Roark, whose rain eyes were staring into hersas if they could see her every thought and mirror her everyfeeling.
He reached his hand under the blanket andlaid it over hers.“It’ll be all right,” he said, his voice low,deep, and resonate.
“What will?”
He smiled, slow and easy.“Everything.”
Alina chuffed.It was either that or cry.
She was being held prisoner in a strange landby a man nursing a twenty-year-old grudge against her family andwas likely using her as a trap for her father, surrounded by womenwho’d as soon spit at her as look at her.She was lying in a bed ofstraw in the middle of the night trying to save the life of ahalf-starved foal with a man she no longer seemed able to sleepwithout, who she’d kissed once and wanted to kiss again.
“How?”she asked him.“How will everything beall right?”
Roark gave her hand a gentle squeeze.“I’llmake it right.”He twined his fingers through hers, and though herbreath caught, the tightness in her chest eased.“I swear Iwill.”
“You don’t know how badly I want to believeyou.”
“About as badly as I want to prove to youthat you can,” he said with a sheepish grin.“Though I admit I’moff to a poor start.”
“Only poor?”Alina chided.
“Terrible?”Roark’s grin turned wry.“Horrible?Abhorrent?”
Alina laughed softly.“Keep going.”
“Unforgiveable?”His grin was gone and hisexpression serious.
Alina swallowed her heart and opened hermouth to say, what?That his betrayal had cut so deeply because shehad believed him, his smile, his kiss, his proposal, and she wasalmost as angry at herself for falling for him as she was at him?That she could forgive him anything when he looked at her the wayhe was looking at her now?
Ash stirred and let out a weak whinny.Untwining her fingers from Roark’s, Alina pushed the blanket offher and stood.
“Ash needs feeding.”
CHAPTER 6
Goats and Cats
Roark spent the morning fencing off half thebrooding stall for the three nanny goats chosen to be Ash’s milkdonors, while Fergus and Gare built two hay mangers, one for thefoal and one for the goats.According to Alina, the foal was days,if not a fortnight, away from feeding on his own, but Roark figuredit never hurt to be prepared or optimistic.
He’d spoken with Roger earlier that morningbefore breakfast, and Roger had agreed to let Alina continuetending to the foal.When she came back to the stables afterbreaking her fast, she’d changed into the tunic and breeches she’dworn onThe Rover, which Roark had to admit were much morepractical for mucking about in a stable.
They also showed off her legs and backside,which didn’t go unnoticed by either of the guards Roger had postedoutside the stable’s door despite Roark’s promise to keep watchover her.He’d seen their dropped jaws and open leers when she’dwalked past them, and Gare and Fergus both were having a hard timekeeping their eyes off her bottom, though they at least had thegood grace to look abashed when Roark caught them ogling.
Roark was nailing the gate separating thegoat pen from the foal’s pen into place when Alina, who’d beentending to Etain, entered the pen and Ash whinnied and stood onshaky, spindly legs.The first time he’d stood without help.
Alina beamed.“Look at you, my big, stronglad.”She petted the foal, who stumbled over to her and pushed hisnose into her leg.“It’s coming, you little tyrant,” she saidgood-naturedly as she poured milk into the horn, for which Roarkhad built a holder so she could fill it by herself.She grinned asAsh let out a loud whinny and then plopped down in the straw.“Didyou wear yourself out?”she cooed, sitting down next to him andholding the horn so he could latch on, without her having to holdhis head up.
“He’s already much stronger than he wasyesterday,” Roark said, swinging the finished gate back andforth.
“He is,” Alina agreed with a happy sigh.“Thank you for thinking of penning the goats here.That’ll makefeedings go much easier.”
Roark chuckled.“You should’ve seen Fergus’sface when he realized he wouldn’t have to be hauling buckets ofmilk half a league twice a day.”
Alina laughed, the happiest he’d seen hersince they’d kidnapped her.
“When Ash is stronger, he and the goats canbe kept together,” she said.“It’ll give him the sense of beingpart of a herd.”
“Speaking of his herd.”Roark lifted his chintoward the door where Fergus walked in with three goats on leadropes.Roark waved him over to the new pen, where the goats wentstraight to the manger filled with fresh hay and alfalfa.Ashglanced sideways at them, never slowing his suckling.
