She pressed hard against him, craving him deep. "I want to stay with you." And she wanted to bite him at the same time she placed sweet, loving kisses over every inch of him.
He paused, his dark, pained gaze searching her eyes. "Aye," he whispered. "Stay with me always, Dani."
∞∞∞
An hour later, Gavin paced from one side of his father's dim bedchamber to the other. "I married her, and yet Wilona's wicked spell remains." Married and thoroughly bedded. Their explosive bedsport did not diminish their hardships at all. "What would help?"
His da gave him a vacant look from the bed.
"You're nay helping," Gavin muttered.
"'Tis the lass," his father whispered as if in a daydream.
"As you keep saying." Gavin shook his head. Mayhap once her cramp remedy wore off in three months, and she conceived, the curse would vanish. 'Twas only a guess, as she was keen to remind him.
"She is the key." His father's feeble voice trembled. "Treat her kindly."
"Devil take it. I should've given her a good, hard spanking for what she did today. Disobeying me. Putting herself at risk."
"Nay, Gavin. Love her."
∞∞∞
Late the next afternoon, Dani sat beside her father-in-law's bed, reading from one of the rare English books they had on hand—history written in a cumbersome old style. What she wouldn't give for a book of Shakespeare or Chaucer.
Gavin had morphed into a hawk again that morning. She would never get used to seeing that spectacle. So, unfortunately, the rotten spell remained. Bored with doing nothing, she visited Gavin's dad and read to him. Some of the Middle English words challenged her brain, which she needed.
On occasion, Lunn watched her as if he understood each word. Other times he stared at her with a vacant expression or rested with his eyes closed. Either way, her voice soothed him. And now, with his breathing deep and even, he'd gone to sleep.
A crying noise outside the window caught Dani's attention. She paused in her reading and listened. Could it be a lost child? Unable to identify the strange sound, she stood and approached the window. The wavy glass distorting her view, she opened the pane a crack. Outside the curtain wall, a tiny white lamb waddled about on the moor.
"Oh my gosh. How cute. Where's your mama?" she whispered, not seeing any more sheep.
The small creature turned and limped a short distance, then mouthed the grass. But it looked far too young to eat grass. Then, she noticed the blood on its hip.
"Oh no. It's hurt." Dani put down the book and tiptoed into the corridor. She slipped past Ewan, sleeping on a tilted back chair, and down the staircase.
Finch sprawled on a table in the great hall, his snores echoing off the high ceiling. Dani left by way of the secret door and crept outside. By the time she climbed over the tumbled-down wall, the lamb had fled several yards, hobbling this way and that. What had injured the poor baby?
Dodging the scrubby purple heather in full bloom, she ran forward. When the lamb saw her, it sped away with a limping trot.
She tried to subdue her motions while continuing forward. "I won't hurt you. I'll bring you inside and keep you safe until I find your mama."
A loud whistle-screech echoed above her head. A great black hawk with an incredible wingspan, soaring and circling like the grim reaper.
"Gavin," she called out. "Did you hurt the lamb?" Surely he wouldn't have.
He screeched again in answer.
While she'd paused to stare up at him, the lamb was getting away. It wouldn't last long on its own, so small and frail. It couldn't be more than a few days old. But what did she know about lambs and sheep?
"Where's the flock, Gavin?" she called. "I'll try to find its mother."
He screeched and headed toward the castle, flapping his wings as if wanting her to follow.
"No!" He probably wanted the lamb for a meal, just as he did the rabbits. Did he catch animals and eat them raw like a regular bird of prey? Ugh. "Sadistic vulture!" She chased the lamb, running faster over the rocky ground. Her skirt tangled in low-growing heather, tripping her up. She landed on her knee, and pain shot up her leg. "Ouch!" She tumbled, screaming, down an embankment toward the loch. Rocks and bushes scraped her arms and legs.
At last, she slid to a halt amid a pile of small rocks. "Dammit!" Her skinned hands stung, and every part of her body ached. Lying there, she stared up at the sky, the late afternoon sun piercing through the clouds. Gavin circled, lower, then folded his wings and dove at something off to the side.
