Page 31
Just like he will protect the babe.
But I couldn’t forget the way he’d scoffed at the idea of the possibility.
He will discover the truth sooner rather than later. You are going to his home.
I didn’t know if the babe would convince him for certain. Until he returned to our lives, I thought it an impossible pregnancy, so mayhap there was more that I didn’t understand. I needed to stay focused on getting Ewan to safety, and then mayhap someone in Battleborn Village could explain things to me.
“Good morrow,” came Maardok’s low rumble, moments before he kissed the top of my head. “I can practically hear ye thinking over there. Are ye considering how hungry ye are?”
At that moment, my stomach reminded me I had, in fact, skipped a meal last night, and rumbled loudly. My lips twitched as I stretched and groaned at the soreness.
“Aye, I suppose I am.”
“Roll over, then, and I’ll rub yer back until Ewan wakes, then I’ll fetch ye some of that smoked meat while I build up the fire to cook bannocks.”
A simple fare, but one I was looking forward to…after my much-needed massage.
By the time the sun was rising, we were all back on the trail. Maardok had chosen a path which wound through the mountains, keeping us from the main roads down in the valleys. Granted, few were foolish enough to be out and about at this time of year, but he agreed with me that the fewer human witnesses to our flight, the better.
As the day progressed, I realized he wasn’t pushing us as hard as he had yesterday. I asked him about it while we stopped for our noon meal.
Maardok shrugged and passed me a cup of the warm water he’d heated beside the fire.
“I was worried yesterday, so I pushed ye both, and I hope I didnae hurt ye. Here, drink this, ‘twill warm ye from the inside.”
The sun was quite lovely—almost unheard of this time of year—and I tipped my head back to bask as I allowed the mug to warm my hands.
“‘Twas a difficult day, but the right decision. We had no way of knowing if the weather would hold, so ‘twas better to push as hard as we could when it did.”
“I kenned ye were brilliant,” he teased, then raised his voice. “Ewan, the horse will find its own food, come eat something yerself.”
My son, who had been trying to scrape slush from the vegetation under the trees, now immediately turned and scampered our way. I sighed.
“If I told him that, he would have come up with three excuses for why ‘twas necessary for him to ‘help’, and he would end up covered in mud.”
To my surprise, Maardok didn’t respond with his usual good-natured grin.
“It doesnae mean he respects me more or aught, if that’s what has ye worried, Cataline.”
“Do not be foolish.” I winked at him over the lip of my mug. “It just means you will be in charge of disciplining him for as long as we’re staying with you.”
His eyes widened slightly, and that strange green speck in the center of each dark orb—actually, the green had grown large enough that ‘twas clear in daylight now—twinkled before he lowered his lids almost seductively.
“Gladly,” he murmured, passing me a piece of hard cheese. “And I’ll pray that lasts until the lad is full grown and then some.”
He wanted us to stay…forever?
Well, why not? He’d spoken of a future with us. Did he mean marriage? I had actively fought the idea of marrying John, but Maardok…I liked him. I thought I could trust him to do what was right for Ewan. But…I knew naught about his family, his friends, his people. He was taking us to his village, but what if the people there were like the people in the town where I used to live? ‘Twas foolish to hope that an entire village might be different.
Nay, I had to assume they were the same as humans; they would expect me to act a certain way and repay them for kindnesses and treat Maardok like a king.
Could I do that, in exchange for safety?
Aye, of course, to keep Ewan safe I would do aught. But…I only had to commit to doing it until the spring, and whatever else happened, I held tight to that promise, knowing I could endure through the winter.
As Maardok turned to inspect my son’s hands for dirt before feeding him, I dropped my hand to my stomach where my second child had been strangely still all yesterday and today.
This babe was the unknown.
