“You’ve made many widows,” she pointed out.
“I am called to fight by my king,” he told her, keeping his horse at a slow pace. “Should I disobey him? Should I not practice my skill and become a master at it so that I am not killed on the field?”
She nodded. “Yes, of course. My brother was in the military. He died four years ago.”
Wolf lowered his head. Her brother was a warrior. He gave the man the respect he was due with a moment of quiet.
When he looked up, he found her smiling at him. He doubted the good of his senses when every part of him grew warm, and he smiled back.
Chapter Five
Camelee bit herbottom lip every time her horse set its hooves on the ground. It had been six hours since they’d left the town. She thought her thighs must be bleeding. The pain was almost unbearable. Except for when Wolf asked her if she was all right and she said yes because Fin was listening. She didn’t want to come off as helpless—but at this point, she feared falling out of the saddle.
“Chief—” Ugh! How she despised calling him that! She understood they were supposed to be in the eleventh century and women were subservient. She hated having to pretend. But like any other acting job… “I need—”
“Chief,” Akkar called from his horse, pulling up close so they could see him in the dim light. “There are women with little ones. They need to rest. Can we stop for the night?”
Camelee shut her mouth and prayed Wolf would agree to stop for the night.
He was looking at her, waiting for her to finish what she was going to say. His expression told her that he might understand what she was going to say but didn’t. His eyes warmed for a moment. “Very well, Akkar. We will stop here for the night. Tell Bjorn to prepare a fire.”
“Thank you, Chief,” the young soldier said and hurried off.
Wolf nodded and then glanced at her. “You will stay with me.”
“No, I won’t. I’m going to sleep with the other women.” She didn’t wait for his approval but started after Akkar.
“Camelee,” he called.
She sighed and looked up, then at him.
“Good dreams.”
If she didn’t feel like she was going insane, she would have smiled at him. “Good dreams to you, too, Chief.”
She rode her mount after Akkar and followed the other women when he gathered them together. He spoke even less Saxon than Wolf, but she managed to settle down amid other women.
She soon regretted her decision to stay with them as most of them cried themselves to sleep. She wanted to join in right along with them. Of course, she hadn’t lost her husband. But she did lose everything else, including her mind. She felt the burning behind her eyes and bit her inner cheek to keep from crying.
“Mumma.”
She heard the low, pitiful cry a few pallets away and opened her eyes. A child. She closed her eyes again. She couldn’t comfort a child. What did she know about such things?
“Mumma!” The crying grew louder.
Camelee put her hands over her ears and tried to block out the sound. Where was the child’s mother? The weeping grew louder. Had one of the men taken the mother? She sat up.
“There, there, now, Treasure,” soothed a woman’s voice beyond the firelight. The comforting sound of her seeped through Camelee’s bones and warmed her blood. For a moment, and then it turned her cold.
Finally, the mother had returned. She seemed to be just fine. Had she been off giggling with one of them, at the cost of her child? Camelee threw herself back down.
The child began crying again. “Mumma!”
“Miss?” someone asked, approaching her.
It was the woman. The mother.
“Yes?” Camelee asked.
