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She almost sighed aloud. She had been banned from attending any birthing once she was proclaimed adeath bride.No woman wanted to take the chance of the curse somehow affecting her child. Not that any child whose birth she had attended died. It was fear that had caused her to be banned, and she really couldn’t blame them. She would not take such a chance if she were having a child.
With the help of so many women, the cottage began to take shape, and Tara was stunned when Bryce, Duncan, and Reeve arrived with a table and two chairs, a chest and a bed, and not a narrow one, one more suitable for two.
The men were chased out as soon as they finished, Tara not even getting a chance to thank them.
Mercy and Cora dressed her bed while still discussing child birthing. The logs that had been started in the fireplace as soon as Mara had arrived had chased the cold from the cottage, and candles flickered on the table and atop the mantel. Fresh rushes had been spread on the dirt floor before the furniture had arrived, and some of the women were now dropping bunches of dried lavender to the floor to mingle with the rushes and add a pleasant sweetness to the air.
By midafternoon, the cottage was in fine shape, the helpful drifting off one by one until Mara and Mercy were the only ones left.
“I can’t believe how generous everyone has been,” Tara said.
“We are a clan, and that makes us family,” Mara said. “And family helps family. We would have it no other way.”
Mercy squeezed Tara’s arm. “Isn’t it wonderful? It took time for me to get used to how friendly and willing everyone was to help. Now it just seems natural.”
“You should rest that ankle,” Mara instructed. “You haven’t kept off it enough today.”
“I couldn’t let everyone do the work for me,” Tara said.
“That was why they came, to help,” Mara said. “Like Mercy said, you’ll get used to it. Now rest your ankle. I’ll have Reeve bring your personal things.”
Tara didn’t think it a good idea that she and Reeve spend time alone, but she didn’t object to Mara’s suggestion. The truth of it was that she wanted to see Reeve. In the few short hours they had been apart, she realized that she missed him.
She could scold herself for the thought or try to ignore it, but she did neither. Instead, she allowed herself to feel, dangerous though it may be; she allowed herself to feel. She allowed herself to look forward to seeing him, and she allowed herself to look forward to sharing another kiss with him. The strange stirrings in her might warn, but they also urged that the risk was worth it.
Most of all, those stirrings offered her hope, and a flutter of anticipation ran through her as she thanked the two women again and closed the door behind them to wait for Reeve.
Chapter 11
Reeve didn’t waste a minute when his mother told him to take Tara’s personal items to her. She also reminded him to make certain he saw to it that Tara got to the keep safely for the evening meal. She needn’t have reminded him. He had planned to escort her, though he had plans to linger at her cottage first and share another kiss with her.
All day he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind. No matter what it was he was doing, she had intruded on his concentration. He had taken a ribbing from his brothers while hunting. There hadn’t been a time he hadn’t had a successful hunt ... until today. His arrow had missed every target.
The worst ribbing he had gotten had been when their mother had sent them to retrieve some furniture from a cottage long empty. There had been two beds, a wide one and a narrow one. He had insisted they take the larger bed.
Right away, Duncan started chuckling, and Bryce naturally joined in.
Soon they were in a heated debate about the beds, though the heat was more on his side, while the two simply laughed and snickered. Their mother’s sudden presence brought an abrupt halt to the encounter, and though Reeve still was annoyed, it was at himself.
His brothers had been right. As soon as he had seen the beds, he knew that the narrow one would never do. It wasn’t until his brothers’ good-natured ribbing started that he realized why he had wanted the larger bed. He wanted enough roomwhenhe made love to Tara.
Not evenif,butwhen.
Only hours before, he had been trying to convince himself that they were simply friends, and now he’s thinking of bedding her.
“Take this along with you,” his mother ordered as she entered the great hall.
She handed him a basket filled with two tankards, a pitcher, and a crock full of dried leaves.
“Tara will be wanting a nice brew to keep the chill out of her,” Mara said. “You could use one too. Now be off with you.”
Reeve hugged his mother. “You are the best.”
Her pink plump cheeks grew even rosier. “Go on with you,” she beamed, and shooed him off.
Reeve knocked though he didn’t wait to be invited in but simply entered Tara’s cottage as if it were his own. She didn’t seem to mind, greeting him with a wide smile. She was quick to stand and offer him help with the items cradled in his arms. Reeve wouldn’t have it. He deposited his armful on the table and hurried her back in her seat, noticing she had used an overturned bucket to prop her injured foot on.
“You rest, and I’ll fix us a hot brew,” he said.
