Rogan followed and bent down beside her to investigate her thrilling find.
“Isn’t she a beauty?” Aliss asked in a reverent whisper.
Her respect for the lacy plant was obvious in her gentle touch, and the joy in her eyes brought a generous smile to his face.
“Lovely,” he said, paying respect to both plant and woman.
“The spores are believed to hold magic.”
“What kind of magic?”
“The magic of finding treasure, and it is said—” She lowered her voice. “Swallow the spores and it will render the person invisible.”
He reached out.
“No,” she said, grabbing his hand. “I don’t want you invisible. Besides, it’s nothing more than myth.”
He stood, taking her along with him. They remained as they were for a moment in silence, their eyes fixed on each other. Both seemed to want to speak and yet they were unable or unwilling.
“Can we walk some more?” she asked softly.
“Whatever you like.”
Staunch warrior reflexes kept him from reacting to her hand moving slowly off his arm, where she held it, to drift down to his hand and lock her fingers around his. She waited then for him and he took the lead and led them through the woods.
Her hand felt good in his, warm and snug and willing. She had taken hold of him on her own. Was his hard work beginning to pay off? She could have walked ahead of him or waited for him to take the lead and then followed.
Her actions gave him hope that she was starting to believe his love was real. He couldn’t allow this chance to slip away. He had to make certain to grasp it and expand on it.
How?
He had tried everything he could think of with no success. What was left to him?
She slipped out of his grasp to investigate another plant and he felt her sudden absence like a blow to his heart. The pain reminded him of when he lost Kendra. Life had been so empty and so very lonely without her beside him. He did not want to hurt that much ever again.
She turned with a smile and rattled on about the plant she had found and how she intended to gather its seeds to add to her garden.
He smiled and held his hand out to her. He wanted to beg her to come to him, hold on and never leave him. But he kept his fears to himself and held his hand extended in a simple offer—that represented so much more.
She rushed back to him and took hold of his hand all the while chatting about how the woods held a variety of plants she intended to examine.
He listened, enjoying the sound of her voice so cheerful and confident, and walked with her until he noticed her pace had slowed.
Rogan stopped, walked over to a fallen tree not yet ravaged by decay and sat, taking her down with him.
She sighed when her bottom touched the tree.
“Tired?”
“A little,” she said.
“We will rest here for a while.”
“You seem to know your way around here.”
“My father brought me here many times when I was growing up. I know the land well.”
“I wondered how you knew the distance to the keep from the shore the day we landed.”
“He thought it wise that I become familiar with my future home.”
“He wanted this land for you?”
“And the clan,” he added.
“He encouraged you to claim it?”
“He encouraged me to fight for it.”
“Then he knew a fight would be necessary?”
He nodded. “There was no way the land, though mine by birthright, would be surrendered willingly.”
“So he helped prepare you to fight for the isle?”
“He did, though I chose a different way. I did not want to start life on this land with the blood of my clan or my enemies on my hands. I hoped to obtain what was mine with no loss of blood or lives and with a minimum of injuries.”
“You succeeded.”
“Some suffered,” he said. Her in particular, though he had not planned it that way.
“Suffering eventually ends, but deaths are forever. I admire your effort to avoid spilling blood and taking lives to claim this land.” She glanced around. “No wonder it is so beautiful. You have brought no bloodshed and death here, so it rejoices and repays your respect with abundance for your clan.”
“I always felt I had come home when my father brought me here.”
“How did it come to be that the Hellewyk and Wolf clan both lay claim to this land?”
He stood abruptly. “I am not certain.”
Aliss pushed herself up off the fallen tree. “Why did you not tell me all of this from the beginning?”
“It really did not concern you.”
“It most certainly did. It was the reason for my abduction.”
“Part of the reason, and besides, you were to serve your purpose and be returned to your people. I had not anticipated falling in love with you or your proposing marriage to me. It changed everything.”