Finn shrugged. “I think of you.” She gaped at him in surprise. He averted his gaze, feeling the heat in his cheeks grow. “You were gone for a long time,” he added quickly.
“I didn’t want to go,” she admitted. “I told you that. I don’t think my father knew what to do with me. He didn’t know what to do with a girl. And when Mother died, it was easier for him to send me away.”
Finn lowered his head, taking a deep breath thick with loneliness and regret for the years without her. But she was here with him now. He stared at her face with a grin. “I can’t believe you announced a contest. I’m certain that is not what you learned under your aunt’s tutorage.”
She softly laughed. “No. Father was not happy.” She kicked a dried leaf on the ground. “You’re going to enter, aren’t you?”
Finn hesitated.
“You said you had a gift for me.”
“But if you choose my gift, you’ll have to marry me.”
Her shoulders slumped, and her gaze dropped to the floor as she slowly turned around. She studied him, her eyes filled with pain and doubt, and asked quietly, “Don’t you want me to be your wife?”
With all his heart. His heart raced as he perused her beautiful features—the warm, almond-shaped eyes that reminded him of a summer’s day, the pert nose slightly scrunched from concentration, and the full lips he had dreamt of tasting. And yet, the prospect of winning the contest terrified him. “What do I know of running a castle?”
Ari rolled her eyes. “I know enough for both of us. I could teach you.” She started walking again. “You’re kind, and you know the people well. You’d make a wonderful lord.”
Just the thought of being a lord sent chills of unease up his spine.
“You always stood up to those bullies, like Kage. Did I tell you that he spoke to me in the kitchen?”
“No,” Finn snapped, a stirring of anxiety and jealousy clenching his gut.
She shook her head, and a strand of blonde hair curled at her cheek. “He hasn’t changed. Not one bit. Well, except he is a knight now. But he’s still pompous and arrogant.”
“Stay away from him, Ari,” Finn warned. He had seen Kage force a kiss on more than one woman.
“Are you jealous?”
Her teasing tone forced him to scowl. “He is not chivalrous and respects no one but himself, least of all women.”
She grinned, her eyes twinkling with determination. “I can handle him.”
“You think you can. But he…” His gaze swept her shapely figure. “He might hurt you.”
Ari nodded firmly. “Agatha warned me also. I won’t be alone with him. I promise.”
That satisfied Finn. Kage was not a man a woman should be alone with.
Ari hooked her arm through Finn’s, and for a moment, he felt whole. The warmth of her body against his, the scent of roses rising from her hair, made him believe that a future with her was possible.
They walked in contented silence for a few moments.
“I hear it!” Ari called suddenly and raced ahead.
Finn heard the bubbling of the stream as it trickled through the winter-stripped trees, a comforting sound that reminded him of all the memories he had created with Ari as they grew up. He kept an eye on her as she ran. She stopped suddenly and crouched down at the edge of the water, wrapping her arms around her knees. “There’s no fish.”
“They haven’t been here since you left.”
Shocked, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Why?”
Finn shrugged. He couldn’t tell her he had once seen a farmer fishing at this spot and suspected he had caught them. “I couldn’t say.”
She stood up, examining the water with a frown. “Maybe they swam up stream to live.”
“Maybe they’ll come back now that you have returned,” Finn suggested.
