For a moment, his expression froze, and she thought he was going to lie to her. Instead, his smile turned sad and he nodded. “I think he knows, Brienne. I think he’s known since you began to feel it happening.”
The worst feeling flooded through her then, making her want to weep from despair. Looking at him, she knew.
“You and Mother must leave Yester. Go as soon as you can. Something is coming. You must leave and be safe,” she urged. She could feel the doom approaching faster, and she knew that it would cause many people to perish. “Take James and his parents. Take whoever will listen to you and leave in the night.”
“Hush, lass,” Gavin soothed, wrapping his arms around her once more. “Nothing can change our destiny. Nothing can keep us safe if it is not meant to be. And your mother and I would never leave you.”
“But you must,” she said.
He did not answer then. He did not need to, for she knew her parents would never abandon her.
“Go, now,” Gavin said softly as he released her. “Your mother could use your help with the laundry.”
Brienne wiped the tears from her face and nodded. He picked up his hammer and went about his task without another word. As she left the smithy, she glanced back and had the very strong feeling that she would never watch him work the metal again.
ChapterTen
“Are ye ill?”
Brienne smiled and shook her head. “Nay, Mother. I am well.” She walked to the stream and knelt at her mother’s side, taking the tunic from her and placing it on the flat rock.
“Then why do ye come to help with this? I know ’tis yer least favorite chore to do and you avoid it at all costs.”
“Father suggested it.”
Her mother laughed softly but did not say anything. They worked in silence for a short while, stretching the dirty clothing over the rocks, rubbing them with soap, rinsing them and hanging them to dry over branches. After everything that had happened to her this morn, the mundane chores soothed her.
She knew the steps of how to do these things. And for a short time, her life was the one she’d known it to be. It was almost as if she could step back and forget all that she’d seen and heard and learned and be the young woman she’d always been.
“Look at me, Brienne,” her mother said. Lifting her head up from her task, she smiled at the woman who’d raised her. “Ye are different somehow, I think.” Only the shiny glimmer in her mother’s gaze told her she was teasing.
“Different?” she asked, sitting back on her heels. “How am I different?”
Her mother studied her face and her form and then met her gaze. “Yeu have the look of a woman who has been well kissed!”
Brienne could not stop herself from touching her mouth then, remembering all at once the sensations that had poured through her when William had kissed, caressed, and touched her. She’d never felt anything so wondrous, and she was caught in the web he wove around her with his hands and his mouth.
“Mother!” she said. “I have not—”
“Hush now, Brienne,” her mother said, taking hold of her hands. “James has our permission to court ye, and a few kisses are to be expected. What man would not try to steal a few from the woman he wants to marry?”
In the sensual onslaught caused by William, she had forgotten that kiss from James. It was nice, but would never come close to the heady, intense power of William’s.
William had urged her to return to her life and to forget about him, but how could she stop her body from remembering the passion in his touch or her desire for more? How could she consider becoming another man’s wife?
“From the expression on ye face, daughter,” her mother began with a knowing look on her own face, “ye are not thinking on young James’s kiss or his proposal.”
She let out a sigh and touched Brienne’s cheek. “Ye father thinks ye have been spending time with the strangers ye encountered on their way here to Yester. A knight named William?”
“You know about them?” she asked. Her father had promised not to tell her.
“Ye father and I keep no secrets from each other, Brienne. He worried about the attractive, young knight who seemed interested in our daughter. Ye cannot expect that he would not tell me of such matters and ask my counsel in how to best protect our daughter.”
Her mother stood and walked over to a shady place among the trees, away from the other women who also washed there by the stream, waving her over. Brienne followed and sat at her mother’s side. Her mother turned her and began to untangle and then make a new braid in her hair.
“It must seem exciting to have someone new, someone from outside the village, pay attention to ye. And when that someone is a handsome, strong, young knight, it is difficult to keep things in order.” Her mother’s hands rested for a moment and then began anew, weaving the long plaits together in one braid. “Whatever brings him to Yester will also take him away. And ye place will remain here. The excitement of the moment cannot replace a lifetime of commitment.”
“Mother, there are things . . .”
