Dykar responded before Carissa could object. “Go, Rissa. I’d like a chance to speak with Ronan.”
Carissa looked from one man to the other, shook her head, then scooped the buns in a basket and placed a cloth over them.
She gave Ronan a kiss, and as she walked out the door, she said, “You obviously survived the encounter with your brother, please do the same with Dykar, since I love you both.”
Ronan glared at Dykar and wondered what she meant that she loved them both. He should be the only one she loved. Who was this man who had earned Carissa’s love? Suddenly he remembered something Carissa had mentioned at the cottage. Just a brief reference when they had spoken about siblings…
“She loves you like a brother, doesn’t she?” Ronan asked.
Dykar nodded. “And I love her like a sister.”
“Do you know her like one?”
“Better than anyone,” Dykar said.
“Not quite,” Ronan said with a smile.
Dykar didn’t smile. “I know things about her you will never know, for she will never speak of them to you.”
“Tell me,” Ronan said. “I truly want to know Carissa.”
“If you love her, what difference does it make?”
“It’s not if I love her, I do love her, but—”
“But what?” Dykar snapped annoyed. “If you love her, nothing else should matter.”
“Nothing does matter,” Ronan shot back. “But I have a family that needs convincing that she is kind and can be trusted.”
“She needs to know the same of you, though I can tell you that her father made sure that trust did not come easily to his daughter,” Dykar said. “He was a cruel, cruel father.”
“So it would seem from the few things she has told me,” Ronan said. “I’m surprised her father allowed you two to become so close.”
“He didn’t. Carissa learned early on that he would not allow her to love anyone or thing, and with me being a slave—”
“You were a slave of Mordrac’s?” Ronan was shocked.
“I was, though Carissa made certain that I wasn’t treated badly.” He laughed. “The only way she could be sure of that was to treat me badly herself. She made it appear that she hated me, then we would sneak off to the woods together, where she had food hidden for me. We would talk and play.”
His smile faded.
“What happened?” Ronan asked.
“I matured, became a man, and couldn’t stomach the way Mordrac treated her. I foolishly spoke up to him.”
“What did he do?”
“He ordered me whipped to near death and left on the post to die slowly.”
“Carissa saved you?”
Dykar nodded. “That she did. She got me out of there before the whipping. I wanted her to go with me, but she refused, reminding me that Mordrac would search the world for his daughter, then brutality kill the man she fled with, but a mere slave he would not waste his time on.”
“So she remained behind and you—”
“I fled, though not far, and Carissa brought those she helped flee to me.”
“Which started the mercenary troop?”
“Yes, that’s how we got started,” Dykar said.
Ronan thought a minute. “So Carissa made me think I was being sold to mercenaries when she was actually freeing me.”
“She hoped you would simply return home and forget about her.”
“And when I didn’t—”
“Her only choice was to remove the reason why you remained with the group,” Dykar said, shaking his head. “She didn’t realize that your love for Hope was so strong that it would demand revenge against her.”
“Carissa seems to have sacrificed a lot for others,” Ronan said.
“She has lost more than you will ever know.”
Ronan was beginning to realize that there was a depth to Carissa that defined not a cruel nature but rather a selfless one. It made him want to protect her, cherish her, and love her all the more.
“This may seem an unimportant question, but why is Carissa frightened of dogs?”
Dykar sighed and slowly shook his head. “Rissa loves dogs.”
Ronan stared at him oddly. “Not from what I’ve seen. She froze when my mother’s dog raced over to her to lick her hand, and I watched her shove a puppy away from her when all he wanted to do was play.”
“I’ll tell you a story no one knows, and I only know it because I watched from a hiding spot, fearful that Rissa would suffer her father’s rage.” Dykar paused and took a breath. “At a young age, Rissa became attached to a puppy while her father was away warring. The little fellow followed her everywhere. They were inseparable. When her father returned, he flew into a rage when he discovered that she cared for the puppy. He screamed at her about love being foolish and not lasting and he would not have a daughter of his being foolish. He took that puppy and in front of her…” Dykar couldn’t finish, his eyes filled with tears.