“Aye, she did.” Newlin nodded. “She assured me it would not bother you in the least, but I saw that you thought differently that first day and worried you would reject Tavia. Forgive me for the lie, but like your mother, I wanted Tavia protected. And seeing how you handled Lord Ivan, I know your mum was right. You will protect my daughter.”
Tavia walked away from both men to stand nearer to the heat of the hearth, a sudden chill turning her cold. It seemed as if everyone thought her incapable of protecting herself, even from the smallest threat. Did she appear that weak to people? Did the accident not only leave her with a limp but had stolen her confidence as well? And if so, why had she let it?
“Continue to implement the changes Lord Cree was having you make, Newlin, and those we discussed. Birger will oversee the work and send reports to me on the progress,” Bhric said, making it clear with a change of subject that he would discuss the other matter no more. “Tavia. Tavia!” he called out again when she failed to respond to his first summons.
“Eat and be ready to leave by mid-day,” he ordered and left the room.
Newlin went to his daughter, his arm going around her to ease her away from the hearth to sit at one of the tables.
“This has all been a nightmare, Da, and I wish I would wake up.” Sadness engulfed her eyes and her heart. “You should have confided the truth to me from the beginning. Lies and deceit serve no one well.”
“Lord Bhric would have never agreed to the union,” Newlin said.
“Because I am not what he looks for in a wife. I do not suit him and now we are stuck with each other. What future is there for either of us?”
“You will find your way through this marriage, Tavia. Orianna was right. You are much like your mum. There is courage and determination in you, and both surface when needed. And I hope and pray Orianna is right and that someday you and Bhric come to love each other.”
“That will never be, Da, for there can be no love where there is no trust.”
CHAPTER 6
Bhric refused to look back and glance at his wife since they left the keep hours ago. He was furious with her. She had lied to him and tricked him, and he felt a fool for it.
“Are you going to stop scowling and accept your fate or spend the rest of your life a miserable wretched soul no one wants to be around?” Sven asked.
“She tricked me,” Bhric muttered, annoyed that he had not even given thought that she would be capable of it.
Sven disagreed. “She saved you.”
“You are a bigger fool than me.”
“You said your mother knew your wife’s mother, best friends they were just like you and me, and that she knew of the limp. If that is so then she made no mistake in her choice of a wife for you, though it may seem so. Make the best of it as all couples who know little of each other have no choice but to do.”
“That is easy for you to say when you wed for love,” Bhric said.
“I am not the eldest son of a tribe leader or the grandson of a powerful clan lord. You have a duty and forget your mother and her fury when she learns that you even considered reneging on the marriage arrangement. What would your father, an honorable and respected tribe leader, think? And think of the courage it took for your wife to do what she did.”
“Be deceitful?”
Sven shook his head. “She is a wee one and add to that her debilitating limp and the question that no doubt plagued her… who else would wed her? It was you or Newlin might not have had any choice but to wed her to Lord Ivan. She was brave enough to recognize it and seize the moment.”
“Or selfish enough if what you say is true,” Bhric continued to argue, though the thought of Lord Ivan touching his wife fired his anger.
“You will not find out if you keep your distance from her.”
Bhric’s scowl deepened. “Did I ask for your advice?”
“Nay, but I give it to you freely anyway,” Sven said with a grin and, with a laugh, turned his horse away to join the two men in the distance who traveled ahead to keep watch if anyone should approach.
Bhric mumbled several oaths before he turned his horse around and rode to come up beside his wife’s horse. He was about to ask her if she did well, but it was not necessary. He could see with the tight set of her face and the tiredness in her soft blue eyes that she struggled with pain.
“Your leg troubles you.”
That it was not a question made Tavia realize there was no point in denying it. “Riding has been difficult for me since the injury to my leg. When we camp later, rest will help it.”
Bhric waved one of his warriors over. “Hold the reins of her horse.”
Tavia turned a bewildered look on him and in the next moment his hands were at her waist and with a swift lift, she was on his horse to sit crossways in front of him.