Phillipe’s guileless, well-practicedsmile dropped.“She told you?”
“Of course, she did.Doyou really think she’d keep such a thing from me?”
“No wonder you’ve beensuch a dour, grumpy bastard,” Phillipe said.“Brooding on her andthe babe as you have been.”
“Babe?”Talon opened hismouth to say, though he wasn’t sure any sound actually came out.“What babe?”
Phillipe’s jaw dropped.“You said youknew.You said she told you.”
“About your promise towatch my back.To make sure I made it back to her in onepiece.”
“So you didn’tknow?”
“That she carries mychild?”Talon pinned him with an accusatory glare.“Do you reallythink I’d have left her to bring my child into this world unmarriedand alone?”
“No.”Phillipe shook hishead.“I didn’t, I don’t, and I told her as much.”
“Then why?”Talon wantednothing more at that moment than to throttle his best friend.“Whydidn’t you tell me?Why didn’t she?”
“She didn’t want to worryyou.”Phillipe took a swig of his drink.“She wanted youconcentrating on keeping your own hide intact, not fretting abouther or the babe.”He threw his hands up, palms out.“Her words, notmine.I swear on my mother’s grave.”He paled.“Oh, Christ.I’msorry.Bad choice of words.”
“Bad choices all around.”Talon stood and glared around the spinning room until he spied thedoor and made for it on legs that felt as if they’d been cut off atthe knees.
***
“This month is almost atan end,” Phillipe said as Talon turned his back to him and pickedup the Black’s hoof to look at the same shoe he’d alreadyinspected.“How much longer do you plan on not speaking tome?”
“Yes.”Talon set theBlack’s hoof down and eyeballed Phillipe.“Likely,awhile.”
Phillipe laid a hand on Talon’sshoulder.Talon shrugged it off.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tellyou sooner, on my own,” Phillipe said.“But in my defense, itwasn’t my idea to keep her pregnancy a secret from you.It washers.You know how convincing she can be.”
“Hardheaded stubborn’smore like it,” Talon growled.
“And as smart as she isstubborn,” Phillipe said.
Talon snorted.
“Right too, as it turnsout.”
Talon scowled.“How so?”
“You’ve done nothing butfret and brood and snap and snarl at anyone foolhardy enough toapproach you since I gave her secret away, driving yourself crazyworrying about her and the babe.Driving the rest of us crazy andwalking on eggshells around you.”
“She still should’ve toldme.”
“What would you have donedifferently if she had, other than worry sooner?”
“I would’ve married her.Given our child my name.”
“So, marry her when we getback.People have short memories for these sorts of transgressions,especially when they’re righted.Sometimes later rather thansooner, but righted nonetheless.”
“What if we don’t getback?”Talon spoke his greatest fear out loud.“How would I rightthat?”
“You wouldn’t.”His wordstwisted in Talon’s gut.“But she would live knowing you loved her,that your child was conceived of that love, and God help any foolwho’d dare call her child a bastard and expect to come out of itunscathed.”
Talon stared down at his scarred palmand clenched his fist.“I should be there with her, taking care ofher and our unborn babe, not halfway across Gaul, sitting on my asswaiting to go chase Saxons through frozen marshlands.”
