Eyes shining with excitement, Eadan called, “Da!”
Caelis heart squeezed in his chest and he smiled at his son. “What are you about?”
“We’re going searching for bugs.” And then the small boy launched into a tale about what kind of insects could be found where.
The excited words tumbling from his lips ceased as Caelis’s son’s gaze fell on the cut on his arm. “You’re hurt!”
Caelis shook his head. “’Tis naught.”
Eadan turned back to his mother, who had been walking a pace behind with Audrey and little Marjory. “Mum, Da is
Shona’s beautiful green eyes darkened with concern. “What happened?”
Maybe not all was lost. She’d responded to his touch with all the hunger she’d shown six years ago and had at least some consideration for his well-being.
“Sparring.” Caelis would have preferred not to answer, but he was no child to pretend not to hear what he would rather not have been said.
Shona’s confusion shone clearly on her lovely face. “I thought you were not supposed to draw blood during practice?”
“It happens.”
“It’s not supposed to.” Eadan looked up, worry etched in his boyish features. “Thomas said so.”
“Thomas has the right of it. Who were you sparring with that you came away marked?” Shona demanded.
“Vegar.”
Shona’s hands settled on her hips. “And you call this man a friend?”
“It was not on purpose.”
“How could it not be on purpose? It was his hand on the blade, was it not?”
Despite his own embarrassment at their poor performance on the training field, Caelis fought a smile. “Aye.”
“Well, then?” Shona’s foot tapped against the packed dirt in front of the keep.
“Vegar has his own wounds,” Caelis replied, figuring that would mitigate the little termagant’s ire.
“Vegar? He is hurt?” Audrey asked, her pitch rising with each word. “Is it a grievous wound?”
“Not likely.” Caelis snorted his disbelief. “He is fine; it is only a small cut like mine.”
“Where is he?” Audrey demanded, not in the least appeased.
She turned and looked over the practice field, as if the warrior would magically appear.
Caelis wasn’t sure he wanted to tell the agitated Englishwoman that Vegar had gone into the great hall to clean his sword and discuss plans for further Cahir training among the Sinclair.
“Where is who?” Vegar asked from behind Caelis. “Your brother is inside, speaking to the Sinclair.”
Caelis looked back over his shoulder. “The woman is wondering about you.”
Vegar smiled, smug. “Is she now?” Then his expression turned sour. “She’s not looking to avoid me, is she?”
Ignoring their banter, Audrey spun around and rushed forward. “Let me see.”
“What is it you wish to see?” Vegar asked, looking bemused for the first time in memory.
He made no move to block the blond woman’s hands as she pulled his arms this way and that until she discovered the small cut on his thigh.
She blushed crimson when she realized where her mate had been wounded, but did not back away. “This must be tended to.”
Vegar replied, “I planned to wash in the loch.”
“You’ll be washing yourself there as well,” Shona informed Caelis.
He shrugged. “If that will please you. It is not much to worry about.” But he did like the fact that she was worried.
“We will still see it cleaned and treated with witch hazel.”
“We?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll not leave you to your own mercies. You did not show enough self-protection to avoid getting hurt in the first place. I’ll not trust you to care for the results. It would upset the children.”
Eadan was squatting on his haunches looking under a large rock he’d turned over and poking at the insects he’d found there with a twig. Little Marjory chased a butterfly. Caelis did not think the children were particularly worried about his small wound.
Nevertheless, he didn’t argue. “We will go to the loch.”
“I’ll fetch the witch hazel,” Audrey said decisively and then smiled down at the little girl who’d just fallen on her rump reaching for the fluttery insect. “Would you like to come with me, sweeting?”
Marjory shook her head and looked shyly at Caelis and lifted her arms. “Want up.”
He reached for her, lifting her even as Shona argued he was too dirty.
“She’s a child, not a silk gown. She’ll wash.”
Marjory giggled as he tickled her tummy. “Isn’t that right, wee one?”
She nodded vehemently.
Eadan smiled, doing his best to hide the wistful expression on his face, but Caelis read it with easy accuracy. He reached down a hand for his son.
Eadan took it immediately and Caelis tossed his son up and around so he could sit on the warrior’s broad shoulders. The boy’s shout of glee pricked at the heart Caelis had told the Sinclair he didn’t need engaged.
This wound would leave him bleeding longer than Vegar’s sword tip, Caelis was sure.
How much had he allowed his own false thinking to cost him?
“’Tis barely an injury.” Her nearness called to his wolf and his libido.
He wanted to take her into the forest and claim her fully. Then she would admit they were meant to be a family.
Only he could touch her for pleasure.
Her breath caught as if she knew his thoughts. Perhaps she did. His hardened sex pushed the kilt away from his body.
She inhaled as if she was the wolf and his scent drew her. “Even the tiniest lesion can sicken.”
“I am Chrechte.” He brushed his hand down the side of her face. “We rarely take ill.”
She shivered but held herself back from leaning into his touch. “Need I remind you again? You are no god, Caelis. If Chrechte never sickened, all would still live since the first walked the earth.”
“Our natures are violent.” And sexual.
He wanted her until his teeth ached with it.
“Aye, no doubt. Your people surely have lost great numbers to war, but the fact remains…”
“None live forever, though we do tend to live longer. And our mates with us.”
“Even human mates?”
“I do not know, but surely you have noted that Abigail does not show the aging of a woman with her years.”
“She’s hardly old.”
“She is older than her appearance would suggest.”
Shona looked thoughtful. “Why is that, I wonder?”
He shrugged. He was only glad that it was. Had the last six years not been difficult enough? He would not consider what old age might be like without his mate at his side.
Though he could not be sure now that she was not still intent on making him live without her. Last night notwithstanding.
She’d blamed that on his wolf and her response to the beast nature in Caelis.
Regardless, life was tenuous enough in the Highlands, even for the Chrechte. In that, Shona was well thought.
