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Instead of taking offense, Reina laughed. “Because he prioritized fighting for his king over taking a wife? Your ways are, indeed, different than ours.”

Galien spoke plainly. “There is no more sacred duty than to a woman to whom you are promised. A man and wife. Mother and father. Siblings. Cousins. Nothing is more important than family.”

Reina considered his words as he finished his own rabbit.

“Why then were you willing to leave your family bereft of you, sacrificing yourself for Wallace? A man who is not, I believe, family at all?”

“My mother and father would like you,” Galien said. “They ask a similar question often.”

“Well?” Reina leaned forward, tucking both sides of her hair behind her ears. “What do you tell them? How do you reconcile an answer to my question?”

He wanted to kiss her. Despite that she had asked the very same question his father, his mother, his siblings, and his cousins had asked before, a question Galien could not answer precisely even after he’d asked it of himself many times. . . he just wanted to kiss her.

She waited for an answer.

Unfortunately, Galien didn’t have one.

14

For a brief moment, Reina thought he would kiss her.

Instead, Galien added wood to the fire that, as he’d told her, you could not see unless right up upon it. She’d never seen anything like it before. Or met anyone quite like him. Her father—at least, Reina hoped he was truly her father—was a capable man. But somehow, even with his many years of experience on the battlefield, Galien seemed even more so. As he cleaned their makeshift camp, Reina feeling less than useful, he avoided looking at her.

As always, the man was a contradiction.

He claimed to desire her, but kept his distance.

He claimed that nothing was more important than family, and yet was willing to risk his life for William Wallace. And even more unbelievably, for her.

He spoke of his family, especially his father, with reverence, yet admitted they’d quarreled when Galien last left home.

“You should rest a bit, before nightfall,” he said finally. “It will be a long night.”

She was not tired. “It is you who should rest. Did you sleep at all last eve?”

Galien finished his ministrations, sitting back on the log. “No,” he admitted. “But I must keep watch.”

Reina waved her hand. “I will do so. You need to sleep.”

He looked as if he would argue with her, but Galien must have thought better of it. He knew as well as she, he could not remain awake indefinitely.

“You can stay awake now or fall asleep when you least desire to do so. Either way, you will not outlast this basic need.”

Galien tilted his head. “This is the healer speaking, aye?”

“As I said, I am no healer. But I know that you must sleep. No man, or woman, can escape it. I rested well last eve. Tell me what I shall watch for.”

The stubborn man argued with her even as his eyes hooded. It took much coaxing, but no sooner did he finally agree to “close his eyes” than Galien was breathing steadily. How could he sleep so, his head resting on nothing but dirt? She moved toward him, thinking of how he’d held her throughout the night.

Reina sat with her back against the log, and though he woke briefly when she moved his head to her lap, Galien promptly fell back asleep against her. Resisting the urge to run her hands through his hair, she instead laid them by her side, content instead to watch him.

Awake, he frightened her even as Reina knew he’d not harm her. His eyes were always so intense. His stance, with the exception of when they were in the river, continually at the ready. But now, he seemed so relaxed. At peace.

She looked toward the trees. There was no one about. The smoke from their fire mingled briefly with the late afternoon sky before disappearing well below the treeline. She watched the water flow in the same river she had played in, though nearer the castle, as a child.

Shaking her head and ridding herself of the thought, not wanting to have any memories of her childhood or parents at the moment, unsure what to believe, Reina instead peered back at him. She knew not for how long, but the very pleasant sensation of his arm slung atop her leg, along with his steady breathing, forced a sigh from her. Perhaps one too loud, because he opened his eyes then.

Spinning onto his back, Galien’s head remained on her lap.