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“Now you will tell me about this curse.” He was ready for her protest and raised his hand as her mouth opened and she shook her head. “I’ve had enough, Tara. You will tell me what happened so that I may judge for myself.”
“Will it matter?” she asked.
“It might scare me off and my lust for you as well. The problem would then be settled.”
“How can I take you seriously when you wear a grin? “
He leaned his arms on the table. “Then I dare you to wipe it off.”
Her heart thudded wildly in her chest. She loved his grin. It made him all the more handsome, and he was handsome enough without it. But there was something about his smile that changed his features and struck her heart, sending it thumping madly every time.
This time, however, was different. This time, her heart beat wildly because she feared that once he heard the truth, he would walk away from her forever. And that very reason, she feared, was the only way of saving him.
Tara began the tale that had started when she was barely ten years. “I was an inquisitive child and therefore adventurous. I would wander off in search of—” She shrugged. “I don’t know what it was I searched for; I only knew I wanted to learn things and not only women things.
“One day I followed my father deep into the woods. I had seen him go off there alone many times, and I wanted to know where he went. I watched as he came upon a lone cottage. It had strange symbols carved around the door and a lone window, and a strange scent that bothered the nose surrounded it.
“I thought to sneak up to the window and see what went on within, but a young lad suddenly appeared at my side, frightening me half to death. He looked to be around my age and he beckoned me to follow him. I did, and he took me to a stream, where we sat and he showed me a collection of small stones he kept in a pouch. It took me a moment to realize that he couldn’t speak, but it didn’t matter to me. I enjoyed his company and what he was showing me.
“His head suddenly went up, and he motioned for me to follow him again. He took me back to where he found me and cautioned me to remain quiet with a finger to his lips. Then he was gone. My father came out of the cottage a short time later, and I followed him home.”
She paused to glance at the fire. “I followed my father again and again so that I could visit with the lad I named Stone. He smiled and nodded when I told him that, as if I had guessed his name.”
Tara turned to look at Reeve. “Stone was my first love. Soon I remembered the way there myself, and for two years I went to visit him as much as I could. I don’t know what it was about him, I just knew that I wanted to be with him. And I knew he felt the same about me.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. “My father found me with Stone one day. I think one of my half brothers had followed me and told him. He dragged us both to the cottage and demanded the witch remove the spell she or her son had put on me. I hadn’t known that his mother was a witch until then, or that my father believed Stone one as well.
“The woman smiled and tried to tell my father to let us be, that we were in love, and it was a good love. He grew furious and ordered her to do as he said or suffer the consequences. She tried to explain that there was nothing she could do, that love had claimed us and that she could not defy love.
“My father refused to listen, refused to see reason, and so he beat Stone.” A tear fell, and she let it. “I tried to stop him. I took a few blows until one of my half brothers dragged me off and held me kicking and screaming. The witch begged my father to stop, but he was furious and kept pounding Stone. Finally, I bit my half brother’s arm so hard he let me go; I could taste the blood I had drawn. I ran and flung myself on top of Stone’s battered body.
“I suffered a few blows before my father realized and stopped. The witch was quick to fling me off her son and cradle him in her arms. My father warned her to leave his land or he would see her dead along with her son. It was as he dragged me away crying that she screamed out the curse.”
Tara turned silent, not wanting to repeat the words that had remained burned in her memory all these years.
“Tell me,” Reeve urged. “I want to hear it.”
Tara sighed and repeated the words she hadn’t muttered since she had first heard them. “Your heart will break just like mine, over and over, time after time. When you claim the love of your heart, the touch of death will see you part. If it is a vow you make, death will visit again and take. And for those men who speak aloud their love for you, death will see them taken too. On this day I curse you well and condemn you to a living hell.
“My father threw me aside and drew his sword with all intentions of striking her dead, but she raised her hand and told him that if he took one more step toward her, he would drop dead at her feet when he finally reached her. My father did not move, and when he did, it was to grab me and once again warn her to leave his land or die. I don’t know if Stone lived or died. I never saw him again.”
Tara waited for Reeve to say something, anything, but he remained silent. She knew what he must be thinking, the fear that must be racing through him, and so she said, “You can leave now.”
He shook his head. “What?”
“You can leave. I understand, and have no worries. I will keep to myself.”
“You think me a coward?” he asked.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Not at all. I think you the bravest of men.”
“Then if you believe that, why would you think I would leave?”
“I stunned you silent—”
“You assumed that your tale frightened me?”
“It would most.”
