She pulled the blanket tighter around her. ‘If you’re looking for Commander Wright, he’s fishing downstream.’
He stared at her. ‘Is he?’
She did not know if she was supposed to invite him in—into his own home—or if she should excuse herself to dress.
‘That is all right,’ he said. ‘It is better we speak alone.’
It took her a moment to respond. ‘About?’
He looked past her into the house. ‘About this little affair of yours.’
She glanced over her shoulder, trying to remember where she had left her dress. They had started in the kitchen and finished in the chair by the fire. Though she could not remember seeing it there earlier. There was no way she could invite him in.
‘Do not worry,’ Shapur said. ‘I do not plan on staying.’
She turned back to him. ‘Nor do I. I’m returning home tomorrow, if that’s why you’re here.’
He rested his hands on his hips and glanced back at his tethered horse. ‘And then what?’
‘Excuse me?’
He scratched his face. ‘And then what? What plans have the two of you made?’
Then despair, surely.‘We’ve made no plans, sir.’
‘Do you expect me to believe that?’
‘Perhaps this is a conversation better had with your son.’
He drew a tired breath and took a few steps back. ‘Did he tell you what happened to his mother?’
She lifted her chin. ‘Yes.’
‘How she died?’
‘Yes.’ Her eyes went to the road, willing Harlan to appear. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss. I understand it all too well.’
Shapur nodded. ‘Did he tell you she was a merchant?’
No. He had not told her that very vital part of the story.
Reading her face, Shapur said, ‘Not surprised given the situation the two of you find yourself in.’
Blake reminded herself to breathe.
‘A merchant marrying nobility is challenging with its social divides. A merchant and a defender is a moral disaster. Problems cannot be ignored, negotiated, or worked through. Love is not an antidote.’
‘I assure you there has been no talk of marriage.’
He was silent for a long moment. ‘And yet you would run into battle for him without a thought of what it would do to your family if those sea warriors had killed you.’
She did not have a logical explanation for that.
‘I cannot tell him who to marry, but I can warn you about what you would be stepping into.’
She should have shut the pointless conversation down, but she was curious what reasons he would give that she might not have considered. ‘All right.’
‘Take your brother’s death, for instance.’
