“What if fever rages in my daughter?”
What if my grandmother’s pain worsens?”
“Enough worry,” Slatter said, approaching the complaining pair. “Willow has instructed you in the care of Erna and Corliss. You both will do well and it won’t be long before we join you again. Be grateful that you finally go to a permanent home.”
Crofton and Roanna were quick to offer their appreciation for his generosity and Willow went with them to see that Erna and Corliss were settled, along with Pell, the man missing part of his one leg, in the cart.
Willow waited by Slatter’s horse when all was done. She watched her husband talk with Walcott. The man paid heed to his every word, gave a nod, and went to the front of the small ragtag group and led them away from the worn and battered shelters that had been their home.
Devin walked beside Slatter, talking as the two men approached her.
“You know what to do. I will see you soon,” Slatter said when he came to a stop near his wife.
Devin reached out and hugged Slatter, giving him a firm slap or two on the back. “Return home safe.”
“I always do,” Slatter said with a confident smile.
“That you do,” Devin said and turned a nod on Willow. “But you’ve got a wife to worry about now, so remember that. And don’t do anything foolish.”
“I won’t let him,” Willow said, the words slipping out and wondering where they came from. She truly had no say over him, just as he had no say over her.
Devin laughed. “I’ve never known a woman who could bend the will of this one.” He turned a nod on Slatter this time. “But you just might be different.”
“It’s women who submit to me, not me to them,” Slatter boasted with a smile. “Now go, we both need to be on our way.”
“I’ll see you soon and I’ll have your word on that,” Devin said.
“You have it. Now go and stay safe.”
As soon as Devin turned and hurried to join the others, Slatter scooped Willow up and deposited her on the horse and was up behind her in an instant. She’d never seen anyone as quick in movement as him or so confident in all he did. He never seemed to falter in decision or action.
They hadn’t gone far when she asked, “Where do we go?”
“Away from the others so we don’t bring them harm,” he said, his arms snug around her as he led the horse through the woods, no obvious path to follow.
“This will delay your search for that man who causes you grief,” she said, his dark eyes more intense than she had ever seen them. They seemed to take in his surrounding without shifting his glance and that he was highly alert she felt in his taut body that he kept her cradled against.
“He’s not going anywhere and I’ve no doubt he’ll make himself known before long. Right now, it is more important to keep you safe as well as those people who have come to depend on me.”
“How did that come about?” she asked, taking advantage of this time alone with him to find out more about him, since he still, in some ways, was a stranger to her.
“They needed help,” he said, his eyes remaining steady on his surroundings. “Like you when you were lowered down into the hole to join me. You were in need of help.”
So he thought of her no differently than all the others in that conclave of needy people? He rescued her like he had the others. Had she been foolish enough to expect something different?
He had no interest in marriage, no interest in having bairns, no interest in love. She had to remember that or she just might find herself suffering the pain of caring for the wrong man.
She stiffened her resolve to keep her thoughts and actions sensible. She needed to think things through, not jump at impulses that would only complicate their situation.
“I hope to repay you for all the help you have given me.”
“That’s not necessary, you’re my wife.”
His annoyed response surprised her as did his reminder that they were wed, as if somehow that changed things.
“Perhaps, but I will not stand by and see you imprisoned again by the Lord of Fire or given to barbarians.”
“Worry not, that won’t happen.”
He sounded far too confident and she had to ask, “How can you be so sure?”
“I told you, leannan,” he said with that cock-sure grin. “There isn’t any place or anyone that can hold me, or any place or one I can’t escape.”
Even marriage to me. Willow was foolish to allow the thought to hurt her, but it did. She would remember that, remember that this marriage of theirs was temporary, that it would eventually end. She would go home and life would return to the way it had been.