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“Bryce has a point,” Carmag said. “I’ll speak to Neil about it and see what he suggests.”
“Any other news?” Carmag asked.
Reeve shook his head. “Nothing. I delivered the message, heard the gossip about the king, and headed home.”
“Missed her, didn’t you?” Duncan said with a grin, then looked to Bryce. “I’m going to win the wager.”
“Are you looking for a beating, Duncan?” Reeve challenged, a smirk edging its way past his snarling lips.
Duncan laughed. “You’re beating yourself up so badly over this that you’ll have no strength left to fight me.”
“I am not,” Reeve insisted. “I’m simply seeing where it takes me.”
“Well, watch out,” Duncan advised, “you’re already falling, and when you finally hit”—he grinned and chuckled—“it’s going to be like something you’ve never felt before.”
“That’s why I won’t be falling in love anytime soon,” Bryce said.
Duncan laughed again. “That means you’re next since Reeve believed the same.” He rubbed his hands together. “Damn, I’m enjoying this.”
“Shut up!” Reeve and Bryce yelled out in unison.
Duncan laughed harder.
Chapter 13
Reeve was eager to see Tara. After finishing with his brothers and father, he had a few other matters to attend to and then he went in search of her. She wasn’t in the sewing room and neither was Mercy. He inquired about Mercy since she had mentioned she wasn’t feeling well and discovered that she had gone to her bedchamber for a rest.
Next he found his mother, but she hadn’t seen Tara since the morning meal. So he grabbed his wool cloak and left the keep, heading to Tara’s cottage. Snow must have started falling earlier, a good inch having covered the ground. Children ran around squealing with delight and sticking their tongues out to catch the fat flakes.
The sheer joy on their red-cheeked faces had him smiling and thinking. He had assumed that one day he would have children, not soon, but someday. Now suddenly he found the idea more appealing than ever. He could just imagine playing in the snow with his son or daughter, perhaps both and possibly even more. He had always hoped he’d have a gaggle of children.
Reeve’s smile suddenly faded, old memories suddenly tearing at him.
“What stole your happy smile away?” Tara asked, coming up beside him and hooking her arm around his.
“Sad memories,” he said, and gave her a quick kiss.
“Share them with me?”
He didn’t think twice. “I recall the day in detail, though I was only four years when I lost my whole family. My father, mother, and older sister Netty were killed by King Kenneth’s troops, though he was not king yet, in a bid to take the throne.”
He paused a moment, seeing the past materialize before his eyes. “I had hid in the woods with Netty. She was ten years, and when she saw what was happening, she ordered me to stay where I was no matter what, and she ran to help our parents.”
He took a breath, remembering much too vividly the carnage. “I watched them all die and never moved until hours after the soldiers had gone. I don’t know what I would have done if Bryce hadn’t happened along. He found me sitting amongst my family’s bodies, crying. He gently took my hand and told me we were brothers now, and he would look after me. I went with him, never glancing back, though the scene remains far too vivid in my memory.”
“I am so sorry,” Tara said softly. “That had to be horrible for a lad of such a young age to witness.”
“It was,” Reeve admitted. “But if it wasn’t for Bryce, I would have never survived. I would have died along with my family, being too young to know what to do.”
“I thought you told me Bryce was only a year older than you.”
“He is, though he’s years wiser, always has been. He kept hold of my hand and spoke to me of how he had lost his family too and how he knew of a good home for us. And he’d get us there, and how, no matter what, we would always have each other. I clung to him and refused to let go. Even when we arrived on Mara and Carmag’s doorstep, it took weeks before I would leave his side.”
“You truly are brothers,” Tara said.
“That we are,” Reeve agreed, and took her in his arms. “Where have you been?”
“Looking for you.” She held up her arm, a basket hanging from it. “Your mother sent me to bring this to Kate.”
