Mathias looked at her, full-on. His lips twitched with a smile. “I do not need to steal a wife.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “I see,” she said with feigned seriousness. “I suppose women simply fall at your feet wherever you go and you can have your pick of them.”
He was trying very hard not to grin. Her humor was charming, and rather mocking of him, but he wasn’t offended in the least.
“Something like that,” he teased. “Women are always eager to marry a smithy.”
Cathlina laughed softly, glancing towards the smithy stalls down the avenue. “Is that your trade over there?”
She was pointing and he followed the direction of her finger. “Aye,” he replied. “My father, my brother, and me; we are the largest smithy operation in Brampton.”
Cathlina dropped her finger and looked at him. “You were very brave to come as you did,” she said. “I would not believe a smithy to be so brave.”
He was amused. “Why not?”
She cocked her head as if cornered by the question. “Because that is not your vocation,” she said, trying to explain. “You shoe horses and make weapons. You do not answer the call to arms as brave men do.”
His amusement faded.As brave men do.He had been a brave man, once. Her comment hammered home the fact that he was no longer among the privileged, no longer in command of thousands of men who looked to him for guidance and strength. It seemed like an eternity ago when he last held a sword. Truth was, he hadn’t thought much about it since the day he had been stripped of his weapons and lands and titles. There was no use dwelling on what he could not change. But at the moment, he was thinking on that very fact. He felt very useless.
“It was not a matter of answering the call to arms,” he said quietly. “It was simply a matter of doing what was right.”
Before Cathlina could respond, she caught sight of her father and sister coming down the avenue towards them, weaving through the crowds of people. Cathlina waved frantically at them.
“Father!” she called. “Roxane! Thank the Lord you have returned!”
Cathlina’s father was a big man, muscular in his younger days but had now gone mostly to fat. He was balding and with a growth of beard, focusing curiously on his middle daughter as she called out to him.
“What is it?” he asked, depositing a burlap-wrapped bundle into the back of the wagon. “What is amiss?”
Cathlina didn’t hold back. She told her father the entire sordid tale, watching the man’s face turn red with anger and fright. Upon hearing the horrible story, the older sister, a dark-haired young woman who had a mere shadow of her middle sister’s beauty, leapt into the back of the wagon to comfort Abechail. When Cathlina came to the part in the story where Abechail was so wonderfully saved, she pointed right at Mathias.
“This brave man came to our aid when no one else would,” she told her father. “He was wonderful. He and his brother saved us. Youmustreward him.”
Mathias was uncomfortable now that they were all focused on him. The father, his features still flushed with shock, made his way to him.
“Is this true?” he asked Mathias, as if he didn’t quite believe his daughter’s fantastic tale. “Was there truly a man to take my youngest daughter?”
Mathias could see the look of panic on the man’s face. “It is true,” he said. “But she is safe now. Lady Cathlina was quite brave. She fought him valiantly.”
The father was stunned. He turned swiftly to Cathlina, inspecting her hands and arms for bruises before kissing her palms and turning his attention to Abechail.
The youngest daughter, who had managed to calm down somewhat since her brush with violence, was now weeping and quivering again as her eldest sister and father fussed over her. Mathias could see how shaken they all were. It was, in fact, quite touching to see how much they all cared about one another. That kind of devotion was rare.
Feeling rather as if he were viewing something intensely private, he turned to leave but was halted by Cathlina. She called his name, stopping him, and by the time he turned around, shewas running at him. Her soft hands grasped his arm and those big brown eyes were shining up at him.
“Please,” she begged softly. “You cannot leave before my father has had an opportunity to reward you.”
Mathias had been touched by many women. He had also touched women from time to time, purely innocent gestures that meant nothing more than polite attentiveness. But he had never felt such fire from a touch as he felt now. Cathlina’s soft hands were searing his flesh like brands. He could feel the heat all the way down to his toes.
“A reward is not necessary,” he assured her. “It was my pleasure to assist.”
“Will you at least come to Kirklinton and dine with us?” she pleaded softly. “Please allow us to show our thanks for your bravery. Do not deny us an opportunity to show you how grateful we are.”
Gazing down into that sweet face, he knew he shouldn’t agree. It wasn’t a good idea, on so many levels. As much as he wanted to accept her invitation if only to bask in Cathlina’s beauty for the evening, it simply wasn’t wise. She was a de Lara and he wanted to stay far away from anything de Lara. But as he stood there with her, having her on his arm, he felt more like a man than he had in over a year. Odd how such a gesture fortified him.Shefortified him. But he was forced to refuse.
