She brushed her lips over his. “What madness has me not only loving you, but needing, aching, for you in a way that is—sinful?”
“I see all is well,” Cree said.
She looked to her brother and said, “More than you know.”
“It is best we get back to the keep. We do not know who else may be lurking in the woods,” Cree said.
Torr was quick to nod and take hold of Wintra’s hand. He leaned down and quickly whispered, “Later, I will satisfy your sinful ache.”
She shivered at the thought or was it anticipation?
They did not stop at the healing cottage; they went straight to the keep. Once in the Great Hall, Dawn greeted Wintra with a hug.
“The old man who helped does well?” Cree asked, tugging his wife to his side after Wintra assured an insistent Dawn that she had suffered no injuries.
Dawn nodded and gestured that he rested.
“Good, he will be rewarded for his bravery,” Cree said and turned to his sister. “Did the man who took you say anything to you?”
“Only that I would learn to obey soon enough,” Wintra said. “I assumed he was one of Owen’s men, though he wore no plaid that could identify his clan.”
Torr spoke up, keeping firm hold of his wife’s hand. “It seems odd that a fire raged at the mill at the same time Wintra was abducted.”
“I agree,” Cree said. “But the question is why would Owen abduct Wintra? He knows she is wed to you, so why would he possibly want her now?” Cree shook his head. “We will speak to Sloan after we see to the mill.”
He took Dawn by the shoulders and sat her down on the bench by the hearth. “You will dare not move off this bench until I return.” He pressed his finger to her lips, warning her not to argue and looked to his sister and then to Torr.
Torr eased Wintra up against him. “Do not make my heart slam against my chest with worry or my stomach roil with fear because you are too stubborn to obey me. Stay here until I return.” He rubbed her cheek, the redness almost gone. “I will send Elsa to—”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “There are others more in need of Elsa than me. I am fine.”
He hugged her tight so that he could whisper in her ear, “Good, now nothing will stop me from making love to you tonight.”
Wintra lowered herself to the bench when he let her go, his words sparking a passion in her that seemed to sit far too close to the surface all the time. She watched him walk away with the thought that tonight could not arrive soon enough.
Once out of the keep, Torr turned to Cree. “You did put guards on the two of them didn’t you?”
Cree laughed and nodded. “You are beginning to know my sister well.”
Chapter Twenty
A short time after Cree and Torr left, Flanna hurried into the hall and over to Dawn. She stopped a moment before speaking when she caught sight of two warriors guarding the entrance to the hall.
Dawn grabbed hold of her hand to get her attention. Flanna wore a concerned look and Dawn worried that something was wrong.
Flanna kept her voice low when she said, “I heard that Lila was injured, though I do not know how badly.”
That was all Dawn needed to hear. With her cloak in hand, she was off the bench in an instant. She gave a quick glance to the guards at the door and saw that they had begun to approach her. Knowing she would never get passed them, and that they would also prevent her from leaving the hall, she turned and ran to the passageway that connected the hall to the kitchen.
Wintra quickly followed her.
Dawn’s heart pounded in her chest with worry. She prayed that Lila was all right. She did not know what she would do if something happened to her. She was more than a best friend. She was like a sister to Dawn.
“Lila is here, Dawn,” Old Mary called out to her when she was a few feet from the old woman’s cottage.
Wintra had to hasten her steps to keep up with Dawn. She was through the open door before Wintra made it up the snow-covered path. When she entered, Dawn was hugging a young woman and the woman, her one hand bandaged, was hugging Dawn with just as much fervor.
“You’re squeezing the life out of each other,” Old Mary said with a chuckle. “And some tears at that. Now sit and have a nice hot brew that will calm you both.”
The women did as Old Mary said and Wintra joined them at the table.
Dawn gestured so quickly that Wintra could not understand what she was saying, though Lila’s responses helped her follow their conversation.