Kincaid's door if she keeps walking through the night.'
'Mi'lady knows she's going north,' Owen said. 'She told me she's deliberately making a wide circle so as not to disturb the soldiers patrolling the creek.'
Quinlan turned to Connor. 'Shouldn't you go after your wife?'
'My brother's soldiers won't let her get far.'
'I believe she expects you to come after her.'
'The hell with that,' he muttered.
He contradicted his own decision a second later, when he shoved the two men aside and went striding after his wife.
He had to go farther than he'd expected. He found her leaning against a tree a fair distance away from the clearing. She looked defeated. He didn't like to see her like that, especially when he realized he was largely responsible. Still, he was still thankful she wasn't weeping.
She put her hand up in a silent command to stop him from coming any closer, which he completely ignored, and as soon as he reached her, he lifted her into his arms.
He expected her to fight him; she surprised him by putting her arms around his neck and resting her head against his shoulder. She was suddenly soft and willing again.
'My brother told me no woman in her right mind would marry me, and if you really meant to go after your trunk, I would have to say…?'
'That I'm not in my right mind?' she responded. 'If I'm demented, it's all your fault. You pushed me right over the edge, Connor.'
He smiled in spite of himself. His wife said the most outrageous things to him.
'You meant to keep on walking?'
'No. I meant to have a few minutes alone. You knew that, didn't you?'
No, he hadn't known, but he decided to pretend he had. 'Yes,' he said.
'I was never alone, though. You knew that too, didn't you?'
'I did.'
'Who are the two soldiers following me?'
'My brother's sentries. You're on Alec's land, if you'll remember.'
She didn't remember any such thing. She yawned then and turned her attention to a more worrisome problem. 'I seem to have misplaced my shoe. I can't imagine how it happened.'
He didn't have any trouble imagining it at all. She was constantly leaving her things about. 'I'll find it,' he promised. 'Brenna, what was it really all about back there? Do you know?'
'Do you mean to ask me if I had another reason for becoming upset?'
He had just asked her that very question, hadn't he? 'Yes,' he said.
She began to rub the back of his neck while she thought about how she could make him understand. Connor doubted she was even aware of what she was doing, but he found the caresses very pleasing.
'I understand now what was bothering me. I didn't understand then.'
He rolled his eyes heavenward. Getting a straight answer out of her was turning into strenuous work. 'And?' he prodded.
'The trunk and the saddle and my mare were all gifts from members of my family. You're trying to take them away from me, and I can't let you do that. I'm not ready to let go.'
'Exactly what am I taking away?'
'My family.'
'Brenna…'
She wouldn't let him continue. 'You are trying to take them away, aren't you? And if I let you succeed, what will I have left?'
'Me.'
The impact of what he said struck her, and yet she still tried to resist the truth. She didn't want him; she wanted her family.
'You have me.' His voice was hard now, insistent.
She looked up at him then, and her childish resolution to cling to the old and the familiar seemed to lose its importance. The look in his eyes mesmerized her. There was such tenderness and vulnerability there.
'Do I have you, Connor?'
'Aye, lass, you do.'
She smiled then, her doubts gone. He had surely spoken from his heart, or so she believed, and her own heart warmed in reaction. She had seen this side of him only once before, on their wedding night, when he'd taken her into his arms and made love to her. The warlord had vanished then, and she had embraced the man. Now he was giving her this magical gift once again. How could she resist him?
She nodded her acceptance, her mind at peace, because she finally understood that what she was doing was both holy and right, made so by the church and God himself the minute Father Sinclair had united them as husband and wife, and although she'd been telling herself she would make the best of her circumstances, she admitted now she hadn't really accepted the marriage.
It was time for her to stop fearing her future and let go of her desperate hold on her past, and as soon as she made the decision to do just that, the most wondrous thing happened to her. She willingly gave herself to him.
'You have me now, Connor MacAlister, because I have decided that you should.'
She sealed her promise with a kiss, in spite of his specific order that she must never, ever kiss him without first gaining permission, and when she'd finished, she tucked her head under his chin and closed her eyes.
He was never again going to be surprised by anything she said, Connor thought. She'd decided? Aye, those had been her very words all right.
'You and I are starting over,' she whispered.
Here we go again, he thought to himself. He still didn't understand what she was talking about, but if she'd asked him for his agreement, he would have given it just to make her happy. He really shouldn't have cared if she was happy or not, but he did care. He consoled himself with his hope that once she adjusted to her new life, she would stop having such peculiar ideas.
Connor leaned back against the tree and stared down at his wife. She seemed serene now, which meant he was finally going to get some peace and quiet and could figure out what in hell he would say to his brother tomorrow, and wasn't that all that mattered anyway?
'Connor?'
'Yes?' he asked.
'I'll take good care of you.'
He was stunned by this promise, and though he probably should have been insulted, because it was his duty to take care of her and not the other way around, she'd sounded so sincere, he knew she meant to please him.
She fell asleep before he could set her straight. She moved closer to him until her soft mouth was pressed against the base of his neck. She tightened her hold on him as well, and he realized he liked the way she tried to get as close as she could to him. He liked the way she sighed in her sleep too. When her guard wasn't up and she wasn't trying to argue with him every other minute, she became sweet and loving. She was beginning to trust him, he knew, or she wouldn't have allowed herself to fall asleep in his arms, and with a smile. He realized he liked that most of all.
Connor didn't have any idea how long he lingered in the forest holding his wife. The sound of thunder rumbling in the distance forced him back to more practical matters, and he picked up her misplaced shoe and started back to camp.
He was in a much better mood by the time he reached the others. His men had built a tent large enough to accommodate three grown men and had covered it with thick animal skins loyal allies had given them on their way to collect Brenna. The tent had been strategically placed at the far end of the clearing, with the entrance facing the forest so that his wife would be assured of privacy when she awakened.
In one corner of the tent were the possessions Brenna had left by the creek. Connor added her shoes and stockings to the pile.
She was sleeping so soundly, she didn't stir at all while he saw to the task of removing her clothes. Too late,
