Page 19
He’d forgotten the question.
“Aye?” He spurred his mount forward once again and Ainsley did the same. They rode slowly down the hill, Tor watching each step his wife’s mount took. He had seen more than one man tumble down an incline less steep than this one.
“Why did we change course?”
“I dinnae wish ye to get injured,” he said. She had been quiet most of the day, and now Ainsley wished to converse on this hill?
“I was . . . thinking.”
“All day?”
“Aye.”
“About?”
“Ye.”
He’d not expected such an honest reply. This time, Ainsley did remain quiet until the terrain flattened once again.
“Ye’re no’ at all what I expected,” she admitted as they rode at a more comfortable pace. It was clear they would reach the village by nightfall, as was his goal.
“What were ye expecting, lass?”
“An overly confident rogue of a man made worse by his surname.”
“I’ve been named worse, I can assure ye.”
“’Twas easier to hate ye.”
Tor laughed. “Ye dinnae hate me now, then?”
She shrugged. “’Tis precisely what I’d been considering all day.”
His wife amused him. “It is easier to love than hate, Ainsley.”
When her head whipped toward him, Tor quickly amended. “I dinnae suggest ye love me, but perhaps letting go of yer hate would make for an easier journey.”
Tor wasn’t sure he had ever hated her, not even seeing her in the hall with her kinsmen. She was too beautiful to hate, despite her surname.
“Also . . .”
He waited, but as they rode, the hills now behind them, she did not finish.
“Also?” Tor prompted.
“I had no’ been prepared for this. Do no’ need . . . this.”
He considered her words, wondering what she meant. He understood the first; Tor had been so angry the night of their wedding he could have slammed his fist into the king’s cheek. Indeed, he’d envisioned doing so all eve. None, including him, had truly believed Alexander would wed their clansmen to Shaws against their will. But when Broden and Catlin married, they were all but assured the king’s terms would be met. Indeed, his brother had threatened him, and their entire clan, that the king meant his words. No stealing, no brawling, no kidnapping . . . they were to cease their fight with Clan Shaw immediately.
But the second part? Of that, he was less certain of her meaning.
“Do no’ need me?” he ventured. Ainsley confirmed the truth of his words by her expression.
“Last eve . . . years after I was lost, much more prepared, I asked Broden to take me into the woods after the sun had set. I had been afraid, especially when I bid him to leave me be. He returned to me after a time.” She shrugged and spurred her mount. Ainsley likely did not realize she’d increased her pace.
“Ye’re angry with yerself for being afraid last eve.”
“Aye.”
