Bern gaped at her. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You said it yourself, last night, ‘at least I don’t have to pull it out of a stone.’ You pulled the sword from the soil of Britain and claimed the kingship. You are—”
“Don’t you dare put that on me.” He’d finally figured out where this was going.
“Bern means ‘bear,’” she went on. “One of the translations of—”
“No.”
“And then there’s your men’s names. There’s Kaye and—”
“You’ve been drinking that spring water too long, as well as looking into it, haven’t you?” His tone was doubtful, but his instincts were shouting at him that she was right.
He knew he’d hurt her feelings, but they were interrupted once again before he could apologize. This time it was the rest of the team that came into the sanctuary.
“Look who we found, boss!” Kaye crowed. “Your gut was right again.”
“Stop looking smug,” he ordered Ginger. “Welcome to your rescue, Professor Owen,” he said to the newcomer.
“I’m grateful the Project sent a team for us.” Owen gave Ginger a nod and smile. She smiled back. “And if rumor is correct, you’ve come to the rescue just in the nick of time.”
“We’ve heard that the Saxons are heading this way,” Kaye told him. “Time for us to bug out, right?”
Bern waited for Ginger to protest, but she crossed her arms and bit her lower lip instead of nagging him. Damn it! That made it even harder for him to say no to her.
“I took an oath to protect these people last night,” he told the team. “The least we can do is give the locals a chance at getting away.”
“What precisely to you mean by ‘we’?” Percy spoke up. “At no point do I recall having signed a social contract with these people. Going native is not one of our options.”
“What’s wrong with helping people?” Owen demanded. “The locals have helped me survive for months. I owe them.”
“So do I,” Ginger said.
“Very touching, but irrelevant,” Percy responded.
“You are such a wuss,” Gareth said. “Come on, fighting a bunch of barbarians will be fun.”
“No, it won’t,” Bern said sternly. “And don’t make the assumption that I’m asking for a consensus, or volunteers. This is a military operation, and I’m in command. We’re all going into this fight.”
His soldiers immediately snapped to attention, and he nodded to them. Percy didn’t look happy, but at least this finally shut him up. Bern glanced at Ginger. She was looking at him with enough pride in her eyes to set his heart on fire. She made him feel like a hero. This wasn’t the time to kiss her all over the way he wanted to, but he did put his arm around her waist and draw her close.
As they stood, hip to hip, he said, “Remember the hillside we crossed on the way here?” There were nods. “We’re going to set up our perimeter there. It’s time to break out the claymores, boys.”
Ginger gave him a puzzled look, but her expression cleared before he could explain. “Oh, you’re not talking about big Scottish swords, are you?”
“No, hon, I’m talking about shaped charges that blow up.”
“Fire in the sky,” she said. “Just what the vision showed me.”
This had better work, Ginger thought. She hugged herself tightly. Please, God, let it work. And don’t let anything happen to Bern—or any of the good guys—while you’re at it. Please, Lady, she added, since she was officially a priestess of the goddess.
Well, maybe not officially anymore since soon she’d be leaving Lord Ched’s villa forever. She was standing in the woods at the source of the spring with a bundle of provisions at her feet, waiting for the rest of the team to join her. The plan was for her to wait safely out of the way while the men carried out the op. Bern had insisted she stay out of harm’s way, and she hadn’t argued. She was no warrior.
Besides, securing their nexus was probably the most important part of this op.
Some of the other women had taken up arms to fight alongside their men after Bern gave a rousing speech to the gathered pilgrims. This was the ancient way of the Celts, and more proof as far as Ginger was concerned that this battle was going to slow the tide of invasion. The people were eager to follow Bern into battle. Their willingness to defend their homeland was a good sign, too. Right?