“Nothing can hurt our friendship.”
“You never know,” she said, shaking her head.
“Then you never had a true friend.”
She stared at him, her blue eyes matching the color of the morning sky and making him think he had never known the color to be lovelier.
“Good friends,” he continued, “are there for each other through the good and bad of things. They don’t judge or condemn.”
“Promise me that?” she asked. “Promise you won’t judge or condemn me.”
“I promise,” he said without hesitation.
But she looked skeptical and again he wondered who had hurt her. He’d find out in time, for as their friendship grew so would trust.
“Will this information change your departure time?” she asked.
“It changes nothing. You are women in need of protection—” He stopped abruptly and grinned. “Maybe not as much protection as I first thought.”
She took his remark as he had intended it, as a compliment. “Thank you,” she said.
“However, there still remains a problem.”
Terese nodded. “We occupy church land and will not be allowed to remain here.”
“No wonder you lead; you have a sharp mind.”
“All the women do. I just happened to fall into the role.”
“It may seem so, but leadership was truly yours from the start as with all great leaders. They never seek it; instead it finds them,” he said.
She seemed uncomfortable with yet another compliment, and he wasn’t surprised that she chose to ignore it.
Instead she inquired, “Do you think the church will send others to replace us?”
“I would say that’s a good possibility, especially since you and the others have proved so fruitful here.”
“Our good deeds will see us homeless,” she said rather sadly.
He squeezed her hand lightly. “I will not let that happen.” It produced the smile he was hoping for. “Your smile is like the sunshine, warm and pleasant.”
“Pleasant?” she queried with a chuckle.
“Very pleasant,” he confirmed. “It defines your lovely nature.”
She stared at him as if befuddled.
He simply smiled. “I speak the truth, so accept it. You are pleasant and lovely.”
Her expression softened. “You may reclaim those words one day.”
“Never,” he insisted adamantly. “They are words spoken from my heart and will forever remain so.”
She slipped her hand out of his and gently laid it against his cheek. “Then know they are gratefully accepted and forever tucked in my heart for safekeeping.”
He placed his hand over hers that rested against his cheek. “That would mean that each of us is in the other’s heart forever.”
“A safe place to be?” she asked on a whisper.
“Very safe,” he assured her.
Their hands dropped away and their lips drifted together until they lightly touched and a heated spark jolted them. Their wide eyes acknowledged the passion that had struck them like a bolt of lightning, and they both knew without a sliver of doubt, that soon, very soon, they would surrender to it.
Chapter 11
Terese sat under a tree, her back braced against the thick trunk and its fallen leaves beneath providing a comfortable cushion. It had been hours since she and Lachlan had talked, with him leaving her at the bottom of the small hill to see to his men and her to rest as he had gently, but firmly suggested.
She had offered what help she could reasonably give to each woman and one after the other they had turned her away, insisting she rest, and so she did what everyone had advised.
She had chosen a place beneath a large oak tree, for it gave her a generous view of the convent, though it actually didn’t—it never resembled a convent and now it looked even less like one. Everagis appeared more like a pregnant land laboring to give birth to a village and the thought made her smile.
There was camaraderie among the inhabitants that filled the air, and smiles that couldn’t be denied. Everyone seemed genuinely content. And the men had wasted no time in pursuing the women.
Terese noticed immediately how Piper and Evan talked more freely and huddled hunched down on the ground, Piper drawing in the dirt with a stick and Evan eagerly nodding. Hester was pleasant to the men who approached her, but appeared not interested in a one of them and made that clear.
And Megan? Terese knew she would let no man near her and felt sorry for Andrew, who seemed truly interested in her. He didn’t push or demand; he simply would approach with a question. Unfortunately, it appeared it was one that she could easily answer with either a nod or a shake and with nothing more left to be said he’d walk away. But he would return, do the same and walk away again, but not once did he give up. He kept going back.