Then she dreamed of what theymighthave done.The rapturous trysts ahead of them.Their wedding night.The children they’d have.The blissful life they’d lead.Going on adventures.Battling outlaws.Finding purpose.Doing good.
Every morn she awoke in grief over her loss.Wishing she could forget him.Wishing they had never met.
Every morn her gaze would catch at the satchel propped in the corner.And every morn she swore she would get rid of it.Banish Adam from her mind.From her heart.From her soul.
But she couldn’t.She told herself it was because taking the satchel would be stealing.His things had worth, after all.A coat of mail.Armor plate.A dagger.His medallion.They were too valuable to simply discard.Neither did she dare donate them, for fear his identity might be revealed.
In her heart, however, she knew the real reason she couldn’t part with them.
It was foolish hope.
Hope that somehow he might return for them.
Hope that when he did, God would decide she’d paid enough.
Hope that her dreams of a bright future might come true.
She straightened at the end of the row, pressing at the stiff small of her back.Shielding her eyes from the sunlight with her hand, she looked over the convent wall toward the far road.
A horse and rider were coming.
Was it…?
Her heart raced even as her brain told her she was wrong.
It wasn’t Adam.Adam she would have known anywhere.
Still, the rider looked familiar.
That was no common palfrey, but a fine warhorse.
And the person riding it was a woman.A noblewoman.
Eve straightened.She knew who it was.
“Lady Feiyan,” she murmured.
The sight of the lady, a Rivenloch, made her heart flip.Eve’s first thought was that her crime—stealing Gellir’s bride—had been discovered.Somehow Lady Feiyan had found out that Eve was the one responsible.
Then she realized Lady Feiyan had been at Perth.She’d seen Gellir happily married to the maidservant Merraid.Surely Feiyan and the rest of the Rivenlochs were no longer angry about the abduction of Carenza, his first betrothed.After all, things had ended well for Gellir.
Eve knew things had ended well for Carenza as well.She’d brought the bride to this very convent to unite her with her lover, Gellir’s cousin Hew.Could that be why Feiyan had come?To press Eve into revealing what had become of Carenza?
Eve wouldn’t tell her.She was a woman of honor.She’d sworn to keep Hew’s secret.No one but Eve knew the happy couple had been living in a wee remote byre in the woods.
But Lady Feiyan’s presence reminded Eve she needed to get word to Hew and Carenza.They were safe now, forgiven for their impulsive elopement.They could come out of hiding.
As she watched Feiyan enter through the cloister gate, she couldn’t help feel a thrill of excitement.Eve was starved for the company of women from the outside.Women who weren’t literally holier than her.After Eve’s fall from grace, she felt as if everyone in the convent was her superior, that she could never make ample amends for her sin.
Completely forgetting her vow of silence, Eve rushed forward to greet her.
“M’lady Feiyan,” she said, holding her hand out.“Welcome.”
Feiyan took her hand.
Eve’s eyes lowered involuntarily to the lady’s swollen belly.She grinned and blurted the first thing that came to mind.“Och, ye’re takin’ your bairn for a ride, are ye?”
Fortunately it didn’t offend the lady.She lifted her leg over the saddle and said, “Might as well get the child accustomed to my horse.”
