Cavan cringed. “We wait on the matter.”
Dykar took Carissa’s arm, ready to help her to her horse.
Ronan put a hand on his arm. “She’ll ride with me.”
“No,” Carissa said. “I ride with my men.”
“You return with us,” Ronan said.
“She will not go without us,” Dykar said.
Ronan looked to Cavan, for it was the laird’s decision, not his, as to what would be done.
“You may come with her, no more,” Cavan said. “Elsewise, there will be a battle.”
Before Dykar could protest, Carissa said, “Accepted, though my men will follow to the border of your land before they depart.”
Cavan nodded and walked away in angry strides.
Ronan looked to Carissa. “I ask that you ride with me. We need to talk.”
While she knew they did need to talk, she was not up to it. There was so much to be said between them, so very much. She didn’t even know where to start. She felt terrible about leaving him without a word, and she was angry with him for confiding in his brother that she could be with child.
She put her hand to her head. “Not now, Ronan.”
“Yes, now,” he insisted.
She looked at him, wanting to tell him she just wasn’t up to it right now. But he seemed to move away from her, far away and she wondered where he was going.
She heard him call out her name and she reached out to him to try and grab hold of him before he slipped completely away. And just as she thought she grabbed hold of his hand…the darkness swallowed her.
Chapter 25
Ronan held Carissa close in his arms, an extra cloak wrapped around her, and guided his mare slowly along the snow-covered path. After he had caught her as she crumpled in a faint, he wouldn’t let her out of his arms. She had reached out to him, called out to him, and he was damned if he was going to let anyone take her from him.
She could be obstinate and sharp-tongued, but when she had called out to him, he heard only Hope calling to him for help. After that, he had made it known that Carissa would be riding back in the safety of his arms. No one protested, but then he had been insistent.
Carissa stirred in his arms, and her eyes opened slowly.
“You’re safe,” he said. “I’m taking you home.”
Her brow wrinkled, and he could tell that she was attempting to make sense of what he meant.
“You’re going home with me, Carissa,” he assured her again.
She didn’t open her eyes when she said, “I have no home.”
“You do now,” he said adamantly, and drew her more tightly up against him.
He didn’t know why he had to reassure her. A few days ago he was angry with her for leaving without a word, and now he was offering her a home. Many would think him crazy.
He laughed. He even thought himself mad at times. How could he not after discovering that the woman he loved was actually his enemy? And how did he accept his enemy as his love?
He shook his head. He was crazy.
“Are you all right?” Cavan asked, riding up alongside him.
“I don’t know,” he answered, still shaking his head.
“Women can do that to you.”
“That’s not reassuring,” Ronan said.
The brothers laughed.
“Tell me how this came about,” Cavan said with a nod to Carissa sleeping soundly in his arms. “I don’t understand. It makes no sense. You wanted revenge against her for killing the woman you loved and now…“He shook his head. “The same woman may carry your babe.”
“I don’t know how to explain it,” he admitted. “I’m confused myself and yet”—he stared down at her—“I believe she is the woman I love.”
“What of the other one?”
He looked from Carissa to his brother. “They are one.”
Ronan could see that he confused his brother even more, and so he attempted to explain. He started at the beginning and told him what had happened after they were separated. How badly he was beaten and unable to see. How he had fallen in love with the slave who had seen to his care. How before his sight healed, he was sold to the mercenaries.
“You remained at the barbarian stronghold after we were captured?” Cavan shook his head. “They told me you weren’t there. At times they tried to make me believe you were dead.”
“I almost felt that I was. I couldn’t see, couldn’t care for myself, and didn’t even know if someone was there with me. I only knew that the slave, I named her Hope, was my salvation. If it hadn’t been for her, I would never have survived.”
“And now you believe that all along Hope was actually Carissa?” Cavan asked.