Come the Morning by Shannon Drake Heather Graham

Author:Shannon Drake Heather Graham [Heather Graham, Shannon Drake]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Medieval
Publisher: 0
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

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At midmorning, as they prepared to ride, Waryk warned her that the king was unaware that she had fled the fortress at Stirling with Daro. If she hadn't been quite so angry, she might have thanked him for the courtesy of his silence, but she did not. Daro had surely done so. And her uncle was as irritating as the man to whom she would shortly be shackled by vows of marriage. He was so pleased to be with Anne. They were to be married in the chapel at Stirling the following week, and were so blissfully happy that they were entirely annoying. She was the only one left to suffer the teeth of fate, she thought.

Yet she couldn't help but wonder about Waryk, and she was curious about his mistress, if he really loved the woman, and how he had managed to accept the king's commands without protest. She bit her lower lip, aware that he probably intended to keep his relationship with his mistress. He was simply separating his life. He would have his wife, his title, his land, and his family. And he would have his woman on the side.

Yet, Mellyora thought, it was true that he could have rid himself of her—if the king thought she had conspired with a Viking enemy, she'd be lucky to keep her life, much less her title and land. She didn't deceive herself that Laird Waryk was intrigued with the thought of her as a bride, but neither did she want to accept the fact that he'd been willing to set aside his own desire to marry elsewhere for the peace of the people he would govern.

As they rode back to Stirling, he kept his distance from her. Watching him, she felt a tremor snake down her back. She was the one who had been adamantly opposed to him as a husband. He had accepted her as a wife. He had come for her again and again—but he avidly disliked her. Marriage seemed a more and more chilling concept.

As they neared the walled fortress, she urged her horse forward, closer to his. She knew he saw her, but he didn't speak to her. "Waryk?"

"Aye?"

"Where does the king think I've been?"

He glanced her way. "What?"

"Where does the king think I've been? If he was unaware that I left the fortress with Daro—"

"He knows that you have been at the Viking camp. With Daro. I told him that you left with my blessing to spend time with your father's brother before becoming my wife."

She didn't reply, thinking that he was a clever man, he had weighed this situation, and he was even capable of being decent at times. He was not the Norman she had expected, no matter what words she used against him.

Nor old or decrepit in any way. Yet his very youth and prowess made her nervous now, and she wished with her whole heart that the wedding might be planned for sometime in the far future. He wanted sons.

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