back inside.
Shesettled on the dirty floor beside where Kaden was resting, half propped up against the wall. She was glad that he was breathing steadily. No doubt, the punches to the head didn’t help. She was certain that he was going to wake up soon, and she would get to look into those warm eyes and tell him how grateful she was.
“I just want to go home,” she breathed, and leaned down to rest her head on his chest.
Perhaps it was more touch than he would have allowed, but she wanted to think that if he was awake, he would have made thismoment an exception, for they had both almost fallen prey to Graham again.
She had so many questions that she wanted to ask him, things that she wanted to know about his history with Graham, and if it was anything like her own history with him. Judging by how feral he had acted, likely his was far worse.
She trailed her finger over his chest and flattened her palm over his heart just to reassure herself.
She lay like that until her heart didn’t feel like it was going to burst out of her chest anymore.
“Ye have to wake up so that I can thank ye, though it goes against me nature to do so,” she teased. Perhaps she was crazy, but she could have sworn she felt his arm shift. “Ye didnae have to put yerself in danger for me.”
No, she wasn’t imagining it. Kaden’s arm did shift to wrap around her and pull her closer to his chest.
“We’re me wife, of course I’d protect ye,” he sighed.
She tried to shush him so that he wouldn’t use too much of his energy while they waited for help. “Once we’re back in the castle, I daenae want to wake up alone again, ye hear me?”
She could feel him smirking against the crown of her head. But she continued speaking before he could interrupt her.
“Ye have left me with too much time to think while ye rested. I ken I said that I didnae want a bairn until a year had passed, but ye… ye went to that maid at the first chance ye got and laughed with her.”
Kaden only held her tighter, and it almost felt like he was afraid she was going to evaporate. “Is me wee wife jealous?”
“Nay! I’m nae jealous!” she protested. “I think that I’m just seeing things more clearly, having gotten a bit of perspective.”
“Aye, battle can do that to a person,” he agreed softly. “But ye did ask for distance. It wasnae something I wanted.”
She didn’t want to start a fight. She merely wanted to speak her mind.
“I didnaebegfor distance. I didnae beg to wake up alone after… after…” she trailed off.
She didn’t really know what words to use or how best to describe what they had done.
“After what, wife? After I introduced ye to heaven? Ye can say it.”
Emily pressed down on one of the dried poulcies to make him stop sounding so arrogant. “I hate how smug ye are about it. Is that all ye want from me? Because… Because I want yer company as well.”
Kaden hissed in discomfort. “I want the same, damn it. I want to be with ye, though I should have ken better. I’m terrified that something will happen to me. Or ye. And I cannae take it. It pierces through me. And yet I cannae stay away. I feel that if I keep me distance, I might actually die. Ye did that.”
It was perhaps the most she had ever heard him say in one single breath. It took her a long moment to process it.
“I cannae say that I am sorry for getting under yer skin,” she admitted softly with a smile.
Kaden’s hand lifted to cup the back of her neck, pulling her up so that he could kiss her. It was soft at first, tentative, as if neither one of them wanted to push things too far.
It was different than before because now Emily knew what she meant to him. All of the emotions she had been holding back, prohibiting herself from feeling, rushed to the surface all at once.
