the loch.”
“Do we have to?” Eadan and Thomas both asked at the same time.
Audrey felt a much-welcomed laugh bubble up inside of her. Her brother was still such a youth at times.
Shona answered for her with a firm, “Yes.”
Caelis went to stand and Shona moved with speed Audrey had not known humans capable. “What are you doing?” Shona demanded.
“Coming to the lake with you.”
“You cannot rise naked from the bed in front of Audrey and the children.” Presumably Shona left Thomas off the list because modesty between warriors was nearly nonexistent.
Particularly among the Highlanders, where those of a more barbaric disposition still went into battle with nothing more than the paints of war marking their faces and bodies.
“Why not? You did,” he pointed out in a reasonable tone that Audrey did not believe for a second.
He was not daft, no matter how he might pretend.
“That is different.”
“Aye, but when I asked her to leave, you became very angry with me.”
“You didn’t ask, you ordered.”
He shrugged, showing that to him they were one and the same.
“I do not remember you being such an annoying man.”
“That is to be expected. Six years ago, you did not consider me
Listen to your beast’s instincts. It will not lead you astray like the words of a wily man.
—FAOL PROVERB
She simply grabbed his plaid from where it had been tossed on the floor and threw it at Caelis. “Cover yourself decently.”
“Mum?”
“Yes, Eadan?” Shona responded, sounding harried.
“You do not believe Da is a nice man? Truly?”
Shona stopped her agitated picking up of clothing around the room. She’d managed to don her shift and the borrowed wrapper before the children and Thomas’s arrival, but the rest of her dress, to be donned after they bathed, was in her arms.
Shona looked at her son, clearly wishing for a way out of answering his question honestly. “There was a time I thought he was very kind.”
“But not now?” Eadan pressed.
“He has proven to be ruthless on an important occasion.”
Which was no doubt how Shona had ended up pregnant and alone in England, Audrey thought.
“Sometimes a man has to be ruthless for the sake of his family,” Eadan said, quoting his recently deceased grandfather.
Audrey knew that Shona was not overfond of that particular sentiment, though she rarely gainsaid her father on anything.
“In this case, it was for his own sake and not that of his family. We were left to fend for ourselves,” Shona said with grudging honesty.
The honesty did not surprise Audrey. Despite protecting her children from the trials of the world surrounding them as much as she was able, Shona did not make it a habit to lie to either Eadan or Marjory.
Audrey could not understand the flash of triumph in Caelis eyes until he said, “So you admit you are my family,” as he buckled the leather kirtle holding his kilt into place.
Instead of focusing on the fact that Shona so evidently did not trust him, he claimed victory in her wording. Audrey could see now that Shona would have to be most cautious in her dealings with this wily Faol.
Clearly chagrined, Shona deliberately turned away from Caelis, facing her son fully. “You’ve had many dreams about him, you said.”
“Yes, Mum.”
“And in your dreams, what kind of man was he?”
That was the Shona Audrey knew and admired so. A woman who respected her children even when others said the same should be rarely seen and never heard.
“He is a good man in my dreams, Mum. He watches over us and protects us from Percival and other bad men who would do us harm.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
Eadan nodded. “I think he’s sorry, Mum. For whatever he did before.”
Shona’s features hardened. “Time will tell, Eadan.”
“Grandda used to say that, too.”
“Aye, he did.” Grief washed over the baroness’s features briefly. “He was a good man.”
Eadan nodded, though he did not say anything more. He’d loved his grandfather, but even the young boy had noted how the old man had treated his grandchildren much differently than his only daughter.
Shona’s father’s love for her had been tempered by his disappointment in her the entire time Audrey knew the stubborn Scot.
“You didn’t tell your mother about your dreams,” Audrey said, to take both the boy and the woman’s minds away from where they now dwelled.
Eadan shrugged. “She didn’t believe in them.”
“I am sorry.” Shona cast a sidelong glance at the warrior who had come to stand much too close to her for propriety’s sake. “I have come to realize there are many things I believed impossible that are, in fact, truth.”
Had Caelis told Shona of his Faol nature? Audrey didn’t think so, not the way Shona responded the same as ever to her and Thomas. Besides, wouldn’t the wolf wait until he was sure of the human woman’s allegiance before risking exposure?
Having grown up without a pack, there was much about the Chrechte way of life that Audrey and Thomas did not know, but one thing their mother had been most adamant about.
To tell their secret was to betray all their brethren as well as themselves.
Caelis’s gaze flicked upward and a scowl came over his features. Then he did something entirely unexpected for such a serious warrior.
He yelled at the eagle as if scolding a naughty child. “Get you gone!”
Even more amazingly, the eagle screeched as if in defiant response. Then the bird swooped down from the sky, much to both Marjory’s and Eadan’s delight, the tip of one majestic wing brushing the top of Audrey’s head before the noble bird soared back to its position high in the sky above them.
Shona’s friend looked dazed. “What a beautiful bird.”
“I’m sure he would be pleased to hear you say so,” Caelis said with a snort.
Shona could not understand her warrior’s attitude.
Neither, apparently, could Audrey, who shook her head. “Do not be daft. Even a regal bird like that one does not have the reason to appreciate my admiration.”
