“Why didn’t you tell me all this?”
“For one thing, it was difficult to explain when I barely could speak and by the time I could get more words out, I didn’t know how to tell you. How did I tell you that I was a cursed man and by wedding me you cursed yourself? What kind of life could I give you? We can’t dare have children and force them to suffer a dreadful curse.”
Elysia held her hand still, it almost rushing to her stomach as if it could somehow protect the bairn nestled there.
“Loss and suffering has plagued my family. After the curse was cast my mother suffered three miscarriages. My da’s only brother and sister died within days of each other, never having been ill.” He stopped, a flash of anger sparking in his eyes before he continued. “My brother Tynan died on the battlefield and my mother took ill shortly after and has not been well since. I will not see you suffer as my mum did with each child she lost and I will not chance losing you as my da almost lost my mum with her last miscarriage. Hear me well and understand why I tell you we cannot have any children.”
Elysia kept a truthful tongue as best she could, but this was a time she chose to hold her tongue and simply nodded. It was not the time to tell him that she was with child. It was, however, the reason to pray harder that Annis would find a way to break the curse.
Odran reached out to touch her, feeling the familiar comfort they once shared with each other and was surprised, though more disappointed, when she backed away from him.
He let his hand fall to his side. “Saber and Odran are one.”
She shook her head. “I knew Saber. I don’t know Odran.”
“I am no different,” he said, regretting the annoyance he heard in his voice.
She nearly winced at his unfamiliar tone. “Your powerful voice says differently.”
“I suppose there is a difference,” Odran admitted. “Saber had the freedom to be a farmer, live a life he chose to live with the woman he loved. Odran has no such choice. He will lead a powerful clan, have great responsibility, and make decisions not all will agree with, at least though he will have the woman he loves and who loves him by his side.”
Elysia felt it was a question he asked of her. Did she still love him? She spoke from her heart. “I love Saber. I will forever love Saber.”
He scrunched his eyes shut a moment and when he opened them, he asked, “Will you give Odran a chance?”
“Aye,” she said without hesitation and her quick response had her realizing that she didn’t want to lose the love she had found with her husband and somehow she had to find a way to make sure she didn’t.
“Good,” he said relieved. “You will soon learn for yourself that I am the man you fell in love with.”
Words rushed from her mouth. “With you gone, I haven’t drunk the brew to prevent a bairn.”
“I can see that you are not comfortable being intimate with Odran, so I will leave it up to you to let me know when you are. I will not force you,” he said and turned a smile on her while passion teased in his eyes. “But I will encourage you and I strongly suggest you start drinking that brew today.”
He got out of bed and hurried into his garments, not trusting himself to sit there with them both naked. It would not be easy to keep his hands off his wife, not that he would completely, but he had to be careful. She needed to be the one to initiate intimacy with Odran, to accept him, to love him.
Once he was fully dressed, he turned to see, and gratefully so, that she had covered herself. “I have much to see to before we take our leave. Take what you want from the croft and the cottage. Another healer will be given the cottage. I will see that word is sent out, in hopes that Annis hears it, that she is to return to your new home at Clan MacBridan. If she arrives here first, she will be brought to our home. I will also have word sent to Bliss so she knows where you are.”
“Please let her continue to believe it is Saber I am wed to,” Elysia was quick to say. “She will worry if she knows me wed to one of the cursed lords and she no doubt has enough to worry her.”
He nodded. “I will see she is told that it was Saber and your choice to move to the Clan MacBridan after the attack.”
“Thank you. It eases my worry for my sisters.” Elysia was appreciative of his consideration and she wondered that perhaps Saber and Odran were no different after all.