“Here, now.” He thumbed the tears away, following them with his lips. Salt and sweetness. “Have I no’ said I will?”
“Aye. Aye.”
“List to me. Liadan, listen.” He raised her chin so her gaze met his again. “Ye ha’ the courage o’ a she-wolf in your heart. Rarely ha’ I seen a stronger woman. Ye will carry on while I am awa’, for the sake o’ your mam. For your sister.”
“I will.” Her gaze steadied from what she saw in his. “I will. But ye will be sent in at the head o’ the men—”
He gave a wry smile. “No’ at the head. Cathair claims that place still.”
“And should Cathair fall?”
“Then it rests in the hands o’ the gods. All of it.”
“The gods have no’ been good to us of late.”
“Have they no’?” They had brought him this. Out of a wealth of heartache, pain, and sorrow. This bright and priceless feelingof belonging, as if he had found the one person in all the world who carried a missing piece of him.
Of his heart.
“Aye, so.” She blushed, and her gaze fell from his. “Ardahl, I do no’ understand what this is I feel for ye—”
“Nor do I, in truth.”
“But it is strong.Strong. I will let it be my strength.”
“I ken fine ye have it in ye. Now, ye must get back to your mam, and I must away to the field.”
Still she did not release him, clutching hard. At last she nodded, drew her hands from him reluctantly. “I will see ye later at home.”
“Ye will.”
“Go carefully. Ardahl. Ardahl?”
“Aye?”
“Go carefully,” she repeated. He walked away knowing that was not what she’d meant to say.
What, he wondered, as he reached the field and joined the other men, made up friendship? When did it deepen to love? What fired up such a sense of belonging?
Fragile, but strong. That was Liadan. He set to practice with a will.
Chapter Twenty-Five
That day provedendless for Liadan, even though it was broken up by a number of visitors, all wanting to talk about the chief’s announcement and the prospective campaign. These included a friend of Liadan’s called Niam, Flanna’s friend Lasair, and her mam. Several acquaintances of Mam’s. All wished to talk, to speculate, to express their fears.
Liadan, who got precious little actual work done besides grinding the day’s grain, could not make herself care. With each visitor, her own fear increased as if it caught flame from theirs. She could think only of Ardahl. Of that kiss they’d shared.
Och, she’d never dreamed any kiss could be like that. It had been akin to tearing asunder a weir holding back a mighty river.
No hope now of stemming the torrent.
How much of that crashing surge of emotion was desire? How much something else? She could not tell. Only that she needed him on a heretofore unprecedented level.
She needed that man, whom she’d once considered a traitorous serpent.
Vital as the need seemed to be, she knew it must go unanswered. Even if she did believe he had not harmed Conall, could never have done so deliberately, the rest of their world did. Including Mam.
And with the way things were, she might never get the chance. Many men went away to fight. Many did not return, at least breathing.
