His chuckle grew. “Tongues are going to wag over our rushed wedding.”
“There’ll be not a smidgen of a chance of me being with child,” she said forcefully, making certain he didn’t detect her regret.
He responded with equal force. “That’s for the best since I’d never abandon my child.”
“Then this obviously works for the both of us.” It actually put an end to their continuing debate on sealing their vows. In her zeal to satisfy her father’s demands, she had forgotten about the possibility of becoming pregnant. While she loved children and wanted a slew of them, she would never intentionally raise a fatherless child.
“Anything more I need to know about your father?” he asked.
She thought a moment. What could she say about her father? While he was a good man, she and he had been at odds most of her life. He accused her of challenging him straight from the womb, though he also defended her many times.
She answered him strangely, or perhaps she was looking for an answer herself. “I believe he loves me, though he rarely shows it and more often than not I think he prefers when I’m not around.” She shook her head slowly. “I never truly understood my father. He seems a good man, many speak highly of him, but when it comes to me he seems…”
“You don’t really know, do you?” he asked when her silence remained.
“Not really,” she said regrettably. “And I believe my refusing to wed Harken McWilliams broke my father’s patience.”
“Then you admit you have tried your father’s patience on a regular basis?”
“Without a doubt,” she said with a hesitant smile that grew with the memories of her many adventures or misadventures.
“Somehow I believe my sympathy should go to your father,” Cullen said with a scratch of his head.
“I suppose I gave him a wee bit of trouble,” she admitted.
“Wee?”
“Maybe more,” she said with a laugh, then regaled Cullen with tales of her youth, starting with the time she was five and first learned to climb trees—big trees, to everyone’s dismay—though it took her a good many months to learn how to climb down.
Cullen laughed. “So you managed to scale these large trees with ease, but it took you longer to learn to climb down, leaving your father to forever rescue you?”
“Yes, that’s right.” She grinned, proud that she had accomplished such a feat, even if descending them took more effort and time to learn.
“Your father rescued you every time?”
“Every one of them.”
“Even though he warned you each time not to do it again and you did, he still climbed the trees to get you down?” Cullen asked.
“Yes,” she assured him.
Cullen yawned and stretched out on his blanket. “That takes more than patience. That takes love.”
Sara sat silent, digesting his remark. She had always thought her father angry with her after rescuing her from the trees. She had never given thought to the fact that he had never refused to rescue her or sent someone else to do it. He had always come for her himself.
She yawned and laid down on her blanket to think about her father.
Hours later Sara jumped up out of sound sleep, her eyes as round as full moons, her body trembling. With a terrified glare, she quickly scanned the surrounding area.
Cullen joined her, her abrupt actions having woken him though she hadn’t made a sound.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
She pressed a hand to her heaving chest. “I believe a nightmare.”
He went to her and slipped his arms around her trembling body.
She quickly grabbed hold of him, her arms going around his waist and hanging onto him for dear life. He was warm, solid and real, and she had no intention of letting go.
A sharp owl hoot caused her to jump, and she dug her face into his hard chest and was relieved to hear the solid, steady beat of his heart. He wasn’t afraid, which was good, very good, because she was terrified. She wasn’t one to frighten easily, and yet the dream had left her shaken to the core.
“Want to tell me about it?” he asked.
She was relieved he didn’t let go of her. She didn’t want him to. She wanted him right where he was, with her arms tight around him.
She shook her head.
“All right, but remember it was only a nightmare. It wasn’t real. You’re safe.”
She nodded and didn’t dare tell him that her dream was real, all too real.
“Why don’t you sleep beside me tonight.”
“Yes. Yes,” she repeated, bobbing her head.
Cullen continued to hold her tight as he lowered them both to his blanket, placing her closer to the fire and then wrapping himself around her. She didn’t object. She welcomed every part of him, from the leg he threw over hers, to his chest pressed firm against her back, to the arms that circled her with strength.