“I know.”
“You are making my shoulder hurt.”
“Nay, I am not.”
“You are causing me great ache with your harassment.”
He chuckled at her dramatics. “Do you want me to bring the nuns back to assist you?”
She sat bolt upright on the pallet. “God, no!” she gasped. Her left hand instinctively went to her sore shoulder. “Very well, you pest, I shall tell you. I was going to say that I wish I could help you. Are you satisfied?”
His dark eyes glimmered at her, a smile playing on his lips. “I am,” he muttered. “But you should know that you have already helped me, more than you can ever know. I have spent the past year in France fighting in conditions you could not possibly imagine, dealing daily with death and destruction. I returned home a few days ago only to be confronted with a spitfire of awoman who threatened me the moment we met. But something odd has happened since that time.”
Ellowyn couldn’t help the smile on her lips, simply because his manner was so light and warm. “What?”
His grin broadened. “That woman has turned out to be the very best part of coming home,” he said softly. “She is kind, compassionate, wise, and uproariously humorous. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have met her and even if I never see her again after leaving Erith, I will consider myself a better man for having known her. You, my lady, have brought light into my life and do not even know it. It is a priceless gift you gave to a man who insulted you when he first met you.”
Ellowyn’s mouth popped open. She had never heard such complimentary words and she knew doubtlessly that they were spoken from the heart. She could read it in his face. Without thinking, she rolled off her pallet and, on her knees, crawled over to him. As Brandt watched, she threw her left arm around his big neck and squeezed tightly. The right arm, injured and folded, pressed against his chest.
“No one has ever said such wonderful things to me,” she confessed, ignoring the jab of the armor and mail. “I am so sorry you have had such a terrible life, Brandt. I feel as if I should hug you to make it all better. Perhaps we can be friends even after you leave me at Erith. I would like that.”
Brandt, startled as he was by her hug, nonetheless recovered swiftly and wrapped a big arm around her. It seemed the most natural of things to do. In fact, his other arm wrapped around her, too, and he held her tightly as she squeezed his neck. He’d never in his life felt something so warm and wonderful, and he sorely wished he wasn’t wearing his armor. He would have liked to have felt her against him, body to body. The feeling of her was overwhelming him.
“How do you to this?” he hissed.
She pulled back to look at him, frowning. “Do what?”
His face was very close to hers. He could feel her hot breath on his face. “This,” he said again. “Show your emotions so openly? Give comfort to someone you barely know without thought?”
She shrugged, realizing that he still had both arms around her. He was so massive that it was like being swallowed whole, but she knew that it was a sensation she could grow to crave. To think of him leaving her off at Erith and never seeing him again brought waves of disappointment.
“I do not,” she murmured. “Not always. But my family is very affectionate so I suppose I grew up that way. When someone is hurt, friend or family, we comfort them.”
“I am hurt?”
She nodded faintly, studying his handsome face. “I think your heart is hurt and you do not even know it. You have never known anything else.”
“Would you heal it?”
It was a hugely open question. She sensed it immediately. She unwound her arm from his neck and sat back on her heels, gazing into his eyes. Brandt released her somewhat, but not entirely. His hands were still on her as they faced one another. The question had been presented. Her response would determine the course of their association and quite possible their future. He held his breath, watching her as she considered the question.
“I would like to know what you mean by that,” she finally said, her tone soft.
He shrugged and averted his gaze. “I am not entirely sure,” he said. “All I know is that… Ellowyn, we have known each other a matter of days but since yesterday, I feel as if… I have never felt like this in my life and I completely understand if it is unwelcome, but I have to say that I find you beautiful and braveand gracious and sweet, and I would like nothing better than to come to know you better and perhaps….”
Ellowyn could feel her heart swelling with joy. She broke out into the most amazing smile. “Perhaps…what?”
He couldn’t quite bring himself to say it. “Perhaps… well, perhaps you could….”
“Perhaps I could help you find a wife?”
He shook his head, realizing she was teasing him when she started to laugh. It was charming. He was stumbling over his words and she was mocking him playfully.
Throwing caution to the wind, he cupped her sweet face in his two enormous hands, studying her closely and deeply for the very first time. He felt giddy and quivering, but also elated and emotional. For a man who had learned to suppress his emotions long ago, it was both liberating and frightening.
“Perhaps…,” he continued, “you will consider me as more than an acquaintance. I realize that you may not be interested in me as a marital prospect, but I hope that given time you will consider it. I would very much like to explore the possibility if you are amenable to it.”
Her giggles faded and her eyes widened. “Marriage?”
