Shadow of the Storm by Connilyn Cossette

Author:Connilyn Cossette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042030;FIC042040;FIC026000
ISBN: 9781441230492
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

My mother gestured for me to follow her into the tent, her face an indecipherable mask. Before my eyes had even adjusted to the dimness, she spoke from the shadows. “Did you speak with Eben?”

I dipped my head. “Yes, he told me I should marry Ayal.”

She shifted from foot to foot. “It is a good match. You will be a fine mother to his children.”

A stab of pleasure laced with guilt pressed against my ribs. I would be a mother. A mother to children I already loved with all my being. Why was I so hesitant? Ayal’s face flickered in my thoughts—a man I could not trust and, therefore, could not love. “I will do what is necessary, for the children’s sake.”

My mother folded her arms and peered at me. “You do not want to marry Ayal?”

A question that had no clear answer. I shrugged but held my tongue.

“Ayal is young and handsome, and your brother attests to his honor. What more could you ask for?”

I avoided her scrutinizing stare by studying the dark corner behind her. Eben does not know what a wolf the man is.

“The boys already love you like a mother, and Talia is anxious when you are away.”

Panic pulsed its way through me—how could I be a mother? I loved all three of them, that was true, but to guide them through life? How could I carry such responsibility? And to do so with a man I feared and mistrusted . . . Would he treat me as he had Leisha? Perhaps I was not even the only woman Ayal had lured. Had Leisha known of his wanderings? Was that why there was so much antipathy within the family? Her strange hazel eyes still haunted me as I lay on my pillow at night—would they ever disappear from my mind’s eye when my own head lay in her place?

My mother came close, halting the barrage of doubts that assailed me, her eyes narrowed in what could only be described as a look of conspiracy. “You must never tell him.”

Wooly confusion filled my head. “Tell him?”

She glanced around as if to ensure no one could see her lips move, even in the empty tent. “That you are barren. Not even your brother knows.”

The word struck with a poison-tipped spear. “How could I keep that from him? He deserves to know what he is being bound to.”

“He is being bound to a perfect mother for his children.” Her chin lifted, and she fluttered a hand over her shoulder. “The rest he can find out on his own. Eben assures me that he is a loyal man. I doubt he would put you aside. Besides, he already has children.”

Smothering the reaction that welled up when my mother spoke of Ayal’s loyalty, I clasped my hands behind my back and tugged at the end of the braid that hung to my waist. The last time I had defied her, a woman had died. “I will do as you ask, Mother.”

She lifted a brow, the reminder of my disastrous choices plain in her dark eyes.

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