“But he harmedye. The pain so great, ye could not stand.” She had no idea why she had the sudden need to protect Uradech. She had no liking for the man.
“He is not a good protector. He is slow on his feet. He seeks his own pleasure.”
This odd conversation was causing all sorts of emotions to chase around her head like squirrels in spring. All that was missing was their inane chatter.
Suddenly all the thoughts stopped save one: Lachlann was jealous.
That was the only explanation for this talk. He wanted her to look to him for protection. Sudden heat flushed her face.
He stopped. “What is amiss?”
She shook her head, afraid to speak. Afraid to move. Afraid to believe such a ridiculous thought. The great warrior turned man of God, seeking to protect the never-quite-good-enough slave girl? Ridiculous.
His nostrils flared. “Do ye doubt me?”
She shook her head and said in a quiet voice, “Never would I doubt ye.”
Something was there in his eyes, something she couldn’t name.
“’Twas not the pain that made me drop.” He averted his gaze before facing her again. “I do not tolerate the sight of blood well.”
Finn giggled. Lachlann and she both turned their eyes to him. He shrugged, still giggling. “But ye are a great warrior!”
The man’s embarrassment at the condition was obvious, but she found it endearing. Too much so. She found the idea absurd as well.
“It must make for difficult battles,” she teased, barely holding her smile in check.
“Ye may laugh, but it makes me an even better fighter. A more determined fighter.”
“More determined? That ye not make them bleed?” She openly laughed at that, but quickly covered her mouth.
Lachlann’s scowl shifted to a grin. “That they drop dead without delay and I can continue with my attack. I seldom miss my mark.”
I seldom miss my mark.
He was correct in that. He had not missed with her. If love were only about trusting, sharing, and desiring…then there would be no doubt she was in love with this man.
Chapter 18
“Does yer side still pain ye?”
Standing beside the cave’s entrance, Lachlann ignored Niall’s question. He crossed his arms about his chest and studied the wispy clouds making their way across the bright blue sky. Although his friends had returned to check on him, they had left him behind and that decision gnawed at him. As did his lack of progress in learning anything about the silver. As did his inability to deny his attraction to Ethne.
Niall poured himself some mead and came alongside him. They had returned the night before to check on Lachlann’s condition. “I said, does yer side still pain ye?”
“Ye didna need to leave me here.” He slammed his mouth shut and glanced toward the fire where Aldred distracted Domelch with his chatter, but no one looked their way.
She had recovered quickly from the birthing and was enjoying her slightly thinner frame, dancing about the fire after a long, luxurious bath. Malcom snored beside Aldred, oblivious.
“A few hours and I would have been strong enough to travel.”
Niall laughed, but no one paid them any attention. “Ye think much of yerself.”
Lachlann struggled to control his gut-wrenching frustration. He grumbled, “The wound was nothing I could not have ignored and well ye know it, but my thanks for coming back to see if I still lived.”
“Aldred and I had to convince Malcolm ‘twould be best to find out what was taking ye so long. He was quite content to remain at Aidan’s.”
Domelch twirled about in her greenléine. The gold trim at the neck and wrists and her silver earrings twinkled in the firelight.
